This is the 5th weekend of the college baseball season. So far the Cavs have played ECU, Wright St/Dartmouth, FSU, and BC as their weekend series opponents. This weekend the Hoos welcome the #8 Clemson Tigers to the Dav. That means out of the 5 weekends the Cavs have played the biggest series of the weekend in college baseball 3 times....THREE TIMES OUT OF 5. Anyone know how many series they have lost? 0, zip, none, bubski.....and that is why they are still #1 in the nation (in the rankings that matter).
Coming into this week the Tigers were one of the hottest teams in the country having won 15 of 17 games only losing tough games to nationally ranked, South Carolina, and UNC-Charlotte. They were also undefeated in the ACC........they played NC St and VT. So, take that 6-0 ACC record with a grain of salt. With all that said about how great they were they came into this week and laid an egg losing both of their midweek games to ELON. Elon was 10-9 going into their 2 games with Clemson. Way to go Clemson, you rep the ACC so well.
Anyways, as for their actual team, they are pretty good team who can absolutely rake at the plate(they hit the ball well). They bat over .300 as a team and have compiled 35 home runs (compared to UVa's 15) as a team. They are lead by super-Junior Kyle Parker who is batting a blistering .405 at the plate, has 10 HR's and 23 RBI's. Most of you will recognize that name from football where Parker was the QB for the ever underachieving Clemson Tiger football team. No CJ Spiller and that team doesn't even make a bowl! Having seen him firsthand I will tell you, Parker is not someone I would want to fight in a bar, the guy is jacked.
The rest of the offense drops off fairly quickly from there with the next closest Tiger being Brad Miller only batting .338. The Clemson starters are pretty impressive as well but looking at how many runs they give up per game leads me to believe that their bullpen is "less than stellar." Their Friday starter, Casey Harman, is a notable 4-0 with a 1.86 ERA in 5 starts on the season. Saturday, Will Lamb starts for the Tigers. Lamb hails from one of my rival high schools, York High School, in Yorktown, VA. While the kid was 3 years younger I am, I never saw him in high school which means he can't be god's gift to baseball.....or Danny Hultzen. He is a lefty with a 2-0 record and a 2.08 ERA in 4 starts. I heard he tops out at about 86. Sadly, that means we might have trouble with him. You put a guy that throws 98 (Alex White) on the mound and we take him to the shed. You put a guy that tops out in the mid 80's and he could carve us up like Jamie Moyer. Their 3rd starter I don't know much about other than his name is Scott Weismann, has a 2.96 ERA, and a 3-0 record.
You guys know enough about the Hoos so I don't need to tell you guys why they're awesome. I will give you this stat though: in the past 4 years the Cavs have a 4-0 record against Clemson. What doesn't need to be said is that we haven't played them in a series in 3 years (completely irrelevant). We did beat them 6-5 in the opening game of the ACC tournament last year in Durham.
My prediction for this weekend: Cavs take 2/3 from Clemson. I wouldn't be surprised if we even sweep them cleanly. I do know that Jack Leggett will be one of the most annoying head coaches in the ACC and will wear the tightest baseball pants you have ever seen. Leggett will complain and whine to the umpires enough to steal one of the game from us. I will be covering the games this weekend in C'Ville from the front row so look out for tweets from @STLUVaBaseball.