Clemson continues move up D1Baseball Top 25

Clemson moved up three spots to No. 7 overall with the D1Baseball Top 25.

Brandon Rink - Assoc. Editor / Staff Writer - 5 hours ago

Clemson shares the same spot in at least two major college baseball rankings now.

That is No. 7, where D1Baseball slotted the Tigers up three spots and Baseball America dropped them two places to.

"Clemson’s two-spot drop in the Week 6 rankings is a byproduct of other teams moving up, not the Tigers’ wrongdoing," said Baseball America's writeup. "Erik Bakich’s team went 4-1 in Week 5 with a pair of quality midweek wins over Liberty and two wins in three chances against unranked Notre Dame to open ACC play over the weekend. Clemson righty Aidan Knaak stole the show on Friday night with a career-high 12 strikeouts in seven shutout innings while junior center fielder Cam Cannarella went 5-for-8 with a double and three RBIs in the final two games of the weekend. Clemson will have as strong a chance to climb back into the top five as anyone this week with five home games: two against The Citadel and three against No. 12 Wake Forest."

The weekend visitor Deacs went 4-0 last week and improved to 18-3 and 6-0 in ACC action. Right-handed ace Logan Lunceford leads the ACC in opposing batting average (.110) and strikeouts (50), and also ranks in the Top 10 in strikeouts looking (3rd; 13), hits allowed (3rd; 10), wins (4th; 4), runs allowed (4th; 4), earned runs allowed (7th; 4) and ERA (7th; 1.33). Four Demon Deacons rank in the ACC Top 10 in slugging percentage and RBIs with Kade Lewis (4th; .797; 2nd, 30 RBIs), Marek Houston (5th; .783; 1st, 39), Jack Winnay (7th; .753; 4th, 29) and Ethan Conrad (8th; .744; 7th, 27).

The same SEC trio leads both polls with Tennessee, LSU and Arkansas. Florida State paces the ACC in both at No. 5 overall despite suffering a first loss of the season at home to Florida.

After the big performance last Friday, Knaak is third in the ACC strikeouts overall (44). Tigers right-handed reliever Lucas Mahlstedt paces the ACC in saves (6).

The Tigers return to action at home versus The Citadel at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.