With Clemson baseball’s fall season underway, Monte Lee is taking inventory of the talent within this year’s team and the seventh-year head coach has been pleased with what he has seen so far.
One of those bright spots so far has been senior Chad Fairey. The outfielder, who missed the majority of last season due to injury, had a stellar summer playing with the Strasburg Express in the Valley League in Virginia, coming away with a .326 slugging percentage, 11 home runs, 41 RBIs, and 40 runs.
In his first three seasons with the Tigers, the Greenwood, S.C. native has recorded a double, four homers, 13 RBIs, and 14 runs along with holding a .333 slugging percentage and a .361 on-base percentage over the course of 42 games and 26 starts.
“Chad had a heck of a summer in the valley league,” Lee told The Clemson Insider. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have Chad last year, he was hurt for us, but he got a lot of at-bats as a freshman and even in the Covid season. He actually had the last hit of the Covid season, so we’ve seen Chad Fairey do big, big things here.”
Fairey’s production on the field seemingly continued into the Tigers’ first exhibition game of the fall against UAB last weekend. In Clemson’s 20-8 victory over the Blazers, Fairey accounted for 5 of the Tigers 20 runs along with two back-to-back home runs in the first and second inning.
“It’s just good to have him healthy and have that presence there in the middle of the lineup with that kind of power, you know, between him and Bryar Hawkins,” Lee said. “Those two guys swung the bat very, very well for us today. They’re older guys, they have some power, they’re veterans, and we expect big things out of those guys.”
The Tigers open up the 2022 season on Friday, February 18, when they host. Indiana on opening weekend in a three game set.
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