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After a dominating win over Western Carolina on Friday night Clemson will look to continue their strong play against Oklahoma State. The Cowboys beat Nebraska 6-0 in the early game on Friday and should prove to be a strong opponent this evening.
First Pitch: 7pm EST
TV/Radio: ESPN 3 or TigerCast
Starters: Clate Schmidt (?) Clemson vs. TBA (Oklahoma State)
For Clemson this game is going to be about limiting the Cowboys offense. Clemson had a difficult time doing that against Western Carolina Friday night and things looked a little bleak. Thankfully the offense showed up a few innings later. The best guess is Coach Monte Lee will go with Clate Schmidt tonight, and he has to be good. Oklahoma State has too good of a pitching staff to assume that Clemson will be able to score 10 runs to cover for poor pitching.
The big names to watch out for on Oklahoma State's offense are Donnie Walton and J.R. Davis. Both of these guys provide a lot of pop in the Cowboy's lineup and pitching around them may not be the worst idea Clemson's had. Outside of that Conor Costello seems to be a guy that can come up with a timely hit or two though his numbers may be deceiving.
On offense, the good news for Clemson is they do miss out on facing Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Thomas Hatch. He went to the mound on Friday and did extremely well. Clemson should see Jensen Elliott on the mound. He has an 8-2 record with a 3.40 ERA. Pretty good numbers for a second starter. Ideally Clemson will jump on Elliott early and get into the Oklahoma State bullpen early. Then it is just coasting to the finish line right?
Clemson also has to knock off the fielding mistakes. Several runs came via errors on Friday and the farther Clemson goes in the postseason the more costly those mistakes will be. First pitch is at 7pm EST tonight and we'll see if Clemson can put themselves in an excellent position to advance to the Super Regional.