Clemson Pushes Winning Streak to Five; Still Working to Improve Situational Hitting
CLEMSON, S.C.- The Tigers have gotten off to a very strong start.
With their 6-1 win over Hartford on Friday, Clemson has now won five consecutive games to open the season, with the team playing exceptionally well in a number of areas.
The Tigers are currently averaging more than eight runs per game, but there have still been some missed opportunities. In its opening weekend sweep of Indiana, Clemson hit just .217 with RISP. In Friday's series-opening win, hitters were just 4-18 with runners on base and just 3-12 with RISP.
"A little disappointed in how we hit situationally today," head coach Monte Lee said after Friday's win. "We should have scored more runs than six runs, just based on the number of guys that we had on base. Thought we chased a little too much out of the zone today."
The Tigers did get the big inning in the third, pushing across three runs, including a two-run homer from Caden Grice. In the fourth, Clemson had an opportunity at another big inning but ultimately would plate just a single run.
Bryar Hawkins led off the inning with a long solo shot to left, giving the Tigers a 4-0 lead. Chad Fairey then drew a walk and advanced to third on a double by Jonathan French, giving Clemson runners on second and third with no outs.
J.D. Brock and Benjamin Blackwell both struck out for the first two outs of the inning, with Dylan Brewer flying out to left to end the threat.
"Got to be a little more aggressive in the strike zone with runners in scoring position," Lee said. "You know, you saw that today where we had second and third, nobody out, we took four strikes. Each hitter only took one swing. We got to be aggressive in situations like that."
The head coach pointed out that while striking out is a part of the game, he prefers to see his hitters take a more aggressive approach at the plate. Even if it leads to them going down swinging.
"Guys are gonna strikeout with runners in scoring position, but it's how you go about doing it that's important to me," Lee said. "It's more about the intent and the approach than it is whether they succeed or not. Because you're not going to succeed all the time in this game, the games to hard. What I look for is more of the intent of the batter and we need to be more aggressive with runners in scoring position."
Clemson hitters only struck out four times total in Friday's win, but coming in the team was averaging 14.5 strikeouts per game and Lee is hopeful that a better approach at the plate will help keep those numbers trending downward. The head coach is also looking for his team to use the final two games of the series against Hartford to keep working to improve its hitting with runners on base.
"I feel like we need to be a little better when it comes to our approach at the plate," Lee said. "We need to hit with runners on base a little bit better and we got 18 innings to figure that out (Saturday)."
The Tigers are set to conclude their three-game series against the Hawks with a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. with the second game starting approximately 60 minutes after its conclusion.
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