Clemson travels to Durham

Duke Blue Devils (17-12, 3-9 ACC) vs. Clemson Tigers (22-8, 9-3)

In my opinion Duke has been a scrappy team, fighting with some teams til the end, and they have the ability to sneak up on you a little. They split a series with UGA earlier this year, and took 2 from UNC at home, in addition to handling most of their midweek competition. However since that UNC series, they've been swept at home by Miami, lost 2 of 3 to BC on the road, and were swept by Georgia Tech. Except for the games against Tech, they've been in each game and they're generally not blown apart. From the game articles i've read of them this year doing the Weekend Roundups, they seem to play good fundamental baseball, and extremely good defense (Top 5 nationally), but dont have the offensive firepower they need to consistently beat people.

Clemson AD Series Preview -- Duke AD series preview

Clemson won 2 of 3 against Duke at home last year, but lost to them in the ACC Tournament. Clemson and Duke have met 182 times on the diamond, with the Tigers holding a 117-63-2 lead in the series dating back to the 1904 season. The Tigers hold a 46-26-1 lead all-time in games played at Duke. Clemson also holds a 93-32-2 advantage in games played in the ACC regular season. Head Coach Jack Leggett is 37-13-1 against Duke as Clemson's head coach, including a 16-7-1 road record against the Blue Devils.

Last Week:

Duke was demolished by Georgia Tech in a weekend series in Atlanta by scores of 13-3, 21-5, and 9-4. They defeated William & Mary in their only midweek game 9-5.

Clemson crushed Georgia 15-5 and 14-6, and took 2 of 3 from Boston College.

Weekend Starters:

Friday, 6pm:

Throws	Player	Rec	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks
LHP	Christopher Manno	1-1	3.16	25.2	16	10	9	15	22
LHP	Casey Harman	5-0	2.14	42.0	28	10	10	14	34

Saturday, 2pm:

Kyle Parker is slated to play in the Spring Game Saturday, but should be in Durham Fri/Sun.

Throws	Player	Rec	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks
RHP	Dennis O'Grady	0-2	4.26	31.2	38	18	15	8	25
RHP	Scott Weismann	3-1	3.57	40.1	38	24	16	15	35

Sunday, 1pm:

Several players on the Duke squad could take the mound here but as of now its unannounced. Of those, I suspect it would be Chase Bebout (3-0, 3.42 ERA), Jon Foreman (1-0, 4.71) or Eric Pfisterer (2-3, 7.24).

Throws	Player	Rec	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks
	Unannounced
LHP	Will Lamb	3-1	3.60	30.0	27	15	12	15	10

Hitting Comparison

Duke has the fewest strikeouts in the ACC, for the 3rd straight year. Ryan McCurdy has only struck out 38 times in nearly 700 ABs and is the ACC's all-time HBP leader. Jake Lemmerman enters this series on a 13-game hit streak and has 4 homers in the last 6 games. During the streak he's hitting .327 with 12 RBIs and has reached in 29 straight games. Jeremy Gould has a 9-game streak and is hitting .390 during this streak. 

Team Batting Statistics

	BA	AB	H	R	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	HBP	SB-ATT	.
Clemson	.308	1041	321	275	62	7	40	253	193	26	57-72
Duke	.284	967	275	178	58	10	20	161	108	47	40-53

 

Duke Prospective Lineup

Pos	Player	BA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB
RF	Joe Pedevillano	.245	17	13	1	0	1	17
LF	Dennis O'Grady	.271	17	19	6	0	11	12
SS	Jake Lemmerman	.316	26	37	7	8	26	16
1B	Jeremy Gould	.336	19	40	10	3	25	9
CF	Will Piwnica-Worms	.310	30	35	10	2	27	14
DH	Will Currier	.321	8	18	4	4	14	3
C/3B	Ryan McCurdy	.301	17	22	5	0	5	9
2B	Marcus Stroman	.220	10	18	5	1	10	9
3B	Eric Brady	.245	17	27	6	1	15	6
RF	x-Brian Litwin	.283	5	13	2	0	5	2
	x-Mike Carroll	.295	8	18	0	0	6	6

 

Jack Leggett said last week that Richie Shaffer is expected to return to the lineup this weekend, and since I havent heard anything contrary to that, I've reinserted him below. I would not be surprised if Lamb continued to play since he's been pretty consistent at the plate. Chris Epps' average has come up over 30 points since last week and Mike Freeman has really pulled his average up too, by around 20 points. With the top of the order getting better, we could start climbing back up the polls.

Clemson Prospective Lineup

Pos	Player	BA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB
DH	Chris Epps	,232	30	23	6	3	11	31
2B	Mike Freeman	.312	29	39	9	3	26	17
LF	Jeff Schaus	.323	33	40	7	6	40	16
RF	Kyle Parker	.377	38	40	2	11	29	25
CF	Wilson Boyd	.295	26	33	5	3	22	23
SS	Brad Miller	.327	35	33	9	2	19	28
1B	Richie Shaffer	.346	16	18	2	2	11	7
3B	John Hinson	.375	17	30	2	4	30	13
C	Phil Pohl	.244	9	10	5	1	13	4
DH/1B	x-Will Lamb	.373	17	19	4	2	18	10
C	x-John Nester	.254	8	16	6	1	12	7

 

Team Pitching

Clemson's pen has guys going in different directions. Meyer has been good in short stints but when he goes longer he tends to hit a rough spot. Against Georgia he was lights out for 2 innings and then gave up 3 hits in his 3rd, giving up 2 runs and raising his ERA to 5.60. I still believe he's going to be a good one for us in the future, he's got 2 good pitches.

Tomas Cruz has been shaky and tends to aim his pitches but his ERA is coming down from OMFG-level. I still am not confident that he's got anything worked out, but when we get ahead big, its time to bring him in and let him work through it.

Haselden, Frederick and Brady have all been pretty damn good otherwise, especially Haselden. David has a 3-2 record with a 2.25 ERA in 20 innings, having struck out 19.  Frederick has been a go-to guy in middle relief of late too, with a 3.28 ERA in 24 2/3 innings and 20 Ks. 

Team Pitching Statistics

ACC Rank		ERA	W-L	SHO/CBO	Saves	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks
6th	Clemson	4.15	22-8	2/2	7	271.1	271	159	125	106	211
8th	Duke	5.10	17-12	3/3	7	256.0	288	165	145	111	217

Duke's starting pitching has been up and down and they haven't figured out who works best where yet. While they did well against BC, they were destroyed by GT. Other than that problem it looks like a better bullpen than Clemson's statistically. Ben Grisz is the most consistent guy out of the pen, with a 2-1 record and 2.93 ERA with 3 saves in 27.2 IP. Manno is another guy consistent out of the pen who has been moved into the rotation because of Pfisterer's problems (7+ ERA in 7 starts). Chase Bebout, Foreman, and Mike Ness have all racked up the innings in midweek games.

Clemson should sweep this series, setting us up for a road trip to Atlanta next week.