Bumblebees Come to Tiger Field

#18 Georgia Tech (27-14, 11-10 ACC) vs. Clemson Tigers (28-13, 13-8 ACC)

From Baseball America:

Georgia Tech travels to Clemson in a series that could make or break both teams’ hosting hopes. The Tigers are in better shape in the RPI (No. 12 vs. No. 22) and in the conference standings (13-8 vs. 11-10), and they have the advantage of being at home against the Yellow Jackets, who are in a funk. Tech averaged 10 runs per game through the first five weeks of the season, but they have scored just 3.6 runs per game over their last 12 games. Take out a 14-1 midweek win against Savannah State, and that average drops to 2.8 runs per game in the other 11 games. They hit .351 through the first six weeks of the season, but they have hit just .261 since. Incidentally, the Jackets have lost two of their three series, dropping a road set at Duke and getting swept by North Carolina State. They might have hit rock bottom Tuesday against 16-26 Georgia, which blew them out 17-0 at Turner Field. Tech heads into this weekend riding its first four-game losing streak since 2009.

"We’re not doing things we need to do—whether it’s on the mound, at the plate, in the field—to play good, sound baseball," Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the UGa. loss. "So we’ve got to start doing that, or there’ll be more games like this because we’re not playing anybody easy the rest of the year on our schedule."

Clemson AD Series Preview -- GT AD series preview

Clemson and Georgia Tech have met 210 times, with the Tigers holding a 105-102-3 lead in the series dating to the 1902 season. The two teams have faced each other at least one time every year since 1974. The Tigers hold a 45-23-1 lead over the Yellow Jackets in games played at Clemson and a 35-16 advantage at Tiger Field. Jack is 40-33 against GT.

Friday night's game will be televised by CSS and will be available via webcast on ESPN3. Saturday will be on TigerCast.

Last Week:

GT was swept at home by NC State and were crushed by UGA 17-0 at Turner Field on Tuesday night.

Clemson defeated WCU 12-0 at home, but lost the series to Miami 2-1 in Coral Gables.

Weekend Starters:

Friday, 2:30pm:

Throws	Player	Rec	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks
RHP	Buck Farmer	7-2	2.22	69.0	58			16	79
RHP	Daniel Gossett	6-2	2.56	63.1	52	26	18	22	61

Friday, 7pm:

Throws	Player	Rec	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks
RHP	Dusty Isaacs	4-4	4.31	54.1	50			17	46
LHP	Matthew Crownover	5-1	2.28	43.1	41	13	11	11	23

Saturday, 6:30pm:

Throws	Player	Rec	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks
RHP	Cole Pitts	5-3	3.91	53.0	46			20	34
RHP	Clate Schmidt	3-2	4.53	45.2	65	25	23	20	22

Hitting Comparison

Not very favorable to us at all. As is the norm from a Danny Hall team, the offense is fantastic. They tend to just score all over people and don't need to steal bases to do it. They're better than Clemson in every category except that one.

Its just a shame they always completely choke on offense in the NCAA tournament isnt it?

Team Batting Statistics

	BA	OBP	SLG	R/9	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	HBP	SB-ATT	FLD
Clemson	.275	.346	.360	5.1	60	10	13	181	146	16	62/91	.972
Georgia Tech	.314	.398	.467	7.1	78	13	38	270	185	27	53/74	,975

As you can see our group hits OK for the most part, but the power numbers still aren't picking up with the weather. This has to be one of the weakest power teams Clemson has ever had, BBCOR notwithstanding. We also don't get in front of pitches and don't work walks very well.

Clemson Prospective Lineup

Pos	Player	BA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB
LF	Tyler Slaton	.333	14	37	3	0	9	13
CF	Thomas Brittle	.253	29	38	4	1	13	17
C	Garrett Boulware	.315	28	47	6	7	35	12
DH	Shane Kennedy	.314	27	44	5	2	22	24
2B	Steve Wilkerson	.295	21	41	11	1	21	13
RF	Steven Duggar	.296	28	47	6	2	22	15
SS	Tyler Krieger	.261	15	37	6	0	15	13
1B	Jon McGibbon	.237	21	36	4	0	23	12
3B	Jay Baum	.220	14	28	4	0	6	16
	x- Joe Costigan	.345	4	10	5	0	6	4

GT Prospective Lineup

Pos	Player	BA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB
LF	Kyle Wren	.388	33	66	6	2	21	20
CF	Brandon Thomas	.395	35	51	13	1	21	16
C	Zane Evans	.336	33	50	6	11	46	26
RF	Daniel Palka	.358	40	54	10	11	43	22
2B/3B	Matt Gonzalez	.329	27	53	6	3	33	10
3B	Sam Dove	.267	36	40	11	2	21	24
1B	A.J. Murray	.282	32	42	7	4	28	21
SS	Mott Hyde	.259	19	36	10	1	19	18
DH	Dylan Dore	.297	7	11	3	0	4	3

I'm quite worried about Clate against this lineup. I think he's going to get killed unless he's back to SC form. The top of the lineup will get on, will steal bases, and the middle guys are too good for GT not to score a bunch of runs against us. If we're to have much chance we have to keep the leadoff men off.

Team Pitching

Team Pitching Statistics

		ERA	W-L	SHO/CBO	Saves	IP	H	R	ER	BB	Ks
	Clemson	3.03	28-13	7/6	12	371.0	361	159	125	126	257
	GT	4.22	27-14	3/3	5	360.0	349	187	169	141	303

GT has annually had very strong starters, one or two great guys in the pen, and a great lineup. The reason why they've lost 14 games is the former. Only Buck Farmer is a dominant starter. They're missing the dominant lefty from the rotation as well.

Their pen is pretty bad over the season. I could've taken what we said about Miami last week and reinserted it. Only Closer Zane Evans (also the Catcher) and Jonathan Roberts have ERAs below 4.50. It looks as though they have tried several guys in the midweek rotation to get them innings, and they have flipped back into long relief. Four pitchers have 20+ IP with not much to show for it besides very high strikeout numbers. Expect to see Alex Cruz (4.76 ERA in 39.2IP) and Jonathan King (4.79 in 35.2IP) a lot.

I expect GT is another year away from a great pitching staff though.

Clemson's pen has been very solid, and they did fine last weekend. It was our offense that stunk at Miami. Zach Erwin got his start against WCU so I don't expect him in until after Clate gets shelled Saturday night.

The home team almost always does well in this series as far back as I can remember. I think Schmidt gets shelled, but that Clemson will handle their pitching well enough to win 2 games at home and put us in a good position to possibly host a Regional, but a 2-1 series loss would not surprise me either.