Clemson baseball – On deck: Georgia Bulldogs

Clemson baseball has two mid-week games scheduled this week, the first being against our furry friends in Athens, Georgia, the University of Georgia Bulldogs.  The Tigers beat the Dawgs two weeks ago with a stellar performance on the bump from Freshman Billy Barlow.  Barlow will get the start again on Tuesday night, this time at Foley Field in Athens.

Marty Coleman published an article yesterday in our network about whether or not Clemson saved its season with a huge series win versus a very good Wake Forest team over the weekend.  They had every opportunity to pack it in after a gut-wrenching loss on Saturday afternoon after battling back from a 7-1 and 9-3 deficits, only to lose in the tenth on a three-run bomb.

I have also been highly critical of this season’s baseball team, as have many of my friends and cohorts, but I believe some would label me a “sunshine pumper,” and therefore I believe this season was saved after the weekend series victory.  HOWEVER, looking at some of the upcoming weekday games and ALL of the ACC series remaining, it’s going to take something special for the season to be completely saved.

But this is a space for a preview, and a preview I will give you.

Georgia does have some changes to its lineup since the two teams met a couple of weeks ago.  Grad Shortstop Cole Tate is out with a stress fracture in his leg.

Head Coach Scott Stricklin’s team comes in at 26-10 after losing 2 of 3 games to Texas A&M over the weekend.  The Dawgs are ranked as high as 10th in the nation (USA Today Coaches Poll), 14 by D1baseball.com, 18 by Baseball America, 20 by Collegiate Baseball, and 23 by Perfect Game USA.  They currently sit at #3 in the RPI.

Georgia will be the home team Tuesday night at Foley Field, where they are 18-4 on the season.

Georgia comes in with victories against: Albany(x3), Wofford (x2), Akron (x3) Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern (x2), Lipscomb (x3), USC Upstate, Mississippi State (x2), Georgia State, Kentucky, Florida (x3), South Carolina (x2), Kennesaw State, and Texas A&M

Their losses come by way of: Georgia Tech (x2), Georgia Southern, Mississippi State, Kentucky (x2), Clemson, South Carolina, and Texas A&M (x2).

Georgia is led offensively by the Tate Brothers (Connor and Cole) however, Cole being out, they will be looking for help from other places and they have plenty of fire-power to point to.

Sophomore DH/C Corey Collins brings a big stick into the matchup with the Tigers leading the Dawgs with 9 homeruns on the season.  Adding 32 RBIs and batting .320.  Redshirt Senior Josh McAllister has been moved over from third base to shortstop in Cole Tate’s absence and has been solid over there, hitting .308 with 8 doubles, 3 HRs, and 24 RBIs.

This team has a lot of pop throughout the lineup and the rest of the projected starters look like this: Batting Average/OPS;  (with notable stats in parentheses):

Grad – Center Fielder – Ben Anderson – .300 BA/.945 OPS (6 HRs from leadoff position)

Grad – Left Fielder – Connor Tate – .356/1.032 (13 2bs, 5 HRs, 33 RBIs)

Sophomore – 1B/3B – Parks Harber – .292/.821 (6 HRs, 33 RBIs)

Freshman – Right Fielder – Cole Wagner – .325/.890 (4 HRs)

Grad – First Baseman – Chaney Rogers – .269/.744 (2 HRs, 20 RBIs)

Sophomore – Catcher – Fernando Gonzalez – .273/.801 (5 2bs)

Senior – Second Baseman – Cory Acton – .263/.752 (5 2bs)

As good as this team is according to their record, they do not seem all THAT impressive on paper.  Is that foreshadowing for a prediction in a bit?  We shall see.

On the mound, normally I will have to look back throughout the entire season’s mid-week games and make an educated guess as to who the opponent will start.  Fortunately for me, Georgia sports information has their game notes out early (as does Clemson) and therefore taking the guessing game out of it for me.

Redshirt Sophomore Garrett Brown (0-1; 8.86 ERA; RHP) will take the mound in likely an “opener” type of role.  Brown has that 8.86 ERA across 9 appearances, 8 starts and 21.1 innings.  Brown has 13 strikeouts through those 21.1 innings along with 21 BBs and opponents are hitting .330 off of the right hander.

Clemson will reportedly throw Freshman Billy Barlow after teasing that he would start the Sunday matchup with Wake Forest before an apparent change of heart by head coach Monte Lee.  Barlow beat the Dawgs in Clemson in that last meeting in arguably his best outing of the year.

The Georgia Bulldogs have scored 266 runs on the season for an average of 7.4 Runs per game.  They’ve hit 41 HRs as a team, good for just over 1 a game.  This team does not run very much, only 12-16 in the stolen base department.

Clemson comes in with 256 runs on the season for an average of 7.3 runs per game.  Our Tigers have hit 50 home runs for an average of nearly 1.5 a game.  Like Georgia, they are pretty strategic when they put runners in motion as they are only 17-18 in stolen bases on the season.

https://twitter.com/ClemsonBaseball/status/1516136018226778114?s=20&t=L2menHzOKsFXeB-IUbNYyQ

I predict another good battle between these two teams.