Clemson Goes 1-1 In ACC Baseball Tournament As Season Likely Ends

Louisville 15 Clemson 10

It started out looking like Clemson would continue being the thorn in Louisville’s side. The Tigers scored seven runs in the first three innings. The problem? Louisville was also scoring. The two teams combined for an ACC tournament record eleven home runs, beating the old record of ten. Clemson hit four of those home runs while the Cards hit 7. The big shocker was that Louisville DH Ben Metzinger hit two homers in the game, after not going deep all season. Tiger freshman slugger Caden Grice also went yard twice.

The loss in Charlotte all but put the nail in the coffin of the 2021 season, as Clemson is probably not going to make the NCAA tournament barring some unpredictable act of kindness from the committee. This will be the first time since 2008 that the Tigers will miss the NCAA tournament (obviously not counting last season where no NCAA tournament was played).

Clemson 11 Georgia Tech 5

Tech started off well against a Clemson team that had very little to play for, scoring in the first three innings for a 3-0 lead. But the Tigers had a bit of life left as Adam Hackenberg crushed a three run homer to tie the game. Elijah Henderson later was brought in by a RBI triple from Bryce Teodosio in the inning to give Clemson the lead, and the Tigers never looked back. Teodosio had the highlight of the game with an inside the park home run in the sixth, the second of his Clemson career.

Davis Sharpe pitched seven great innings for Clemson, with Nick Hoffman and Ty Olenchuck coming out of the bullpen to finish off the Jackets

So, as the baseball Tigers have now wrapped up the season and Clemson men’s golf team starts up NCAA championship play in Scottsdale, Arizona, we now stare down the true offseason, with nothing to do but compulsively read football articles and prepare for Clemson football’s Labor Day opener against Georgia. As for baseball, the offseason will he interesting. Clemson’s draft eligible players have an interesting choice, as many could choose to come back next spring due to the Covid-19 waiver. There’s been some grumbling, understandably, from fans about head coach Monte Lee, but my personal opinion is not to get over concerned. Lee has done a fine job so far, with this season being really the first major hiccup. Sure, there’s frustrations over the Tigers’ early exits in postseason play, but Clemson would be wise to give Monte a bit of leash to work with regarding that. Overall, this season was a disappointment, but all we can do is regroup and hope next year we’re toasting the boys in Omaha.