Clemson Baseball: After Sweep, Tigers face a five game week

Coming off a much-needed sweep of Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, Clemson sets sight on a five game week, including a trip to Charlottesville over the weekend.

Tale of the Tape

The Tigers showed some life at the plate, especially on Sunday, when they manufactured runs instead of relying on home runs.  The home runs eventually came and between the two it was enough for the Tigers to win all 3 games.

Little used Same Weatherly starts today for the Tigers against Kennesaw State, which means we're likely to see a lot of the bullpen and perhaps some arms that are not used often.

Kennesaw and Presbyterian have competitive batting numbers, but from the looks of the ERAs and WHIPs, will struggle on the mound.

Pitching

The bullpen did a fantastic job over the weekend, giving up 4 earned runs in 13 innings, earning a win and 2 Ryley Gilliam saves.

Spencer Strider and Ryan Miller did work on Friday (7 shutout innings combined), while Gilliam picked up saves in the final two games.

Leading Off

Kier Meredith was in the leadoff spot the entire weekend and is certainly a disrupter when he gets on base.  Surprisingly, at least for me, defense has been a big issue.  Some of that has to do with the field at Wake, but it should be noted Meredith struggled defensively before the Wake series, too.

But perhaps the biggest plus of Meredith being in the leadoff spot is Logan Davidson not being in that spot.  Look for Davidson to get back on track (monstrosity of a home run Friday) and begin to become the hitter we saw last season.

Batting

Quality At Bats

This metric is calculated different ways by different teams and at times can be subjective depending on who is measuring the at-bat.  The goal was to capture as much data as possible to better understand decisions made by the coaching staff.

Actual vs. Expected Record

Another 1 run win puts the Tigers at 9-3 on the season in 1 run contests, but it also moves the Tigers actual record to two games above the expected record, meaning it's unlikely the Tigers will continue to win 1 run games at a 75% clip.

The expected record remains 38-18.  

Resume 

The sweep moved Clemson up to 17th in the RPI and the Tigers remain 9-7 against top 50 teams and are now 20-11 vs. the top 100.

Upcoming Schedule

N.C. State dropped a game to Duke over the weekend and now lead Clemson by a single game in the Atlantic.

The Tigers play 9 of the next 12 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium before ending the regular season with 4 road games.

*Baseball resume information via WarrenNolan.com.