Baseball: Out of the driver’s seat

CLEMSON — Junior shortstop Stan Widmann’s uncle sent him a text message this week suggesting there are lessons to be learned from Clemson’s losses.

Widmann’s uncle was trying to find a way to keep him his nephew motivated.

Not to fear, Widmann replied. For all the team’s faults, resilience is its greatest asset.

“When we leave here at night, we leave it here,” Widmann said. “Everybody comes back that next day and is in a pretty good mood and treating it like’s a new day. That’s exactly what we need to do.”

Still, coach Jack Leggett seems to think the only way the Tigers can wipe the slate clean on their first ACC losing season since 1972 is to prolong their streak of 21 NCAA tournament appearances.

To do that, they first must reach the ACC tourney. And this weekend’s three games at Georgia Tech (34-14, 12-12 ACC) — Clemson’s final conference regular-season series — stands to go a long way in determining if they make it.

The top eight teams qualify, and the Tigers (25-23-1, 10-16-1) are percentage points ahead of Duke (8-14-1 ACC) for seventh, with Wake Forest (8-15) a half-game out.

Duke plays at Wake Forest this weekend, making the three-team race for the final two spots more difficult to hash out in terms of scenarios.

“The good thing is, with everybody playing each other, somebody’s got to lose,” coach Jack Leggett said. “So we’ve just got to win, that’s the bottom line.”

Clemson could clinch an ACC tourney spot if it won all three against the Yellow Jackets and there was a sweep in the Duke-Wake Forest series.

However, that would seem unlikely considering the Tigers have not even won two of three at Georgia Tech since 1996.

Nonetheless, the pressure lies on Clemson’s shoulders because Duke and Wake Forest each have a conference series remaining next weekend, each on the road against an ACC cellar dweller: Duke at last-place Virginia Tech; Wake Forest at Boston College.

The Tigers cannot finish in a tie with either because of their controversial, rain-shortened tie with Duke and because the Blue Devils and Demon Deacons each lost a game to rainout.

So Duke can surpass Clemson by winning two more games than the Tigers. Wake Forest needs three more wins than Clemson.

The Tigers figure to want one of those two to wipe the other out this weekend. But even then, nothing is likely guaranteed for Clemson until next weekend.

All it can do is try to create as much distance in the standings heading into those series as possible.

“We’ve kind of put ourselves in a situation where we need help from other people,” junior closer Matt Vaughn said. “But we have to take care of our business and let the cards fall where they may.”