The Jackets are gearing up for their biggest series of the season yet as they travel to Clemson to take on the #11 ranked Tigers for a three-game set beginning on Thursday night. With Georgia Tech coming in ranked #4 by D1 Baseball, this series is the second highest ranked series of the weekend, coming in only behind #3 Mississippi State at #5 Arkansas. Both Georgia Tech and Clemson come into the series with identical 15-2 records.

Georgia Tech is coming off of a big 14-0 win over West Georgia in their mid-week, meanwhile Clemson is coming off of a 6-1 loss at the hands of Georgia Southern, a team in which the Jackets defeated by a score of 25-1 earlier in the season. Those two games mean hardly anything when previewing this weekend series, but it’s worth noting because it does highlight the gap between the Georgia Tech and Clemson offenses. The Jackets offense still has 16 of their 18 hitters that have logged a plate appearance this season possessing an OPS north of 1.000, including each everyday regular. Clemson’s offense has been solid but is simply not on the same tier as the Jackets. Either way, there will be a few bats in Clemson’s lineup that could give the Jackets pitching some issues. Junior outfielder Tryston McCladdie leads the team with a 1.197 OPS and 14 walks to just four strikeouts. Senior catcher Jacob Jarrell’s six home runs leads the team and he has a 1.111 OPS of his own. Sophomore catcher Nate Savoie who splits time behind the plate with Jarrell is in the mix as well, coming in right behind McCladdie with a 1.187 OPS and five home runs.

The pitching on the other hand has been Clemson’s strong suit and could potentially give Georgia Tech some problems. Granted, that was the same story last weekend as the Jackets welcomed in a strong pitching team in Virginia Tech and still managed to put up 36 runs. Regardless, Clemson’s pitching staff is without a doubt a more difficult challenge and should present itself as Georgia Tech’s first big test on the road.

Junior right-hander and Tigers ace Aidan Knaak is set to take the mound for Clemson on Thursday night while senior left-hander Michael Sharman will get the ball on Friday night. Knaak has been Clemson’s ace dating back to last year and is off to a solid start, owning a 2.77 ERA in 13 innings across three starts with 22 strikeouts, good for a 40.7 K%. Knaak has also been regarded as a legitimate MLB draft prospect and could be a day one pick this July. Sharman has been the most dominant starter for the Tigers, allowing just two earned runs in 25 innings of work across four starts thus far, good for a 0.72 ERA that ranks 16th in the nation among qualified pitchers. He has also allowed just a .115 batting average against, a mark that ranks seventh in the nation. Sharman made headlines a couple weeks ago after he delivered a 78 pitch complete game against South Carolina in which 67 of his 78 pitches were strikes. The Tigers starter for Saturday has yet to be announced but could feature guys like freshmen Eston Simpson or Dylan Harrison, both of which have made weekend and mid-week starts alike and both own sub-4 ERAs in at least ten innings of work.

As a team, Clemson’s 1.91 ERA ranks second in the nation only behind USC – the only two teams with a sub-2 ERA to this point in the season. Their 0.86 WHIP ranks first overall in the nation while their 4.26 strikeout to walk ratio ranks fourth.

The Jackets will match Knaak and Sharman with the same Friday and Saturday duo they have sent to the mound in each of the last two weeks as Tate McKee will get the opener on Thursday and Dylan Loy will get the Friday night game. McKee continues to post solid starts and will be expected to deliver some high-leverage innings on Thursday after pitching on cruise control in recent starts given the offense has granted him big leads to work with. McKee currently owns a 3.86 ERA in 16.1 innings across four starts with a 25.0 K%. Loy’s performance has backed up a bit in his last two starts, but the stat line still looks every part of one of the more dominant pitchers in the ACC. He has covered a team-leading 17.2 innings with a 2.04 ERA with a 28.4 K% to just a 4.1 BB%, good for a 24.3 K-BB%. As is the case with Clemson, the Jackets have not announced their starter for the series finale yet. Cooper Underwood has started each Sunday game of the season thus far, but has scuffled in his last two starts, giving up six earned runs in just 2.2 innings of work. He is still certainly in play to get the start in this one, but also could potentially give way to guys like Justin Shadek or Jackson Blakely. Mason Patel could also be in play for this start. He was listed as injured in last weekend’s series and hasn’t pitched since his start against Stony Brook on February 21st.

Clemson won three of the four match-ups between these two teams last year and Georgia Tech is looking to restore their fortune against the Tigers. Clemson took two of three in their regular season series in Atlanta before defeating the Jackets by a score of 9-4 to knock them out of last year’s ACC tournament.

Check back here following the conclusion of the series for a recap of everything that happened and subscribe below!