Tag: Nick Hoffman

Clemson’s rotation still in flux ahead of another key series

With time running out for Clemson to make a move for the postseason, the Tigers’ search for dependable weekend pitching behind Mack Anglin continues. Clemson coach Monte Lee has yet to decide who will get the ball in the Tigers’ final two games …

With time running out for Clemson to make a move for the postseason, the Tigers’ search for dependable weekend pitching behind Mack Anglin continues.

Clemson coach Monte Lee has yet to decide who will get the ball in the Tigers’ final two games against No. 21 Georgia Tech (27-18, 12-12 ACC) this weekend. Anglin, the one constant in Clemson’s weekend rotation throughout the season with a 3.62 earned run average, will get his usual Friday start in the series opener at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, but Clemson has given the TBA (to be announced) designation for its Saturday and Sunday starters.

Getting depth out of its other weekend starters has been an issue all season for the Tigers, who began the week with a team ERA of 4.45 after giving up 35 runs against Louisville last weekend, including 18 in the Cardinals’ sweep-clinching victory Sunday. Those three losses dropped Clemson (28-17 overall) to 6-14 in ACC play, the second-worst record in the conference.

There are just three weekends left in the regular season, which could be the extent of Clemson’s season if the Tigers aren’t able to put a run together late. Clemson needs to finish with one of the top 12 winning percentages in league play in order to qualify for the ACC Tournament. Duke and North Carolina, which each own a .381 conference winning percentage, would be the final two teams in the tournament if it started today.

Any charge Clemson hopes to make, though, has to start with improvement on the mound.

Freshman right-hander Billy Barlow lasted just 1 ⅔ innings in the series finale against Louisville, allowing five runs (three earned) on three hits with three walks. Barlow, who’s spent much of the season as a midweek starter, moved into the rotation the week before in place of sophomore Nick Clayton, who’s got a 5.97 ERA on the season and hasn’t lasted longer than the fourth inning in any of his last four starts.

Barlow has pitched just 5 ⅓ innings in his first two weekend starts combined. Meanwhile, reliever-turned-starter Geoffrey Gilbert didn’t last long in his second straight weekend starter, yielding six earned runs on four hits and issuing three walks in just 1 ⅓ innings Saturday in the Tigers’ 10-8 loss.

Gilbert was better in his first start against Florida State the previous week, working into the fifth inning and giving up just three earned runs on four hits. His first 13 appearances this season came out of the bullpen before Lee started the sophomore right-hander instead of freshman Jay Dill, who had replaced Nick Hoffman (5.59 ERA) as the Saturday starter against Wake Forest on April 16. But Dill recorded just one out and allowed seven earned runs before getting pulled from that game, prompting Lee to switch it up again a couple of weeks ago.

While Lee could ultimately choose to stick with Gilbert and Barlow or move Hoffman and Clayton back into the rotation, they aren’t the only options.

Lee has mentioned another freshman, Casey Tallent, as someone who could get a crack at a weekend start. Tallent (2.74 ERA) has yielded just seven earned runs in 23 innings this season and didn’t allow an earned run in 2 ⅓ innings in his lone start so far against East Tennessee State on April 20. There’s also sophomore Ricky Williams (1.59), who’s made just seven appearances all season but held Presbyterian to two runs on five hits in 6 ⅔ innings his last time out on April 26.

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Lee addresses Clemson’s pitching situation after latest shakeup

Who will fill in as the midweek starters for Clemson’s baseball team this week? And will the Tigers stick with the same rotation in yet another pivotal ACC series at Louisville this weekend? Those are questions Clemson coach Monte Lee and his staff …

Who will fill in as the midweek starters for Clemson’s baseball team this week? And will the Tigers stick with the same rotation in yet another pivotal ACC series at Louisville this weekend?

Those are questions Clemson coach Monte Lee and his staff find themselves needing to answer after their latest alteration on the mound. A day after changing his Saturday starter for the second straight week, Lee started freshman Billy Barlow in place of Nick Clayton for the Tigers’ series finale Sunday.

With the help of six relievers, Clemson rallied to beat the Seminoles to win its second straight ACC series after dropping the first four. But the decision to start Barlow, the Tigers’ usual midweek starter, means Clemson will have to turn elsewhere for their next game Tuesday against Presbyterian at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Clemson has another game at home Wednesday against No. 25 Wofford, so the Tigers will need a couple of fresh arms to help them get through the midweek. Clayton, who last pitched an inning of relief Wednesday in Clemson’s win over East Tennessee State, is a candidate to start. So is Nick Hoffman, who began the season in the weekend rotation but has made his last four appearances in relief.

But they’re not the only ones. While most of their appearances have come out of the bullpen, freshman Casey Tallent and sophomore Ricky Williams have each started a game this season. Williams (0.87 earned run average) has allowed just one earned run in 10 ⅓ innings while Tallent (2.37), who got his first career start against ETSU last week, has held opposing batters to a .224 average in 19 innings.

Lee said following Sunday’s game he and his staff will talk it over before making a decision at some point today.

“We have options between Ricky Williams, Clayton, Tallent,” Lee said. “So we’ll talk it over as a staff and try to figure out how to piece 18 innings there together in the middle of the week.”

As for the weekend, Lee said he will take the same approach when deciding whether or not he’ll keep the back end of the rotation the same against Louisville, which begins the week tied with Notre Dame atop the ACC’s Atlantic Division standings.

Sophomore right-hander Mack Anglin (3.24) has been the constant for Clemson all season in the Friday night spot, but the rest of the weekend has been a bugaboo for most of the season. Clemson had not had a Saturday or Sunday starter work past the fourth inning since its ACC-opening series against Miami until Gilbert did so this past Saturday. In his first start of the season, Gilbert limited FSU to three runs on four hits in 4 1/3 innings.

On Sunday, Barlow yielded three runs in the first inning before settling in to get through the first 3 ⅔ frames on 82 pitches. Asked if Barlow has earned another weekend start against the Cardinals, Lee was non-committal.

“He’s not going to be available in the middle of the week, so it certainly makes sense to potentially start him again next weekend,” Lee said. “But obviously we’ll discuss that as a staff before we make any sort of decision on what we’re going to do there.”

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Clemson’s offense breaks out, pitching concerns still linger midway through ACC slate

Clemson’s ACC baseball season got a much-needed jolt over the weekend, but do the Tigers have enough pitching to make a postseason push in the last month of the season? That’s still the most pressing question facing the Tigers with the first half of …

Clemson’s ACC baseball season got a much-needed jolt over the weekend, but do the Tigers have enough pitching to make a postseason push in the last month of the season?

That’s still the most pressing question facing the Tigers with the first half of the conference slate in the books. Clemson (22-13, 4-10 ACC) ended it on perhaps its highest note of the season so far, taking two out of three at No. 23 Wake Forest for its first league series win.

“Really proud of our guys, the way that we fought and the way that we swung the bats (Sunday),” Clemson coach Monte Lee said. 

Those bats nearly carried the Tigers to a sweep. Clemson combined to score 19 runs over the final two games of the series with Max Wagner and Caden Grice providing most of the fireworks in the series finale.

Tabbed as a preseason All-American by some publications, Grice (.245 average, six HR, 21 RBIs) has struggled to find a rhythm at the plate for much of the season. But the Tigers’ power-hitting sophomore launched two home runs Saturday and drove in three runs. Meanwhile, Wagner continued his power surge with another homer – his 11th of the season – and four RBIs in Clemson’s 10-8 win.

“That one felt really good all around,” Grice said of the offense’s performance Sunday. “We had 13 hits and scored 10 runs. On offense, you really couldn’t ask for a better day than that.”

Yet the Tigers had one less than 24 hours earlier when the lineup pounded out 15 hits to rally from a 9-2 deficit in Saturday’s game. Clemson plated five runs in the seven and eighth innings to send it to extras before Wake Forest notched a 12-9 victory in 10 innings.

The Tigers could have used a win there, too, since there’s still plenty of work to do if Clemson hopes to not only avoid missing an NCAA regional for the second straight season but also being left out of the ACC Tournament, which is limited to 12 teams (highest conference winning percentages regardless of division). Since that 14-0 start, Clemson is just 8-13 in its last 21 games with series losses to Miami, Pittsburgh, North Carolina State and Notre Dame. Clemson has the second-worst record of any ACC team in league play and is just one game in the win column above Boston College – a team that’s lost 15 of its first 18 ACC games – at the bottom of the Atlantic Division standings.

In other words, Clemson, which sits at No. 46 in the latest RPI rankings, needs to start racking up wins in a hurry if it wants to be part of any postseason, which means the Tigers need to get something figured out on the mound Saturday and Sunday.

Mack Anglin (3.18 earned run average) helped Clemson get off on the right foot against Wake Forest in Friday’s series opener with another strong outing. The sophomore right-hander hurled six scoreless innings to combine with Geoffrey Gilbert for a 1-0 shutout, but it’s the remainder of the weekend that’s been problematic for the Tigers’ rotation.

Nick Hoffman and Nick Clayton, the Tigers’ usual Saturday and Sunday starters, both have ERAs north of 5 on the season. And neither has been working deep into games, putting plenty of stress on the Tigers’ bullpen.

The relievers answered the bell Sunday after Clayton lasted just one inning, his third straight start working fewer than four frames. Clemson faced a 3-0 deficit once Clayton’s day was done, but five Tiger relievers held Wake Forest’s offense at bay long enough for the offense to help out. Lee called Jackson Lindley the “MVP” of the day after the right-hander held the Demon Deacons scoreless over the final 2 ⅓ innings to preserve the win.

“I just tried to go out there and be the biggest competitor on the field,” said Lindley, who didn’t allow a hit and struck out three. “Go out there and be aggressive, throw strikes and put myself in a good place to win.”

Lee didn’t stick with the same two starters for the series’ final two games. After hinting that a change to the rotation could be coming earlier in the week, Lee gave freshman Jay Dill his first career start in place of Hoffman on Saturday. But the bullpen was taxed for nine innings after the young right-hander gave up seven earned runs in Wake Forest’s first-at bat. The Demon Deacons combined to score 13 runs in the first four innings of the series’ last two games.

Clemson’s team ERA now sits at 4.45 on the season, though that’s tame compared to how the Tigers’ arms have collectively performed against ACC competition. Clemson has a 6.31 ERA in league play, fourth-highest in the conference.

It won’t get any easier for the Tigers either. Next up is a road trip Tuesday to take on No. 14 Georgia followed by another midweek game Wednesday against East Tennessee State. Then Clemson will host Florida State, winners of four straight, beginning Friday.

With series against No. 11 Virginia, Georgia Tech and Boston College still on the schedule, too, Lee could make more tweaks on the mound. He recently mentioned midweek starter Billy Barlow (4.40 ERA in 10 appearances) and fellow freshman Casey Tallent (2.70 in 16 ⅔ innings of relief) as viable candidates to potentially get a start on the weekend.

Clemson doesn’t have any more time to waste.

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Freshman moving into Clemson’s weekend rotation

Monte Lee is making the move. After hinting to at least one potential change to Clemson’s weekend rotation earlier in the week, the Tigers’ coach is handing the ball to freshman Jay Dill for the middle game of the team’s series at Wake Forest today. …

Monte Lee is making the move.

After hinting to at least one potential change to Clemson’s weekend rotation earlier in the week, the Tigers’ coach is handing the ball to freshman Jay Dill for the middle game of the team’s series at Wake Forest today. First pitch is set for 4:30 p.m.

It will be the first career start for Dill, who has a 3.60 earned run average in 17 relief appearances this season. His longest outing to this point came his last time out against Notre Dame on Sunday when he allowed one run on two hits in 2 2/3 innings.

For now, Dill is supplanting sophomore Nick Hoffman in the rotation. Hoffman had a 5.66 ERA in his first eight starts before making his first relief appearance of the season Tuesday, tossing one scoreless frame in the Tigers’ 11-2 win over USC Upstate.

Lee mentioned fellow freshmen Billy Barlow and Casey Tallent as candidates who could also enter the rotation this weekend. Clemson’s usual Sunday starter, Nick Clayton, has a 5.06 ERA and has lasted less than four innings in his last two starts.

Clemson (21-12, 3-9 ACC) got another quality start Friday from Mack Anglin, who hurled six scoreless innings to combine with Geoffrey Gilbert for a shutout of the 23rd-ranked Demon Deacons. The Tigers are going for their first ACC series win today.

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Change coming to Clemson’s weekend rotation?

On the surface, the moves were strange. Freshman right-hander Billy Barlow got the midweek start for Clemson against USC Upstate just like he has all season. Barlow had lasted at least four innings all but two of his previous seven midweek starts, …

On the surface, the moves were strange.

Freshman right-hander Billy Barlow got the midweek start for Clemson against USC Upstate just like he has all season. Barlow had lasted at least four innings all but two of his previous seven midweek starts, and the two that were cut short were because he got tagged early in the Tigers’ losses to Georgia State and Coastal Carolina.

But Barlow needed just three innings to strike out four Spartans on Tuesday at Fluor Field, scattering four hits and allowing just one earned run in those frames. Yet after 58 pitches, Barlow’s night was done. Clemson coach Monte Lee went to the bullpen, where fellow freshmen Casey Tallent, Austin Gordon and Rocco Reid combined for four innings of shutout relief.

Then Lee gave the ball to Nick Hoffman, who has been a part of the Tigers’ weekend rotation all season and made his latest (albeit brief) start three days earlier at Notre Dame. But the sophomore right-hander came on to work the eighth inning Tuesday, facing just one batter over the minimum in his first relief appearance of the season.

Having a quick hook for his usual midweek starter as well as bringing Hoffman on in relief during the latter stages of a blowout win for Clemson (20-12, 2-9 ACC) appeared to be odd decisions by Lee until he explained afterward that he’s considering a change to Clemson’s weekend rotation.

“I would say that’s a discussion we’ll have (Wednesday) in regards to the weekend,” said Lee, whose team will head to No. 23 Wake Forest starting Friday still searching for its first ACC series win. “We’ll hopefully solidify things (Wednesday) in the office as far as what we’re going to do Saturday and Sunday.”

Mack Anglin (3.66 earned run average) is entrenched as Clemson’s Friday starter, but Hoffman has seen his ERA balloon to 5.66 as the Saturday starter. Hoffman has allowed 12 earned runs in his last three starts, none of which have lasted more than four innings. Things also haven’t gone all that well for the Tigers’ other weekend starter, Nick Clayton, who’s got a 5.06 ERA and walked five batters in just three innings his last time out against the Fighting Irish.

Meanwhile, Wake Forest, which has won five straight games and nine of its last 10, enters the weekend hitting .321 as a team, the fourth-highest clip in the ACC.

“We know we’re going into a tough place to play against a really good club,” Lee said. “We need to pitch, defend and put together good at-bats.”

As for who could move into the rotation against the Demon Deacons (26-7, 9-6) this weekend, Lee said Barlow and Tallent are the most likely candidates. Lee said he had a tentative plan for the freshmen duo to throw five or six innings Tuesday in order to get one last look at both before making a final decision while also keeping their pitch counts low enough to where both could still be available against Wake Forest if that’s the route Lee decides to go.

He also wanted to see Hoffman out of the bullpen again in case Lee decides to move him back there, a role in which Hoffman had success last season. Hoffman posted a 3.83 ERA in 49 1/3 innings a season ago with 13 of his 17 appearances coming in relief.

Barlow and Tallent didn’t hurt their chances of moving into the rotation, combining for five innings of two-run ball. Tallent pitched the fourth and fifth innings without yielding a hit and struck out three, dropping his ERA to 2.57 in 14 innings this season. His longest outing to this point is three innings against Coastal Carolina on March 22 when the right-hander allowed two runs and struck out five.

Barlow has yielded three runs or fewer in seven of his eight midweek starts with the five first-inning runs he gave up to Coastal Carolina being the outlier that has his ERA sitting above 4 for the time being. But Barlow has allowed just four earned runs in his last 12 innings, which includes five innings of one-run ball in Clemson’s win over a top-25 Georgia team last week.

“Barlow has been very good for us,” Lee said. “He’s got a good enough fastball to where he can beat anybody with his fastball because of the amount of sink and run he has on his fastball. Tallent is another guy that’s thrown outstanding here lately. He’s a true three-pitch mix guy. And that’s what we like to see with a guy that we’re going to potentially start. Both of those guys could be candidates to start this weekend.

“We look for guys that can get through a lineup twice and have a three-pitch mix.”

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Clemson cruises to midweek win over Upstate

GREENVILLE – Clemson’s baseball team repeated its midweek result Tuesday, giving the Tigers another chance to try to build some much-needed momentum. Clemson put up a crooked number early to propel itself to an 11-2 win over USC Upstate at Fluor …

GREENVILLE – Clemson’s baseball team repeated its midweek result Tuesday, giving the Tigers another chance to try to build some much-needed momentum.

Clemson put up a crooked number early to propel itself to an 11-2 win over USC Upstate at Fluor Field. The win was the Tigers’ first since notching a victory over a top-25 Georgia team exactly one week earlier, but that didn’t carry over to the weekend as Clemson got swept at Notre Dame by a combined score of 21-5.

After scoring their most runs since plating 14 against North Carolina State on April 1, the Tigers  (20-12 overall) desperately need to keep the good vibes going when they travel to Wake Forest on Friday if they realistically hope to make a run at a postseason berth. Clemson, which has yet to win an ACC series, is approaching the midway point of the conference slate with the worst league record (2-9).

For one night at least, Upstate (18-15) provided a remedy for Clemson’s ailments. 

The Tigers used a five-run second inning to put them on their way to a season sweep of the Trojans, who’ve lost six straight. Ben Blackwell, Cooper Ingle and Tyler Corbitt each drove in runs in the frame while Max Wagner provided the highlight of the inning with an RBI triple to the 420-foot notch in center.

Clemson finished with 14 hits against seven Upstate pitchers. Blackwell went 3-for-3 and scored four runs from the leadoff spot while Wagner finished a homer shy of the cycle as part of a four-hit, two-RBI night. The top four in the Tigers’ lineup combined to go 11-for-19 and drove in all but three of Clemson’s runs.

It was more than enough support for freshman right-hander Billy Barlow, who worked around some trouble in the third inning. Upstate cut into Clemson’s 6-0 lead in the third by plating a pair of two-out runs using the help of a double, a hit batter and an infield single, but catcher Cooper Ingle picked off Jace Rinehart at first to limit the Trojans’ damage in the frame.

It was the final inning for Barlow, who allowed one earned run on four hits while striking out four. But the work for the Tigers’ young arms was just getting started.

Three more freshmen – Casey Tallent, Austin Gordon and lefty Rocco Reid – threw innings in relief. Talent (1-0) faced just one over the minimum in two innings with three punchouts to earn his first win of the season. Gordon and Reid followed with an inning of relief apiece, combining to yield just one hit before Clemson coach Monte Lee made an interesting call to the bullpen.

Right-hander Nick Hoffman, who’s been in the weekend rotation all season, came on to work the eighth on just two days’ rest. Hoffman plunked the first batter he faced before retiring the next three, throwing 18 pitches in his only inning of work. Caden Grice then closed it out with just his fifth appearance of the season and induced a double play to help himself face the minimum in the ninth.

Upstate starter Nate Payne (0-1) was pegged with the loss after allowing one run on three hits in just one inning.

This story will be updated.

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Offense sputters again as Clemson drops first ACC series

The momentum Clemson’s baseball team built at the beginning of the season has come to a screeching halt in large part because of an offense that continued to scuffle Saturday. The 15th-ranked Tigers dropped their opening series of ACC play with a …

The momentum Clemson’s baseball team built at the beginning of the season has come to a screeching halt in large part because of an offense that continued to scuffle Saturday.

The 15th-ranked Tigers dropped their opening series of ACC play with a 4-1 loss to No. 23 Miami at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. It was the fourth straight loss after a 14-0 start for Clemson, which has scored just five runs in the first two games of the series and nine during its skid.

Clemson (14-4, 0-2 ACC) had a season-low four hits Saturday – all singles – doing little to support a valiant effort by right-hander Nick Hoffman and five relievers to keep the Tigers close. Clemson will try to avoid the sweep in Sunday’s 1 p.m. series finale.

Hoffman settled in after giving up Jacob Burke’s solo home run to start the second inning, working around seven other hits to turn in his second-longest outing of the season. The sophomore right-hander tallied six strikeouts, finishing just one shy of a career-high in that department, in 5 ⅔ innings. 

It looked as if it might be a quick sixth inning for Hoffman after he induced consecutive groundouts to start the frame, but a hit batter followed by Dorian Gonzalez Jr.’s single ended his day after 81 pitches. Freshman righty Jay Dill came on and uncorked a wild pitch on his second offering of the day, allowing Miami (13-5, 4-1) to score a go-ahead second run.

Dill got pinch hitter Zach Levenson to ground into a fielder’s choice to limit the Hurricanes’ damage to a single run in the inning, but Clemson wasted a golden opportunity to get at least one run back in the home half of the frame. A walk to Caden Grice and Dylan Brewer’s bunt single put two on for the Tigers and chased Miami right-hander Karson Ligon after 5 ⅓ innings.

Right-hander Gage Ziehl came on and got Blake Wright to pop out for the second out. Nine-hole hitter J.D. Brock worked a full count against Ziehl, fouling off pitch after pitch to stay alive. But Ziehl got Brock swinging on the 10th pitch of the at-bat to maintain Miami’s lead.

Clemson had other chances against Ligon, who began the day having allowed just four earned runs in 21 innings.

The Tigers answered Burke’s solo homer with a run in the fourth. Wagner, who had singled earlier in the frame and advanced to third on a wild pitch, scored when Brewer stole second and the throw down trickled into the outfield. But Ligon got Wright swinging to strand Brewer in scoring position.

Clemson again put multiple baserunners on with two outs in the fifth when Tyler Corbitt singled and Cooper Ingle reached on an error, but Bryar Hawkins grounded out to second to end the Tigers’ threat.

Clemson had just one hit in 13 at-bats with runners on and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. All those missed chances loomed large when Maxwell Romero Jr.’s two-run single in the seventh padded Miami’s lead.

Romero’s knock came after J.P. Labriola relieved Dill with one on and nobody out in the frame and struck out the first two batters he faced, but Clemson opted to intentionally walk the Hurricanes 3-hole hitter, Yohandy Morales. After a wild pitch moved Miami’s baserunners to second and third, Romero lined Labriola’s 2-2 offering into left to extend the Hurricanes’ lead to 4-1.

This story will be updated.

Clemson’s pitching, particularly in relief, off to strong start

Coming into the 2022 season, Clemson coach Monte Lee pinpointed the mound as the primary area the Tigers’ baseball team needed to improve if they are going to successfully rebound from last season’s disappointment. One weekend is a minuscule sample …

Coming into the 2022 season, Clemson coach Monte Lee pinpointed the mound as the primary area the Tigers’ baseball team needed to improve if they are going to successfully rebound from last season’s disappointment.

One weekend is a minuscule sample size, but Clemson is at least off to a strong start in that regard.

Thirteen pitchers combined to hold Indiana to eight earned runs in 28 innings over the weekend, helping the Tigers start the new campaign with a sweep of a fellow Power Six program. In three games, including a 10-inning finale on Sunday, Clemson limited the Hoosiers to 19 hits while piling up 31 strikeouts.

“You look at the weekend with 28 innings of baseball, we really only had one inning where we struggled to throw strikes. I’ll take that,” said Lee, whose team ranked 10th in the ACC last season with a 5.00 earned run average. “We forced the other team to swing the bat to beat us. I’ll take that.”

Sophomore right-hander Mack Anglin befuddled IU’s lineup for five no-hit innings at the start of a 9-0 win for the Tigers on Friday, but Clemson’s bullpen was just as strong in helping lock down the last two victories. The Tigers’ relievers limited IU to just two runs in 17 ⅓ innings on the weekend.

The bullpen having to log that many innings means not everything was perfect on the bump. Anglin was the only starter to get past the third inning. Nick Clayton couldn’t get out of the second in Saturday’s game before yielding four runs, and Nick Hoffman lasted just three innings in Sunday’s start.

“We need to get deeper into the ball game,” Lee said. “I’m not as concerned about getting hit as I am that we’ve got to be able to make some pitches with runners on base and get a little deeper in the game from the starting pitcher side.”

Hoffman walked three batters before his day was done, part of nine free passes issued by the Tigers on Sunday. But 10 relievers picked up the slack over the final two games to keep IU’s offense at bay.

Clemson faced a four-run deficit before the third inning Saturday, but freshman Casey Tallent and sophomore Geoffrey Gilbert kept IU off the board in the middle innings to give the Tigers a chance to rally and then some. Tallent followed Clayton with 2.1 hitless innings in his collegiate debut while Gilbert allowed just one hit and struck out four in two innings of work.

By that time, Clemson had a nine-run lead in what turned into a 19-4 rout. Austin Gordon, Rocco Reid and freshman Jay Dill combined to throw the last three frames, allowing just one hit and one walk among them.

“We have several guys that are built to start,” Lee said. “Those guys can go long. We can stretch those guys out and get them a time through the lineup if needed. That certainly helps when you’re able to go to those guys early in the game if your starter struggles.”

Things were dicier Sunday with the Hoosiers leading 4-3 after six innings. Jackson Lindley allowed one run in 2 ⅔ innings of relief, and IU scored the go-ahead run in the sixth against Ryan Ammons, who couldn’t get out of the inning.

But Alex Edmondson came on to get the final out of the frame and joined Ty Olenchuck and Dill to throw 3 ⅓ scoreless innings of relief to help the Tigers send the game to extras. In the 10th, Lee turned to first baseman/outfielder Caden Grice, who worked out of a bases-loaded jam after allowing a hit and two walks in his first mound appearance of the season.

“I knew I had the stuff to get us through that inning,” Grice said.

It allowed Clemson to walk it off in the home half of the inning on Bryar Hawkins’ sacrifice fly.

“I thought that was the difference in the game,” Lee said. “With the game being tied like that and us having the last at-bat, we had to keep it tied. Our bullpen was going to have to do a great job, Those guys at the end, they were just outstanding.”

Clemson will try to keep the momentum going Tuesday when the Tigers host College of Charleston for their first midweek game. Clemson will then entertain Hartford for a three-game series beginning Friday.

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Clemson sets pitching rotation for opening weekend

Clemson baseball coach Monte Lee has settled on his pitching rotation for the Tigers’ opening series against Indiana this weekend. As expected, sophomore right-hander Mack Anglin will get the ball in Clemson’s season opener Friday. Lee said fellow …

Clemson baseball coach Monte Lee has settled on his pitching rotation for the Tigers’ opening series against Indiana this weekend.

As expected, sophomore right-hander Mack Anglin will get the ball in Clemson’s season opener Friday. Lee said fellow sophomores Nick Clayton and Nick Hoffman will start the final two games of the series Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Anglin and Hoffman each threw more than 49 innings last season, the most among Clemson’s returning pitchers. Clayton, who primarily threw in relief a season ago, pitched 37 ⅔ innings as a freshman. Their experience is a big reason for being part of the rotation, which has to replace New York Mets draft pick Keyshawn Askew.

“We feel like, going into Week 1, we wanted guys with stripes on their sleeves to go out there and start for us,” Lee said Tuesday. “Feel like those are the best three guys for those spots.”

Anglin is entering his third and possibly final season with the Tigers as the presumed ace of the weekend rotation. He posted a 3.99 earned run average a season ago while making the second-most starts on the team (8), allowing 48 hits while striking out 75 and walking 33 in 13 total appearances.

Clayton is vying for a permanent spot in the rotation after making all but one of his 18 appearances out of the bullpen last season. The 6-foot-5, 215-pounder recorded 40 strikeouts and walked 12 last season. Clayton posted a 4.30 ERA while allowing opponents to hit .241 against him, but Lee said the tall right-hander has been Clemson’s most consistent starter leading up to the season.

“He’s been very, very good in all of his starts in the preseason,” Lee said.

Hoffman recorded the lowest ERA of the trio (3.83) in 49 ⅓ innings last season, third-most among the pitching staff. The 6-2 right-hander did most of his work as one of Clemson’s most effective relievers (just four starts in 17 appearances), but Lee said Hoffman has earned the right to be the Tigers’ Sunday starter going into this season, particularly given how strong his command has been.

With 40 punchouts and just five walks issued, Hoffman posted a team-best 8-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio last season. One of his starts went the distance in a win over Boston College, making for the first complete game by a Clemson pitcher since 2017.

“Just look at his numbers,” Lee said. “He’s one of the best pure strike throwers in the league. His command is exceptional. He doesn’t walk anybody, and that’s a pretty calming presence to be able to run out there as a Sunday starter. You know he’s going to fill up the strike zone and pitch to contact and has the ability to get you deep into the game.”

Geoffrey Gilbert (2.23 ERA in 44 ⅓ innings) is another option to start at some point this season, but Lee said he wants to keep the sophomore left-hander coming out of the bullpen for now to give teams a different look. Gilbert allowed 43 hits and struck out 52 in a team-high 28 appearances last season, all in relief.

“We’ve developed Geoffrey as a starter with the mindset that Geoff could go out there and throw three to four innings out of the bullpen if needed,” Lee said. “So we’ve built him as a long reliever, sort of a piggyback option behind one of those starters, or to be able to use him multiple times over a weekend. That’s our plan.”

Friday’s opener is set for a 4 p.m. start at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. First pitch for Saturday is scheduled for 3 p.m. while Sunday’s series finale will begin at 1 p.m.

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Clemson seeking consistency on the mound following subpar season

Given Clemson’s pitching staff posted the highest earned run average of Monte Lee’s tenure as head coach, it’s not hard to see where things went wrong for the Tigers a year ago. The end result was Clemson’s first losing season since the Dwight D. …

Given Clemson’s pitching staff posted the highest earned run average of Monte Lee’s tenure as head coach, it’s not hard to see where things went wrong for the Tigers a year ago.

The end result was Clemson’s first losing season since the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration. As the Tigers embark on the 2022 season, establishing consistency within the pitching staff is Clemson’s chief objective.

“I think being able to have a weekend rotation that’s consistent and solidified throughout the whole course of the year is pretty dang important,” said Lee, who will officially begin his seventh season at the helm when Clemson hosts Indiana in a three-game series beginning Feb. 18. 

Right-handers Mack Anglin and Nick Hoffman are likely to make up two-thirds of the weekend rotation, but the Tigers may use all of their team practices leading up to the opener to figure out who will join them. The same goes for a midweek starter as well as the bullpen, which needs solidifying, too.

Safe to say Clemson’s pitching staff needs to improve on its collective 5.00 ERA from last season if the Tigers are going to give themselves a realistic chance to get back to the NCAA Tournament, something they missed out on for the first time since 2008. More importantly, the Tigers need their arms to be available to perform.

Staying healthy was as big an issue as any Clemson had on the mound a season ago. Keyshawn Askew (11), now in the New York Mets’ farm system, was the only pitcher to make more than nine starts last season. Anglin, who also dealt with injuries, made just eight starts while no other player made more than six.

In all, 12 pitchers started at least one game last season. Eight made multiple starts, making continuity virtually impossible to come by for the pitching staff.

“Davis Sharpe had injuries last year. Keyshawn Askew had injuries last year. Anglin was injured for a portion of last year, so we had to adjust,” Lee said. “We had a revolving door of starting pitchers all year last year, and I think that’s the No. 1 thing that hurt us last year is we were really never able to establish consistency on that side of the ball.”

Not coincidentally, continuity on the mound has led to two of the most successful seasons of Lee’s tenure to this point. In 2017, Clemson consistently trotted out Charlie Barnes, Pat Krall, Alex Eubanks and Tyler Jackson at the beginning of games. That group paced a staff that posted a 3.59 ERA on a 42-21 team. The next year, Clemson went 47-16 on the strength of starters Brooks Crawford, Jake Higginbotham and Jacob Hennessy, who each posted a 3.91 ERA or lower.

Each of those teams finished third or higher in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, but Clemson hasn’t finished that high in the division standings since. Lee admitted there’s a certain degree of luck that has to be involved for pitchers to get through a lengthy season with a clean bill of health intact, but attrition popping up is also why he said he’s been working for months to build depth within the Tigers’ pitching staff.

“That’s something obviously from Day 1 in the fall we focused a lot of our attention on is trying to develop starters to build pitch counts and build the starter mentality in every one of our pitchers,” Lee said. “That’s going to be a focus for this year.”

That includes taking a hard look at some freshmen who could get innings this season, too. Like all teams, Clemson would ideally like to be strong on the mound at the start and the finish, but Lee said there are multiple ways to get it done like in that ‘18 season. That’s when the Tigers got a major boost from top relievers like Ryan Miller (2.51 ERA), Ryley Gilliam (1.41) and Carson Spiers (2.08) to supplement their starting pitching.

“I think that’s a big factor,” Lee said. “We have to be able to identify early on how we’re going to move that pitching staff. Is it going to be starter dominant or is it going to be bullpen dominant?”

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