Clemson debuts in D1Baseball NCAA Tournament projections

Cam Cannarella is having a standout freshman campaign for a team that's getting hot at the right time (Clemson photo).

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Wed Apr 26 13:43:48 GMT-04:00 2023

Clemson baseball is on a roll and that's garnering some postseason expectations now.

The Tigers improved to 26-16 on the season and 9-9 in conference action by grabbing wins in six of the last seven games and 9-of-11. Clemson entered D1Baseball's NCAA Tournament projection this week as a 2-seed in National Seed-No. 6 Coastal Carolina's projected regional. Clemson beat Coastal Carolina 16-6 in the first of a split home-and-home season series, which will conclude in Conway on May 10.

That's just one part of the challenging slate Erik Bakich has faced in his first season back in Clemson, which rates fourth in strength overall and No. 10 just for the non-conference schedule.

Among D1Baseball national seeds, Clemson has also faced projected No. 2 overall Wake Forest, No. 3 South Carolina and No. 16 Duke for weekend series.

The Tigers started 2-8 in ACC action, ranking last in the Atlantic Division, and have since won 7-of-8 to move to fourth in the division.

Bakich's bunch head to No. 11 Boston College (27-12, 12-9) this weekend, which just swept UNC at Chapel Hill last weekend. Clemson ranks No. 22 in the RPI metric, which is fifth-best within the ACC, before taking on No. 12 in the metric, BC. The Tigers are also slated to face more top-50 RPI ACC opponents down the stretch with Louisville (25; home), Virginia Tech (43; road) and North Carolina (47; home).

Overall compared to ACC foes, Clemson ranks last in home runs (39) but sixth in doubles (89) and triples (8), fifth in batting average (.300) and ninth in runs (296). In only conference play, Clemson ranks ninth in slugging percentage (.437) and fifth in on-base percentage (.380), with the fourth-best fielding percentage (.977).

Pitching, the Tigers rate eighth in ERA overall compared to ACC foes, with the fourth-most strikeouts (407) and seventh-best opposing batting average (.257).

Compared to ACC peers, freshman center fielder Cam Cannarella ranks second in batting average (.400; min. 50 ABs) with the third-most hits (66), fourth-most runs scored (50) and ninth-best on-base percentage (.476). In ACC play only, Caden Grice rates fourth in OPS (1.170) and fifth in slugging (.731), with the fourth-most RBIs (23) and sixth-most HRs (7).

Pitching individually (ACC-only), reliever Nick Clayton is third in ERA (2.18) and second in opposing BA (.192), where Grice is fifth as a pitcher (.207).

(RPI figures per WarrenNolan.com; stats per TheACC.com)