Baseball Heads To Atlanta For Pivotal Series With Georgia Tech

May 13, 2004

Series Notes in PDF FormatDownload Free Acrobat Reader

Clemson vs. Georgia Tech Clemson (32-18, 12-6 ACC), ranked as high as #20, will travel to Atlanta, GA to play at #15 Georgia Tech (31-17, 12-5 ACC) this weekend in a three-game series at Russ Chandler Stadium. Game times are 7:00 PM (Friday), 1:00 PM (Saturday), and 1:00 PM (Sunday). The pivotal series is against the second- and third-place teams in the ACC standings. The Yellow Jackets are just a game out of first place, trailing Virginia (15-6).

The games on Friday and Saturday will be televised live by Fox Sports Net South. All three games will be broadcast live on the radio by the Clemson Tiger Sports Network and can be heard live via the internet at ClemsonTigers.com. Live stats will also be available on Clemson’s website for all three games.

The Series Clemson and Georgia Tech have met 176 times on the diamond, with the Tigers holding an 89-84-3 lead in the series dating back to the 1902 season. The Tigers have won the last five games in the series to take a five-game lead. Last year at Clemson, the Tigers swept the Yellow Jackets in three games. Clemson won the first game thanks to Brad McCann’s walkoff, three-run homer in the ninth inning. Two years ago in Atlanta, Clemson won the first game, but Georgia Tech won the final two games of the series.

The Yellow Jackets hold a 61-38-2 lead over Clemson all-time in games played at Georgia Tech, but the Tigers and Yellow Jackets have have split the last 24 games at Russ Chandler Stadium dating back to 1988. Clemson holds a 37-26 advantage in games played in the ACC regular season.

Tiger Head Coach Jack Leggett is 23-14 against the Yellow Jackets as Clemson’s head coach, including a 6-9 record at Russ Chandler Stadium. Leggett is also 19-11 when playing a top-25 Georgia Tech team while at Clemson. He was 3-5 against Georgia Tech as Western Carolina’s head coach, meaning he is 26-19 against the Yellow Jackets in his career.

The Starting Pitchers In game one, Georgia Tech will start sophomore righthander Micah Owings (6-2, 3.57 ERA). The Gainesville, GA native has made 10 starts and three relief appearances for a total of 75.2 innings pitched. He has allowed just 58 hits and 29 walks while striking out 77.

In game two, the Yellow Jackets will send out junior righty Andrew Kown (7-1, 4.03 ERA). The Marietta, GA native has made 12 starts and one relief appearances for a total of 80.1 innings pitched. He has allowed 77 hits and 27 walks while striking out 66. He also has a complete game to his credit and has not lost since February 29, winning his last six decisions.

Georgia Tech’s starter for game three has not been determined.

Clemson will start lefthanders Robert Rohrbaugh and Tyler Lumsden in the series. The third starter has yet to be determined. The order of the starters has also yet to be determined. Rohrbaugh (4-3, 3.32 ERA), a sophomore lefthander from Littlestown, PA, has made eight starts and seven relief appearances this season. In 57.0 innings pitched, he has allowed 56 hits and 13 walks while striking out 30.

Lumsden (3-2, 3.81 ERA), a junior lefty from Roanoke, VA, has started 10 games and relieved in one other game. In 59.0 innings pitched, he has allowed 56 hits and 27 walks while striking out 66.

Georgia Tech Overview Georgia Tech, led by 11th-year Head Coach Danny Hall, enters the series with a 31-17 overall record and 12-5 mark in ACC play. The Yellow Jackets have won 10 games in a row, including a 5-0 combined record at #12 Florida State and at N.C. State. They are also coming off a three-game sweep of Duke last weekend and are 19-12 at home compared to 11-3 on opponents’ home fields. The Yellow Jackets started the season 6-0 then went 15-17 (including two four-game losing streaks) prior to its current 10-game winning streak.

The #15 Yellow Jackets, who defeated #12 Georgia 12-5 Tuesday in front of 28,836 fans at Turner Field in Atlanta and are 9-5 against top-25 teams, lead the ACC with a .312 team batting average despite no player with better than a .343 average. Steven Blackwood is hitting a team-best .343. Eric Patterson is one of the top base stealers in the country. He is 39-43 on stolen bases and is hitting .332 to go along with six homers, 33 RBIs, and 39 walks. The team as a whole has stolen 88 bases as well, tops in the ACC.

Two-way player Micah Owings is hitting .324 with 13 homers and 50 RBIs. He is also 6-2 with a 3.57 ERA in 75.2 innings pitched this season. The team sports a 4.94 ERA and .261 opponents’ batting average. Georgia Tech has 14 pitchers who have made at least 10 appearances, but only three with at least 36.0 innings pitched. Georgia Tech is also fielding at a .973 clip, including .981 in ACC games.

Clemson Overview Clemson enters the series at #15 Georgia Tech after totaling 35 runs in two midweek games. Clemson scored 11 runs in its final to at-bats to down Furman 16-5 Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, Brad McCann’s was 6-for-6 with two homers and six RBIs to lead the Tigers over College of Charleston 19-8. Wednesday’s game marked the end of the Tigers’ 14-game homestand and was the regular-season home finale. Clemson was 23-9 at home in 2004 and finished the homestand with a 10-4 record.

The Tigers are 32-18 overall and 12-6 in ACC play, including a 2-4 record in road conference contests. The Tigers are 7-9 on opponents’ home fields in all games this year as well. Clemson has won 17 of its last 18 games when it hits at least one home run and is 23-3 on weekdays as well. Clemson has also stolen 67 bases after swiping just 35 in 2003.

McCann leads the team and is second in the ACC in hitting with a .388 batting average, as the team is hitting .302 overall. Kris Harvey is hitting .333 and freshman Andy D’Alessio is hitting .331 with a .432 on-base percentage. D’Alessio also leads the team in batting average in conference games with a .346 figure. Red-shirt freshman and Atlanta-area native John Ingram is 5-for-8 with 10 RBIs as a pinch-hitter.

The Tiger pitching staff has a 4.13 ERA and .259 opponents’ batting average. The team has an 8.09 strikeouts per nine innings pitched mark as well, its best mark since 1996. The Tigers’ fielding percentage stands at .963. Three Tigers are natives of Georgia, including two from the Atlanta area. Those players are Zane Green (Lake Park), Ingram (Alpharetta), and McCann (Duluth).

Tigers Clobber College of Charleston 19-8 Wednesday Brad McCann’s tied a school record with six hits in Clemson’s 19-8 win over College of Charleston May 12 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in the Tigers’ regular-season home finale. McCann had two homers (including a grand slam on an 0-2 pitch), a double, three singles, four runs scored, and six RBIs. He became the eighth Tiger in history to total six hits in a game and first since 1992. Clemson had 19 hits in all, including six doubles and two homers. The Tigers scored eight runs in the second inning and never looked back. Clemson also scored in all eight innings in which it batted except in the sixth inning. Jeff Hahn pitched a season-high 6.0 innings pitched to earn the victory. The Cougars totaled 16 hits as well, including 12 different players with hits. In two games against the Cougars, Clemson hit .419 with 34 runs scored, 36 hits, 10 doubles, a triple, five homers, 13 walks, and a .490 on-base percentage.

CSS Fest If Head Coach Jack Leggett could have it his way, Clemson would have all its home games televised by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast. The station, which started carrying Clemson games in 2003, has seen the Tigers score 71 runs in five games on the network. More impressive is the fact that the five games have been against #7 Auburn, Georgia, #6 South Carolina, #24 Florida State, and College of Charleston. All five teams have been ranked in the top 25 at one time this year.

Clemson lost the first game on CSS to Auburn on March 14 by a score of 9-6. But in the last four games on the network, which has seen the Tigers go 4-0, Clemson hit .431 (72-for-167) with 65 runs scored, 16 doubles, two triples, and nine home runs. Also in those four games, Brad McCann’s was 12-for-18 with two doubles, four homers, and 12 RBIs, while Lou Santangelo had three homers and 11 RBIs. McCann’s last game on the network (against College of Charleston on May 12) saw the junior go 6-for-6 with two homers and six RBIs. Don’t be surprised to see CSS written many times on future Tiger schedules.

Let It Rain Clemson’s bats slumped in a three-game series at Doug Kingsmore Stadium against #24 Central Florida from May 7-9. Then in the next game, a Tuesday contest against Furman, a torrential downpour at 5:50 PM, which occurred right after the Paladins had finished their batting practice, forced the Tigers to shut down their batting practice after hitting for just five minutes. The Tigers only proceeded to tally 17 hits, including seven doubles, and 16 runs against Furman.

Then the next day, an afternoon shower occurred once against almost to the exact minute as the previous day. Once again, Clemson was unable to get more than five minutes worth of batting practice in after College of Charleston had completed its rounds. But, the bats exploded anyway, as Clemson scored 19 runs on 19 hits against the Cougars. Therefore in back-to-back days without pregame batting practice, Clemson hit .424 with 35 runs scored, 36 hits, 13 doubles, two homers, and 18 walks.

McCann Goes 6-for-6 Brad McCann’s went 6-for-6 with a double, two homers, four runs scored, and six RBIs against a #27 ranked (Collegiate Baseball) College of Charleston club on May 12 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The six hits tied a Clemson single-game record, as he became the eighth Tiger in history and first since 1992 to accomplish the feat. One of his two home runs was a grand slam and came on an 0-2 pitch. No Tiger had even totaled five hits in a game in 2004 before the game against the Cougars.