The Clemson Tigers head into Omaha with a 43-23 overall record. They won the Auburn Regional on the road by defeating Southern Miss (10-1) and Auburn (5-2). They then dropped the first game of the Regional final to Auburn 11-10 before bouncing back in an elimination game with a 13-7 victory. The Super Regional round was hosted by the Tigers where they faced off against the Alabama Crimson Tide. They dropped game 1 by a score of 5-4 before bouncing back with 19-5 and 8-6 victories to make it back to Omaha. They will face off against Arizona State on Sunday at 7pm Eastern time in the final first round matchup of the College World Series.
The Clemson offense comes in with a .310 team average. The top hitter on the squad is Brad Miller who is hitting .369 with 8 homers and 48 RBI in 65 games. Kyle Parker is the top power hitter on the team with 20 homers while he is second on the team with a .353 batting average while driving in 64 runs. John Hinson with 17 homers and Jeff Schaus with 15 homers are the other two Tigers with over 10 homers on the year. John Hinson is the top base stealer with 23 on the year in only 27 attempts.
The one thing I have debated all year with the Clemson Tigers is the pitching staff. They have a team ERA of 4.72 with six different players recording at least one save. The top pitcher this season has been Casey Harman who is 7-3 with a 3.73 ERA while Scott Weissman is 8-2 with a 5.09 ERA. Tomas Cruz leads the team with three saves while going 3-3 with a 5.79 ERA in 23 appearances.
I think the Tigers are the weakest of the eight team in Omaha as they have question marks in many different areas. Brad Miller has an ungodly amount of errors at shortstop with 29 on the year in only 65 games. The other question mark is the pitching staff for the Tigers with a staff ERA of 4.72, you got to think that will eventually come back to haunt them in Omaha where the balls tend to fly out easily with the warm weather.
Odds: Clemson 20-1
