Tiger baseball stumbles at FSU and in the rankings

A week after having one of their most successful weeks of the 2019 season, the Clemson Tiger baseball team had one of their worst week—as they were swept in their three-game series with Florida State

CLEMSON— A week after having one of their most successful weeks of the 2019 season, the Clemson Tiger baseball team had one of their worst week—as they were swept in their three-game series with Florida State.

The Tigers were not just beaten in the series—they were dominated. The Seminoles beat the Tigers by a combined 28-8.

“Well, there's not a whole lot to say. We got whipped and we got whipped thoroughly,” Lee said. “They took advantage of some opportunities, hit some balls out of the ballpark and got momentum all in their dugout, and then our bullpen wasn't much better after him, unfortunately. And you know, those guys have been good for us this year, but, yeah, Florida State just got a lot of momentum going to day and we just couldn't find a way to stop them.”

The trouble for the Tigers’ came as a result of not getting solid starts from their pitching staff. In fact, the Tigers’ starting pitchers went a total of 10.1 of the 27 total innings played—with Friday starter Davis Sharpe fairing the best, as he went 6.0 innings in the opening game of the series.

“We needed to have an A-plus outing out of a starter this weekend, and we need to find a way to score some runs, to swing some bats. We haven't either at the level that we have been this weekend,” Lee said.

The road for the Tigers does not get any easier this week, as they travel to Athens to take on the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs before returning home to host the Duke Blue Devils for a three-game series starting Friday.

Well, we'll talk about (who will start Tuesday’s game) as a staff, kind of look at what we think is the best options for us, but whoever we go with tomorrow has got to give us a chance,” Lee said. “ So hopefully we can turn the page and put together a good game tomorrow and find a way to get out of here with a win, so we got to be ready to play.”

Tigers in the ACC

Clemson baseball, after being swept by Florida State, dropped to 25-11 (11-7 ACC) and into third place in the ACC behind NC State and Louisville (who took over first place this weekend). The Tigers are currently one game out of second place and two games out of first place.

But more important their RPI plummeted five spots to No. 24--and places them on the outside looking in when it comes to hosting a regional.

Tigers in the polls:

The Tigers, who sky-rocketed up the rankings a week ago, saw an equally dramatic fall in the polls after going 1-3 this week.

The Tigers fell in D1Baseball.com's ranking from No. 16 to No. 24 and from No. 17 to No. 23 in Baseball America’s poll. The Tigers fell out of the rankings in Perfect Game’s rankings after being ranked 19th last week.