Clemson Baseball Preview- Tigers Welcome Notre Dame To Town

The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame will come to town this weekend for a three game set at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The series gets started on Friday night with first pitch scheduled for 6 pm, with Game 2 on Saturday at 3 pm, and the series finale taking place on Sunday, at 1 pm.

Yes, that's right, in an ironic twist of fate, the Irish will spend St Patrick's Day weekend in Tiger Town. Maybe we consider skipping out on wearing green this year and put up with any pinching that may come our way.

After sweeping the 3rd ranked Tarheels last weekend, then following that up with a midweek win over #16 Coastal Carolina, Clemson comes in to the weekend on a 5 game winning streak, and having jumped 30 spots in the RPI, where they currently sit at 8th. The Tigers are 13-3 overall, and 3-0 in the ACC.

The Clemson offense comes in hitting .279 as a team, with a .386 OBP. They are averaging 7.4 runs a game, and have stolen 30 bases, but are also striking out almost 9 times per game. The bats have started to come to life over the past 3 games, with the team hitting .375 over that stretch, and having scored 30 runs.

The Tiger pitching staff comes in with a team ERA of 3.84 and opponents are hitting .224 against them. They are striking out over 13.5 hitters per game on average, and have an excellent strikeout to walk ratio of 3.22.

The Irish come in at 6-9 (2-1), having lived on the road thus far, attempting to avoid the typically cold temps in South Bend this time of year. After beginning the season in Arizona getting swept by Arizona St, they went on to play a tournament in Texas, traveled to SC for a tournament in Charleston, then opened ACC play in Winston-Salem, taking 2 of 3 from Wake Forest. From there it was on to Western Carolina, losing to the Catamounts Wednesday afternoon, and now they make the trip to Clemson.

Notre Dame comes in hitting .255 as a team, and have team ERA of 6.44. Eric Gilenbach is the guy in the lineup to keep an eye on, having hit 5 HR, along with 19 RBI, and is hitting .271.

The Tigers will go with the same rotation we saw last weekend vs UNC. Davis Sharpe (2-0, 2.18 ERA) will face lefty Tommy Sheehan (2-1, 3.86 ERA) on Friday, Mat Clark (3-0, 2.40 ERA) will face lefty Cameron Brown (0-1, 5.95 ERA) on Saturday, and Keyshawn Askew (2-0, 3.44 ERA) will face right hander Cameron Junker (1-2, 4.82 ERA) on Sunday.

Clemson is 4-1 in game vs left handed starters, and will see two more this weekend. They are 10-0 in games in which they have scored 6 or more runs, and are 8-1 when they hit at least 2 HRs.

All 3 games will be televised via the WatchESPN app, and can be heard locally on WCCP, 105.5 The Roar, and ESPN Upstate, 97.7 FM. Online you can find them at ClemsonTigers.com or on the TuneIn Radio App.