ACC Baseball Tournament 2012: Clemson Preview & Gamethread

We would write a full preview for this one like the other series, but the sheer amount of data to sift through is too much for me in a short timeframe. Its also rather pointless since we'll face everyone once, and the CU main page has a preview up. Most of the games should be available to you on Fox/SS, and all of them are on ESPN3 streaming, so you'll see the statistics for the lineups. Like previous years, whomever has the best records out of the pool goes to the ACC Championship game. Pool A: FSU, UVA, Clemson, Georgia Tech

Pool B: UNC, NC State, Miami, Wake Forest

The tournament starts on Wednesday morning at 11am. Clemson will begin play on Thursday at 11am EST against UVA (36-16-1, 18-12), who swept us earlier this year by scores of 6-3, 5-1, and 5-3 in Charlottesville. Those games were not even as close as the scores indicated. The Tigers hold a 10-7 lead in ACC Tournament games against them, but they've won the last 4. Clemson is the visiting team in this contest.

Virginia will start junior righthander Branden Kline (6-3, 3.89 ERA) on the mound, who 2-hit Clemson in the 2nd game of the series earlier this year. He needed 112 pitches and didn't walk a single batter, facing only two over the minimum. 14 damn pop ups and fly outs by Tiger hitters.

Jack has decided to toss out freshman Daniel Gossett (6-3, 4.83 ERA), presumably because UVA hasn't seen him and they handled everyone else. The UVA lineup is very talented, but younger this year than in previous seasons due to graduation losses, which shows in their poorer record coming in.

Kevin Brady will only be available a couple innings at a time for the Tournament. Brady went just 2 1/3 IP against UVA the first time 'round.

Could Clemson win here? Yes, but with Kline going out and our prior ABs against him over the last couple years, I will say no.

-- Friday's game will be #1 FSU (43-12, 24-6) vs Clemson at 3pm. I'm sure you recall that Clemson took two games at home against the Noles. Clemson will be the home team. Clemson handled FSU's two good young starters very well in the two wins, but Meyer stunk in game 3 Monday night.

Florida State will start freshman lefthander Brandon Leibrandt (6-2, 2.93 ERA). Clemson is expected to start Dominic Leone (6-4, 5.18 ERA). Leone went 5 innings, giving up 2 runs, in last weekend's start vs FSU. Leibrandt went 5 2/3 and gave up 4 runs.

Saturday's game is Georgia Tech (33-24, 12-18) at 11am. The home team will be determined by pregame coin flip. The Tigers put forth a strong showing in Atlanta, which we normally do not do, and pounded the Jackets pitching in 2 of the 3 contests. Clemson lost 6-5 in 13 innings to start that series, blowing a 5-2 lead in the 9th, but won the next two 13-7 and 11-8. However, by the 3rd game of the ACCT, our pen will be heavily taxed, and the pen got killed in Atlanta.

GT has not announced a starting pitcher for this game yet, but Clemson will send out Kevin Pohle (6-3, 3.25 ERA), who got shelled in Atlanta (3.2IP, 6H, 3ER). GT sent out Cole Pitts against us in that Sunday game, so it is possible we get a rematch, and we shelled him worse.

This will be the gamethread for the weekend's games.