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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMay 21, 2018Monte LeeDurham, North Carolina MONTE LEE: Well, we've had a great regular season, 43-13. I think it's our best overall regular season wins-wise and conference wins-wise, I believe, since 2006. Brian Hennessy would know that better than me. But we've had a great year, and the strength of our team has been an outstanding bullpen, led by Ryan Miller, Carson Spiers, Ryley Gilliam, who's one of the best closers in the country, along with a very solid pitching staff, and a lineup that has some power. We have a number of guys who have hit double-digit home runs. Seth Beer has had an amazing year, again; Logan Davidson, our shorting shortstop, has been all-ACC worthy this year; and Chris Williams has had a huge year for us, along with Kyle Wilkie, our catcher. We've had a very consistent ballclub, probably my best defensive ballclub in the three years here at Clemson, and overall we've had a great regular season, so we're excited about coming into the ACC Tournament as a No. 2 seed. Q. Do you have an update on Jacob Hennessy, and will he be ready to go for the ACC Tournament, and do you perceive any problems with his pitching arm moving forward? MONTE LEE: He is ready to go. Just had some inflammation, which our sports medicine staff advised us to give him some time off after his start against Austin Peay, and we did. He is throwing. He has thrown a bullpen, and he will be ready to go. His role will be yet to be determined, whether we'll use him out of the bullpen or whether we'll start him in one of those games, but he will be available, and I anticipate him pitching in the ACC Tournament. Q. How pleased have you been with the job he's done this year, a sophomore stepping from the bullpen into your main starting lineup? How would you address his season as a whole? MONTE LEE: Well, he's had a great season for us. He toed the rubber for us in Game 1 of every series outside of this last one, and he did a great job for us. Just the maturation from year one to year two, Coach See has done an amazing job along with Jacob of working on that third pitch, his changeup. So he's developed a more complete repertoire to bring into a start, and you need to be able to throw three pitches, I believe, to be a true starter, and he's done that. He's been very consistent for us. He makes you beat him in the strike zone, and we've been very happy with his progress in our program from year one to year two. Q. It's the first time in quite a while that Clemson has won both divisions in both baseball and football. That's quite an accomplishment for you guys. Do you have any thoughts on that? MONTE LEE: Well, it's just a great time, a great time in Clemson athletics right now. I just think if you look at this year and obviously our season is not over yet, we're now going into the postseason, but with Coach Swinney's run in football, which has been nothing short of amazing, Brad Brownell had an amazing season this year in basketball, arguably one of our best years in a long, long time, and we've had a regular season to remember, one of the best ones that we've had in quite some time. It's just a great time to be a Clemson Tiger, I guess. I don't know how else to say it. All the programs right now seem to be clicking on all cylinders, and we're very excited about the future. Q. Facing Notre Dame, what in particular do they -- what kind of issues do they present for your team? MONTE LEE: Well, you know, we played Notre Dame at Notre Dame, had three very close ballgames. We were fortunate to win two of them. I think they're a very sound ballclub. Their starting pitching I felt like was very good. They have a number of pieces in their lineup that I feel like are high-level hitters with Vierling and Podkul, like both of those guys a lot. They have some athleticism. So it's going to be a tough test for us, no question about it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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