Division Atlantic Head coach Jack Leggett | 2009 record 44-22 (19-11 ACC) Home stadium Doug Kingsmore Stadium | |
Conference Atlantic Coast Conference | ||
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.
Contents
The team was coached by Jack Leggett in his sixteenth season at Clemson.
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.
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 Widmann, who graduated from Clemson with a degree in sport management the previous December, had withdrawn from school to pursue job opportunities.
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.
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 walk-off solo homer to top Georgia Tech 3-2 in 11 innings. It was also the second walk-off grand slam in Tiger history, matching the walk-off grand slam hit by Tyler Colvin in the Tigers' 11-8 win over Oral Roberts in the 2006 Clemson Super Regional.
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.
Rankings
1- USA Today / ESPN did not release a poll after the first weekend of play.