Like many Clemson baseball fans, Graham Neff has followed the Tigers’ performance during what has been widely viewed as a critical season for the direction of the program.

Clemson’s athletic director has liked the way things have played out at times. There have also been some rough patches after the Tigers started the season with 14 straight wins. There’s still plenty of work to do if Clemson (25-14, 5-11 ACC) is going to return to the NCAA tournament this year after finishing with a losing record a season ago, the kind of futility not seen at Clemson since the Eisenhower administration.

But Clemson coach Monte Lee said he feels like his team has been playing its best baseball of late despite the Tigers dropping a 4-3 decision to No. 9 Florida State on Saturday. With the help of the hot-hitting Max Wagner (.366 average, 17 home runs), Clemson has won six of its last eight games after a month-long stretch that saw the Tigers lose 12 of 17.

The hot streak included a second win over a top-15 Georgia team Tuesday and the Tigers’ first ACC series win last weekend over a Wake Forest team that was ranked at the time. In a recent interview with The Clemson Insider, Neff also noted Clemson’s 5-0 mark against SEC teams this season, including a sweep of rival South Carolina, and spoke highly of Lee.

“I think it’s good momentum,” Neff said of Clemson’s recent play. “With that, obviously we started hot and struggled in the middle (of the season) a little bit after that. I’m excited with where Monte is at and (freshman outfielder) Will Taylor getting healthy. We’re seeing some of the players and where they’re at. But Monte is a pro. Just won his 500th game a couple of weeks ago, all in the state of South Carolina. Seven seasons at Charleston. Seven seasons at Clemson. So I’m excited with where they’re at and what the postseason looks like.”

Yet the Tigers find themselves in danger of missing out on a regional for the second straight season heading into today’s 1 p.m. rubber match with the Seminoles at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The Tigers have a respectable RPI of 34, but Boston College is the only team in the league with fewer conference wins heading into the final month of the regular season.

Clemson’s win percentage within the conference (.312) is also second-worst, which is significant as the Tigers simply try to avoid missing out on the postseason all together. Only the top 12 winning percentages qualify for the ACC Tournament, meaning the Tigers would be left out if the tournament started today. Duke, which beat Georgia Tech on Saturday, has the next-lowest winning percentage within the conference (.350) but has already played four more ACC games than Clemson, which will only play 29 league games since its series finale against Pittsburgh was canceled earlier this season and won’t be made up.

Clemson still has opportunities to change that starting today, but the road ahead won’t get much easier. The Tigers still have series against Louisville (on the road), Georgia Tech and Virginia (on the road) to navigate before closing out the regular season with a home series against Boston College. Former athletic director Dan Radakovich, whom Neff worked under for the previous nine years as deputy athletic director before being promoted in December, made clear his expectations for the baseball program when he fired Hall of Fame coach Jack Leggett after Leggett’s final five teams failed to win a regional following Clemson’s most recent College World Series appearance in 2010.

“I think we can do better,” Radakovich said at the time.

Neff has his own decisions to make, though he acknowledged this season as an “important” one for the program before it started given the way things went a year ago. Only once in Lee’s first 13 seasons as a head coach has he led a team beyond the regionals, and that was when the College of Charleston advanced to a super regional in 2014 (the 2020 season was canceled in response to the coronavirus pandemic).

Asked if Clemson simply being a part of the postseason again this year would meet his expectations, Neff said that’s a tough question to answer.

“It’ll be more of just a feel and seeing where the program and Monte is at,” Neff said. “There’s no, ‘Hey, if you make it to regionals or super regionals or Omaha.’ There’s not that specificity of the achievement but just the evaluation of the season in total.”

Photo courtesy of Sara D. Davis/ACC

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