Clemson baseball debuts in Top 10 of preseason poll |
The expectations are there for
Erik Bakich's Tigers already after an ACC title campaign and a national seed in Year 1.
D1Baseball.com ranked Clemson No. 10 in its preseason Top 25 released on Tuesday. The ranking is topped by ACC foe Wake Forest, with Florida, Arkansas, LSU, TCU, Vanderbilt, Oregon State, Texas A&M and Tennessee completing the rest of the Top 10. Other ACC teams on it are Duke (12), NC State (13), Virginia (14) and UNC (15), while instate foes Coastal Carolina (18) and South Carolina (25) also made the ranking. Clemson returns 21 lettermen, with three key position players back in Cam Cannarella, Will Taylor and Blake Wright, as well as 2023 starting pitchers in Ethan Darden, Austin Gordon and Tristan Smith. The key losses include two-way standout Caden Grice (draft), big hitter Billy Amick (Tennessee transfer) and All-ACC catcher Cooper Ingle (draft). Clemson finished 44-19 last year and ranked as high as No. 3 going into the NCAA Tournament, which ended with losses to the Volunteers and Charlotte in a home regional. The Tigers open the season in Doug Kingsmore Stadium on February 16 versus Xavier (4 p.m.).
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