To say Caden Grice hasn’t had the kind of season he expected of himself would be an understatement.
Clemson’s second-year utility player burst onto the scene as a true freshman last year as one of the ACC’s top hitters. Grice led the Tigers in home runs (15) and RBIs (53) while finishing second on the team with a .317 average, earning a spot on the all-ACC freshman team.
Grice was pegged as a preseason All-American by multiple media outlets leading into this season, but adjusting to opposing teams’ scouting reports the second time around has made for a challenging season at the plate. Grice is hitting .241 with just 14 extra-base hits in 42 games (nine home runs, five doubles), and his strikeout-to-walk ratio is nearly 3-to-1 (73 strikeouts, 28 walks).
But Grice, who’s spent most of the season hitting out of the 5 and 6 holes after starting it in the cleanup spot, has seen his production pick up during the Tigers’ current hot streak, particularly in the power department.
Before Clemson’s series finale at Wake Forest two weekends ago, Grice had just four homers on the season. He hit a pair in that game and has hit three in the seven games since, helping the Tigers (28-14, 6-11 ACC) win nine of their last 11 games heading into a critical series at Louisville (28-12, 11-7) this weekend.
“Obviously hitting a home run feels really good,” Grice said after launching a three-run homer to the opposite field in Sunday’s series-clinching win over Florida State. “Honestly I’ll take any hit I can get. But to see the stuff that I’ve kind of been working on off the scenes and being able to apply it in a game is just really big for me.”
Specifically, Grice said he’s worked on seeing the ball deeper and not being so quick to chase offspeed pitches out of the strike zone. That’s still a work in progress as Grice struck out two more times in Clemson’s most recent win Wednesday against Wofford, but “I feel like I’m getting better at it,” he said.
Grice had three hits with no punchouts a day earlier in the Tigers’ win over Presbyterian, which included his most recent long ball – a no-doubter that cleared the right-field seats at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. He’s driven in 10 runs in the last eight games.
“Caden had another great day,” Clemson coach Monte Lee said after the 12-3 win. “We got some good days from some guys that we need to be good for us so that we can have a complete offense and not have to rely on a guy like (Max) Wagner, (Cooper) Ingle and the middle of the order to be (our offense).”
Wagner has done most of the heavy lifting for Clemson’s offense of late as perhaps the hottest hitter going in the sport, but Grice has provided more consistent help. Grice and the rest of the offense, which combined to score 31 runs in the Tigers’ midweek victories, will try to keep that momentum going Friday in the series opener against the Cardinals, who began the week tied with Notre Dame atop the ACC’s Atlantic Division standings.
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