Baseball To Take on Terps in Weekend Series

April 18, 2003

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Clemson vs. Maryland Clemson (26-10, 4-5 ACC), ranked as high as #15 in the polls and rated #3 in the RPI, will travel to College Park, MD to take on Maryland (12-22, 0-11 ACC) this weekend. Friday’s game will start at 7:00 PM, while the games on Saturday and Sunday will both start at 1:00 PM. All three games will be broadcast live on the radio by Clemson Tiger Sports Properties and can be heard live via the internet at www.clemsontigers.com. Live stats will also be available for all three games on Clemson’s website.

The Series Clemson holds a 96-33 advantage in the series dating back to 1923, including a 74-12 lead since 1973. Last season, Clemson won all three games at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The Tigers also swept the Terrapins at College Park in 2001 and have won 15 games in a row in the series dating back to a 7-6 loss in 1997. That year, Maryland took two of three games over Clemson at College Park, but those are the Terrapins’ only wins in the last 30 meetings.

Tiger Head Coach Steve Pyzik has also had success against the Terrapins, going 5-for-13 (.385) with five RBIs in six career games. Steven Jackson is the only current Tiger to ever make a start against Maryland.

The Starting Pitchers Maryland’s rotation has yet to be determined as of Thursday AM. Clemson will start sophomore lefthander Steven Jackson (4-2, 4.53 ERA) will start on the mound in game three Sunday. Jackson has allowed just eight earned runs in his last four starts (22.1 innings pitched) for a 3.22 ERA and 3-1 record. Clemson’s pitching staff has a 3.72 ERA and .246 opponents’ batting average

Maryland Overview Maryland, led by third-year Head Coach Terry Rupp, is coming off a home loss to Towson (7-4) Wednesday and a road victory at Penn State (3-2) Tuesday. The Terrapins are hitting .264 as a team, led by freshman Mike Costantino. He has a .345 batting average and 12 doubles in 33 games. Anthony Buffone and Jeremy Hunt, both hitting .308, are also hitting above .300 for the Terrapins. Justin Maxwell has six of the team’s 20 home runs along with a team-high 23 RBIs. The team sports a .961 fielding percentage and is averaging 5.1 runs per game.

Clemson Overview Clemson is coming off a split of two games against a very good Coastal Carolina club. Clemson is hitting .309 as a team, led by Russell Triplett’s .344 batting average. All five Tigers with at least 100 at bats are hitting at least .315 at the plate. Jeff Baker, 59). Six of Johnson’s seven homers this year have come on the road as well. David Slevin is 10-for-18 (.556) in the last five games and has an outstanding .985 fielding percentage this season. The Tigers are 5-8 on opponents’ home field this year and have a .972 fielding percentage, ahead of the Clemson single-season record. The Tigers have also won 109 consecutive games when leading after eight innings dating back to the beginning of 2001.

Clemson and Coastal Carolina Split Two Games Coastal Carolina traveled to Doug Kingsmore Stadium for a two-game, midweek series at Clemson Tuesday and Wednesday and came away with a 1-1 split. The Chanticleers, who had a #24 rating in the RPI, only allowed four earned runs in the two games.

In game one, Clemson had 16 baserunners but could only muster one run in a 5-1 defeat. Brandon Powell set the Chanticleer career doubles’ and hits’ record in the game, as he went 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Ryan McGraw also had three hits and stole four bases. Clemson left the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth innings, leaving 13 men on base overall. Jeff Hourigan led the Tigers with two hits.

In game two, Clemson scored five runs in the third inning on its way to a 7-3 win. David Slevin continued his hot hitting with two hits in three at bats, while Hourigan, Brad McCann, and Kyle Frank all had RBI hits in the contest. Freshman Kris Harvey earned the win by allowing two runs on four hits in 5.0 innings pitched. Four of Clemson’s seven runs were of the unearned variety.

Tigers Ranked #3 in Latest RPI The only rating system the NCAA uses to determine selections and seedings is the RPI, or the Ratings Percentage Index. Although the NCAA does not release its official RPI, Boyd Nation has come up with an RPI index that is all but the same as the official RPI. He uses numbers from previous seasons to verify his formulas.

In the April 14 release, his RPI index has Clemson #3, depsite the Tigers only being ranked as high as #15 in the polls. Clemson can thank a brutal non-conference schedule for its high RPI ranking, which already includes three games at Auburn (#1) and many other games against quality foes. The RPI only counts games against Division I teams and is for games through April 13.

Boyd Nation's Unofficial RPI By Team        Rk      Team    W-L     Rating        1.      Auburn  29-8    .693        2.      Rice    35-3    .660        3.      Clemson 25-9    .655        4.      Florida State   33-6    .645        5.      Miami (FL)      27-7    .643        6.      Texas   29-11   .633        7.      Stanford        23-10   .633        8.      Cal. State-Fullerton    30-8    .630        9.      Louisiana State 24-11   .629        10.     Georgia Tech    27-6    .629

Boyd Nation’s Unofficial RPI By Conference Rk Conference W-L Rating 1. Southeastern 265-151 .593 2. Atlantic Coast 207-107 .590 3. Big XII 221-137 .583 4. Pacific 10 189-139 .548 5. Western Athletic 121-95 .548

Ranking Clemson’s Opponents By RPI Rk Team *GP *W-L ^W-L Rating 1. Auburn 3 1-2 29-8 .693 4. Florida State 3 1-2 33-6 .645 13. N.C. State 3 1-2 30-8 .617 14. Virginia 3 2-1 21-12 .617 32. South Carolina 4 3-1 22-14 .582 41. Georgia 1 1-0 17-18 .573 59. Western Carolina 2 1-1 23-13 .554 97. Georgia Southern 2 2-0 21-14 .524 110. Winthrop 1 1-0 23-13 .518 135. College of Charleston 2 2-0 22-14 .504 136. Old Dominion 3 3-0 12-20 .504 165. Tennessee Tech 2 2-0 14-15 .482 177. Charleston Southern 1 1-0 13-24 .477 180. Maine 3 3-0 19-7 .473 265. Wofford 1 1-0 6-25 .385

* – head-to-head and through April 13; ^ – overall; Note: There are 287 schools that play Division I baseball.

Winning Close Games…Again Clemson has had success this year in close ballgames. The team has played in 12 games decided by two runs or less, and has won 10 of them. Clemson is 3-1 in one-run games and 7-1 in two-run games this year. Last season, Clemson was 6-1 in one-run games and 13-4 in two-run games for a total of 19-5 in games decided by two runs or less. Therefore, in the last two seasons, Clemson is 29-7 in games decided by two runs or less.

Slevin Providing Punch in Bottom of Lineup Senior second baseman was one of the bright spots in Clemson’s series at #2 Florida State from April 11-13. The Port Saint Lucie, FL native was 7-for-12 (.583) in the three games and was 3-for-6 against Coastal Carolina (two games) to raise his season average to .321. Slevin, who has batted near the bottom of the lineup all season, also leads the team in batting average (.467) in ACC games. He has also not committed an error in 48 chances in eight ACC games this year and has an overall fielding percentage of .985 (just two errors).