Monte Lee will not give himself any credit for the performance of his pitching staff threw the first 10 games of the season.

“I only do two things with our pitchers. I tell them when they are going to pitch and I take them out. That’s about it,” Clemson’s head coach said.

Perceived as the weakness on the team heading into the 2016 baseball season, Clemson’s pitchers have been the biggest surprise so far this young season. The Tigers 1.92 ERA ranks second in the ACC, and they’re coming off a two-game performance against then No. 18 South Carolina that was the most impressive by a pitching staff so far this season.

Though the Gamecocks were averaging nearly nine runs a game prior to Saturday, Clemson held them to one run and to just nine hits over the remaining 18 innings in the three-game series. Clate Schmidt and Pat Krall combined for a two-hit shutout in Game 2, while Alex Eubanks earned ACC Pitcher of the Week honors after allowing one run on six hits in 7 2/3 innings of work in the Tigers’ win in Game 3.

“I think you have to give Andrew See a lot of credit there,” said Lee, whose Tigers take on Winthrop this afternoon at four o’clock at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. “Andrew See and David Cox, our undergraduate assistant, those two guys work with our pitching staff.

“I give them a lot of praise when they throw the ball well. I’m not the pitching coach here. I just pat them on the back when they throw up a zero, and tell them how happy I am for them when they pitch well. That’s it. I’m just a cheerleader for the pitching staff. Andrew and David deserve a lot of credit for that.”

See has quite the reputation as a pitching coach. At Duke the last two years, he coached the Blue Devils to their two best ERA marks since the advent of the aluminum bat. Despite his top-two pitchers suffering injuries in 2015, Duke still had a 3.29 ERA, while his 2014 staff recorded a 3.14, the program’s best mark since 1971 and  its first sub-4.00 ERA since 1993.

Despite losing All-American and ACC Pitcher of the Year, Matthew Crownover, plus All-ACC hurler Zack Erwin, Clemson has been better on the mound this season. What is See doing or having his pitchers do differently?

“At the end of the day, what does it boil down to? Throw strikes and make the routine play,” Lee said.

The Tigers’ ability to throw strikes and eliminate the free passes has played a big role in their success on the mound so far this year. Lee admitted he saw in the fall how his pitchers were throwing strikes, and they got even better in the preseason.

“The thing about this pitching staff that nobody seems to bring up is that we throw strikes,” the Clemson coach said. “Look at every guy we run out there, those guys throw strikes. Do they get hit some? Yeah, but we preached to our guys, throw strikes, execute pitches and let your defense play behind you and our guys have done that.

“If we can continue to do that, and limit our free (passes) then we are going to be okay.”