Monte Lee says big ACC series won't "make or break" Clemson's season

CLEMSON – The biggest series of Clemson’s baseball season so far is happening this weekend as the Tigers host No. 17 Florida State.

Fans are buzzing now that spring football has concluded and Clemson has rattled off eight straight wins. After losing four of their previous five before this run, many outsiders looked at this team as if it would be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Now, D1Baseball.com projects Clemson to be a top 8 national seed, which means the Tigers would host a Super Regional if they made it to that point. Clemson hasn’t made it to a Super Regional since 2010.

But Florida State comes to town with a lot of momentum swinging its way as well. The Seminoles are 31-14 and are projected to be a national seed.

Clemson currently leads the ACC Atlantic Division with a 17-7 record thanks to two consecutive ACC sweeps. The Seminoles sit in third place with a 13-10 record in conference.

Needless to say, this weekend not only has big implications for the ACC picture but also the postseason picture.

Just don’t tell Monte Lee that.

“I think the worst thing you can do is look at all of that stuff, quite frankly,” Lee said Thursday afternoon. “I think we all know that Florida State’s an outstanding ball club, and we’ve got to play good baseball to beat Florida State. And we’ve got to play our best baseball if we’re going to win this series this weekend.”

One aspect that has always kept Florida State in discussions surrounding Omaha late in the year is coaching. Seminole head coach Mike Martin has had 38 consecutive seasons with 40 wins or more.

Lee said Thursday that he has a good relationship with Martin and looks up to him as a coach. In Lee’s opinion, Martin is going to go down as one of the game’s greatest coaches.

“He’s the best college baseball coach in my opinion,” Lee said. “The least amount of wins he’s had in a season as head coach is 41 in 2016 so he’s the best of the best. He’s going to go down, in my opinion, as the best college baseball coach in the history of the game because of his consistency.”

Consistency is one of the key characteristics Lee always preaches about his team. They never get too high when things are going well or too low when things look bleak.  The latest example came this weekend in Charlottesville when Clemson held a 9-4 lead on Virginia before the Cavaliers came storming back.

The mood in the dugout when the pressure was on was the exact same as when the lead was large. Great teams have that kind of mentality. Bad teams don’t.

Florida State is going to push the hot Clemson team to the limit this weekend. It’ll start with Clemson being healthy.

Kier Meredith and Patrick Cromwell have been battling minor injuries this past week. Lee said Meredith is “questionable” for the weekend and Cromwell should be 100 percent. The team played a scrimmage this afternoon to further evaluate the two players.

Lee added the biggest key to the weekend for Clemson to have success will be limiting the free pass, throwing strikes early, and being aggressive at the plate. Clemson is a team that has been known for its plate discipline and getting on bases due to walks, but Florida State has drawn 50 more walks than Clemson this season.

What Clemson improved on this past weekend at Virginia was getting on base without relying on getting walked. The Tigers did a better job of swinging the bat in their sweep of Virginia and needed every run possible in the three straight one-run wins.

“You got to throw strikes,” Lee said. “You got to get ahead of those guys. That’s the big thing. If you don’t they are going to get you.”

While all eyes will be on Doug Kingsmore Stadium this weekend, Lee repeatedly said this weekend is not a big indicator of how the rest of the season will play out. He said there is still plenty of baseball left and if you put too much emphasis on one weekend, it could cause Clemson to press a little bit.

“I think one of the reasons we’ve been playing pretty good baseball is because we’ve been playing pretty loose and pressure free baseball,” Lee said. “And our guys have been very poised and calm and relaxed in the dugout with good energy. We just want to stay as consistent with that as we possibly can right now and not put any more of an emphasis on this weekend.

“This weekend’s not going to make or break us one way or the other. The last time I checked we’ve still got games after this weekend… We’re going to try to stay with the same routine and hopefully put our guys in a position to be successful this weekend.”

First pitch of the weekend series will be Saturday evening at 6:30 in Doug Kinsgmore Stadium.