Clemson Faces Duke in ACC Tourney Wednesday

CLEMSON, S.C. (CU SID) — The Tigers head to Greensboro, N.C. for the 41st ACC Tournament as the No. 5 seed. TOURNAMENT SETUP “¢ Who (Wednesday) – Clemson (34-22) vs. Duke (32-23) “¢ Who (Thursday) – Miami (Fla.) (40-15) vs. Clemson (34-22) “¢ Who (Friday) – Georgia Tech (32-24) or Wake Forest (30-25) vs. Clemson (34-22) “¢ Rankings – CU – NR; DUK – NR; MIA – No. 6 BA, No. 3 CB, No. 11 USA; GAT – NR; WFU – NR “¢ When – Wednesday (11 a.m.), Thursday (7 p.m.), Friday (3 p.m.) “¢ Where – Greensboro, N.C. (NewBridge Bank Park) “¢ Watch – RSN, ESPN3 “¢ TV Announcers (Wednesday) – Nick Belmonte, Mike Hogewood “¢ TV Announcers (Thursday, Friday) – Dan Bonner, Wes Durham “¢ Listen – TigerCast, Clemson Tiger Sports Network “¢ Live Stats – ClemsonTigers.com “¢ Social Media – Twitter/Instagram (@ClemsonBaseball) SERIES HISTORY (DUKE) “¢ Overall Record – Clemson leads 126-66-2 (1904-2013) “¢ Record at Neutral – Duke leads 13-10 (1904-2009) “¢ Record in ACC Tournament – Clemson leads 8-4 (1978-09) SERIES HISTORY (MIAMI) “¢ Overall Record – Miami leads 35-27-1 (1977-14) “¢ Record at Neutral – Miami leads 9-6 (1980-13) “¢ Record in ACC Tournament – Tied 2-2 (2005-13) SERIES HISTORY (GEORGIA TECH) “¢ Overall Record – Clemson leads 107-103-3 (1902-2013) “¢ Record at Neutral – Clemson leads 19-8 (1959-12) “¢ Record in ACC Tournament – Clemson leads 16-10 (1981-12) SERIES HISTORY (WAKE FOREST) “¢ Overall Record – Clemson leads 126-54-1 (1901-2014) “¢ Record at Neutral – Clemson leads 14-4 (1950-07) “¢ Record in ACC Tournament – Clemson leads 12-5 (1973-07) STARTING PITCHERS “¢ Wednesday – LHP Matthew Crownover (CU) vs. RHP Michael Matuella (DUK) “¢ Thursday – LHP Chris Diaz (MIA) vs. RHP Daniel Gossett (CU) “¢ Friday – TBA (GAT or WFU) vs. TBA (CU) CLEMSON OVERVIEW “¢ Clemson won two of three games at home over Boston College last weekend to close the regular season. “¢ The Tigers are averaging 5.8 runs per game and hitting .277 with a .354 on-base percentage and 86 steals. “¢ The pitching staff has a 3.74 ERA, .236 opponents’ batting average and 2.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio and Clemson is fielding .963. DUKE OVERVIEW “¢ Duke is led by second-year Head Coach Chris Pollard. “¢ The Blue Devils won one of three games at Florida State. They are hitting .263 and have a 3.15 ERA and .974 fielding percentage. “¢ Jordan Betts is hitting .317 with 19 doubles, two triples, four homers, 30 RBIs and a .404 on-base percentage. MIAMI OVERVIEW “¢ Miami is led by 21st-year Head Coach Jim Morris. “¢ The Hurricanes won two of three games over North Carolina. They are hitting .261 and have a 3.03 ERA and .969 fielding percentage. “¢ Zack Collins is hitting .285 with 12 doubles, three triples, eight homers, 46 RBIs and a .404 on-base percentage. GEORGIA TECH OVERVIEW “¢ Georgia Tech is led by 21st-year Head Coach Danny Hall. “¢ The Yellow Jackets won two of three games over South Florida. They are hitting .277 and have a 3.27 ERA and .971 fielding percentage. “¢ Daniel Spingola is hitting .323 with six doubles, seven triples, three homers, 34 RBIs and 15 steals. WAKE FOREST OVERVIEW “¢ Wake Forest is led by fifth-year Head Coach Tom Walter. “¢ The Demon Deacons won two of three games over Virginia last weekend. They are hitting .249 and have a 3.80 ERA and .964 fielding percentage. “¢ Grant Shambley is hitting .327 with a .414 on-base percentage and five steals. QUICK HITS “¢ Clemson has won 17 games in a row when it scores at least five runs and 20 games in a row when it scores at least six runs. “¢ Clemson hit 18 of its 26 homers (69 percent) in ACC regular-season games despite only 52 percent being ACC regular-season contests. “¢ Clemson’s 10-9 win to top Boston College after trailing 9-2 was its first win in 21 games this year when trailing entering the ninth inning. TIGERS TO PLAY IN 40TH ACC TOURNEY “¢ Clemson (34-22), the No. 5 seed, opens its ACC Tournament slate by playing No. 4 seed Duke (32-23) on Wednesday at 11 a.m. on RSN and ESPN3. “¢ The Tigers will be the designated visiting team and occupy the first-base dugout Wednesday. “¢ The Tigers play No. 1 seed Miami (Fla.) (40-15) Thursday at 7 p.m. on RSN and ESPN3. “¢ Clemson will be the designated home team and occupy the third-base dugout Thursday. “¢ On Friday, Clemson’s third game will be against either No. 8 seed Wake Forest (30-25) or No. 9 seed Georgia Tech (32-24) at 3 p.m. “¢ Clemson will be the designated home team and occupy the third-base dugout Friday for the game on RSN and ESPN3. “¢ The games will be played at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro, N.C. “¢ It will be the third time the ACC Baseball Tournament is held in Greensboro and the first time since 2012. “¢ For the first time under the current format, the tournament has a 10-team field, with two single-elimination games Tuesday. “¢ The round-robin format, in its eighth year, features two four-team brackets that guarantees the eight teams play a minimum of three games. “¢ The other bracket features No. 2 seed Florida State, No. 3 seed Virginia, No. 6 seed Maryland, No. 7 seed UNC and No. 10 seed NC State. “¢ The winner of each bracket meets in the ACC Championship Game on Sunday at 1 p.m. “¢ The title game will be televised by ESPN2 and the winner of the game receives an automatic bid into the 2014 NCAA Tournament. “¢ All of Clemson’s ACC Tournament games are broadcast live on the radio by Clemson Tiger Sports Network. “¢ Live stats are available at ClemsonTigers.com for all Tiger games. CLEMSON’S ACC TOURNAMENT HISTORY “¢ This is the 41st ACC Tournament, and Clemson has been to the finals in 21 of the previous 40 tournaments, nine more than any other school. “¢ Clemson has won nine ACC Tournaments in history, more than any other school, including 2006 when it defeated NC State 8-4 in the title game. “¢ Clemson has a 103-65 record (.613) in ACC Tournament games. The Tigers also have the most All-ACC Tournament selections (56) in history. “¢ Prior to its 2006 title, Clemson had not won it all since 1994. The Tigers beat Florida State 4-1 in the title game in Greenville, S.C. “¢ Clemson’s nine ACC Tournament titles came in 1976, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 2006. “¢ Clemson is one of only two teams to play in all 41 ACC Tournaments. The Tigers join Virginia as the only teams to play in every ACC Tourney. “¢ This will be the 18th time the tournament is held in the state of North Carolina. “¢ Only Virginia Tech (62.5) and Florida State (62.4) have a better winning percentage than Clemson (61.3) in ACC Tournament play. “¢ The ACC Tournament began in 1973 and has been held every year but one (1979) since then. SEVEN TIGERS NAMED TO ALL-ACC TEAM “¢ Seven Tigers earned First, Second or Third-Team All-ACC honors, tied for second-most by an ACC team. “¢ Daniel Gossett was a First-Team All-ACC starting pitcher, Clemson’s first First-Team All-ACC starting pitcher since D.J. Mitchell in 2008. “¢ Garrett Boulware (DH/UT), Tyler Krieger (SS) and Steve Wilkerson (2B) all earned Second-Team All-ACC honors. “¢ Jay Baum (OF), Matthew Crownover (SP) and Steven Duggar (OF) all earned Third-Team All-ACC honors. “¢ Five of Clemson’s nine position players and two of its three weekend starting pitchers earned All-ACC honors. “¢ It was the third time Wilkerson earned Second-Team All-ACC honors and the second time Gossett earned All-ACC honors. McGIBBON COMES THROUGH IN CLUTCH “¢ Senior first-baseman Jon McGibbon has persevered through rough times in 2014, but came up big when Clemson needed him most. “¢ The Tigers were trailing Boston College 9-6 with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth inning at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on May 17. “¢ He laced a bases-clearing double to tie the score in a game Clemson went on to win 10-9 in 13 innings. He did so on Senior Day. “¢ The win gave Clemson the No. 5 seed in the ACC Tournament. The Tigers would have been in a play-in game as the No. 8 seed with a loss. “¢ He was making his first start since March 18 at Georgia Southern after starting 17 of the first 19 games in 2014. “¢ McGibbon is hitting .203 with five doubles, two homers and 17 RBIs in 44 games (18 starts). “¢ In his 26 games off the bench, he is 7-for-17 (.412) with a homer, double, eight RBIs, three runs and two walks. “¢ As a pinch-hitter, he is 4-for-9 (.444). “¢ In his last 22 games, he is 8-for-18 (.444) with two doubles, one homer, nine RBIs, a .722 slugging percentage and .524 on-base percentage.