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Through up and down stretch, Clemson baseball shows some signs of progress.

Year one of Erik Bakich’s tenure has had some growing pains, but it does appear the Tigers are taking some positive steps.

COLLEGE BASEBALL: MAY 24 ACC Championship - Clemson v North Carolina Photo by David Jensen/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The past two weeks of Clemson baseball have had a mix of bad and good. The bad is that Clemson had dropped it’s first two conference series and the bullpen is still inconsistent. The good, is that Clemson has picked up some solid mid-week wins, has seen some players get their swagger back at the plate, and legitimately had chances to win each of those ACC series if it wasn’t for the aforementioned bullpen problems.

So let’s look at some recent positives. First off is Caden Grice is absolutely crushing the ball. In Sunday’s blowout of Tech Grice hit two bombs for 5 RBIs. I’m pretty sure the second home run just landed in North Georgia this week. Oh, and he did this all while pitching and earning his first win of the year. Grice kept it rolling Tuesday in Columbia against College of Charleston going 2-4 with a homer and a triple that would’ve been out of the park at Doug Kingsmore. Having Grice going and keeping Blake Wright hot are going to crucial to any kind of turn around for the Tigers.

Another thing that sticks out to me is there seems to be some grit in this team to fight back, which has been on display in the midweek games. Yes, I would be happy going in and blowing away every mid-major on the schedule like Clemson just did against Charleston, but I absolutely have to appreciate seeing the Tigers go on the road to Kennesaw State in chilly weather and gut it out against a mouth Owl team that is pretty talented in its own right. As we saw earlier this season against USC Upstate in Greenville, you can’t bank on midweek games as automatic wins, so take the wins where you get them, especially when the schedule doesn’t get easier as the Tigers continue into ACC play. Make sure to check the preview as the #2 Wake Forest Demon Deacons come to town.