2009 Clemson Tigers baseball team

2009 Clemson Tigers baseball
Clemson, SC Regional Champions
Tempe, AZ Super Regional, (L 4-7, L 2-8)
Conference Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic
2009 record 44-22 (19-11 ACC)
Head coach Jack Leggett
Home stadium Doug Kingsmore Stadium
Seasons
« 2008 2010 »

The 2009 Clemson Tigers baseball team represented Clemson University in the 2009 NCAA Division I baseball season. The team played their home games at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson, SC.

The team was coached by Jack Leggett in his sixteenth season at Clemson.

Contents

Preseason

On January 27, 2009, the coaches in the ACC picked Clemson to finish second in the Atlantic Division behind Florida State. Overall, the Tigers were picked third behind North Carolina and Florida State respectively.[1]

Regular season

On March 5, 2009, Head Coach Jack Leggett announced that Fifth-year shortstop Stan Widmann had left the team due to personal reasons. Widmann, who graduated from Clemson with a degree in sport management the previous December, had withdrawn from school to pursue job opportunities.[2]

On Wednesday, March 18, pitchers Justin Sarratt, Scott Weismann, Kyle Deese, Tomas Cruz, and Matt Vaughn combined to pitch a no-hitter in Clemson's 14-0 victory over USC Upstate at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. It was the Tigers' 14th no-hitter in school history and first since the second game of a doubleheader on March 6, 1984, when Scott Parrish no-hit The Citadel in a seven-inning game. It was also just the second no-hitter involving multiple pitchers in Tiger history.[3]

On Tuesday, April 21, sophomore outfielder Jeff Shaus hit a walk-off grand slam to lift the Tigers to a 5-3 victory over the visiting Coastal Carolina Chanticleers. It was Clemson's first walk-off home run since April 27, 2007, when Doug Hogan hit a walkoff solo homer to top Georgia Tech 3-2 in 11 innings. It was also the second walkoff grand slam in Tiger history, matching the walkoff grand slam hit by Tyler Colvin in the Tigers' 11-8 win over Oral Roberts in the 2006 Clemson Super Regional.[4]

Postseason

ACC Tournament

Clemson went 1-2 in the 2009 ACC Baseball Tournament with losses to 7-seeded Duke and eventual champs, 6-seeded Virginia. On May 23, in their final game of the tournament, Clemson beat 2-seeded and top-five nationally ranked North Carolina in eleven innings in front of a crowd of 6,956. This set a record for the highest attendance ever at a college baseball game in the state of North Carolina.

NCAA Tournament

Clemson was awarded a host site for the regional round of the 2009 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. After beating 4-seeded Tennessee Tech in their first game of the regional, the Tigers would lose their next game to the 3-seeded Oklahoma State Cowboys. Clemson then proceeded to win their next three games to advance out of the loser's bracket and on to the Super Regional round of the tournament. With the win, Jack Leggett extended his streak to 11-0 in home games that clinch a regional or super regional championship.

In the Super Regionals, Clemson traveled to Tempe, Arizona to take on the number five national seed Arizona State. The Sun Devils defeated Clemson in the first two games of the best-of-three series, earning a trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. The losses ended Clemson's season with a record of 44 wins and 22 losses.

Coaching staff

Name Title First Season at CU Alma Mater
Jack Leggett Head Coach 1994 Maine (1976)
Tom Riginos Associate Head Coach 2003 Stetson (1990)
Kyle Bunn Assistant Head Coach 2008 The Citadel (2000)
Toby Bicknell Volunteer Assistant Coach 2007 Wingate (2002)

Schedule/Results

2008 Clemson Tigers baseball Game Log

Awards and honors

Wilson Boyd

  • ACC All-Tournament Team
  • Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team

Chris Dwyer

  • ACC Pitcher of the Week, April 13
  • Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team

Chris Epps

  • Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team
  • Clemson Regional MVP

Mike Freeman

  • Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team

Casey Harman

  • ACC All-Tournament Team

Kyle Parker

  • Preseason Brooks Wallace Award Watch List
  • ACC Player of the Week, April 13

Ben Paulsen

  • Preseason Brooks Wallace Award Watch List[6]
  • Baseball America Preseason Third-Team All-American[7]
  • Clemson Regional All-Tournament Team

Jeff Schaus

  • ACC Co-Player of the Week, April 27
  • First Team, All-ACC

Matt Vaughn

  • NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award Watch List[8]

Rankings

Ranking Movement Week
Poll Pre 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Final
USA Today/ESPN Coaches[9] 251 21 24 19 20 17 20 18 20 17 19 14 13 14
Baseball America[10] 19 19 19 22 20 NR NR NR NR NR 21 20 19 13 16
Collegiate Baseball[11] 26 25 19 NR 18 22 22 NR 21 26 19 19 17 13 15
NCBWA[12] 26 19 18 21 16 20 18 22 18 21 19 20 16 15 16
Rivals.com[13] 20 15 17 22 19 NR NR NR 22 NR 22 21 21 16 17

1- USA Today / ESPN did not release a poll after the first weekend of play.

Major League Baseball Draft

Player Year Round Pick Team
Ben Paulsen Jr.

References

  1. ^ "North Carolina leads ACC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll". Baseball. The ACC. http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/012709aaa.html. Retrieved 2009-01-27. 
  2. ^ "Injuries force Tigers’ Widmann to end career". The State. the McClatchy Company. http://www.thestate.com/tigers/v-print/story/704095.html. Retrieved 2009-03-05. 
  3. ^ "#18 Clemson No-Hits USC Upstate in 14-0 Win Wednesday". ClemsonTigers.com. Clemson University Athletic Department. Archived from the original on 2009-06-20. http://clemsontigers.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/031809aab.html. Retrieved 2009-03-18. 
  4. ^ "Schaus' Walkoff Grand Slam Lifts No. 20 Tigers Over No. 19 Chanticleers 5-3 Tuesday". ClemsonTigers.com. Clemson University Athletic Department. http://clemsontigers.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/042109aab.html. Retrieved 2009-04-21. 
  5. ^ ESPN/USA TODAYpreseason baseball coaches' poll
  6. ^ "Twenty-one ACC Student-Athletes Named to Brooks Wallace Award Preseason Watch List". Baseball. The ACC. http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/120608aaa.html. Retrieved 2008-12-10. 
  7. ^ "2009 Preseason All-American Team". Baseball America. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/awards/all-america-teams/2009/267613.html. Retrieved 2008-02-16. 
  8. ^ "NCBWA ANNOUNCES 2009 STOPPER OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST". National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. http://www.sportswriters.net/ncbwa/news/2009/stopper090217.html. Retrieved 2008-02-17. 
  9. ^ USA TODAY/ESPN baseball coaches' poll
  10. ^ Baseball America's College Homepage
  11. ^ Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's NCAA Div. I Poll
  12. ^ National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America Homepage
  13. ^ Rival's Collegiate Baseball Poll