Clemson’s baseball team is inching closer to getting some help from one of its top freshmen for the stretch run.

Outfielder Will Taylor is “getting close” to making his collegiate debut on the diamond, Clemson coach Monte Lee said Sunday. Lee said Taylor, who had reconstructive ACL surgery in the fall after sustaining the injury with the football team, continues to make strides in terms of the amount of baseball activities he’s able to do at this point and will be assessed again this week.

“I don’t know if he’ll be available by next weekend (at Louisville), but he could be,” Lee said.

Lee said Taylor has now had two days of live at-bats and is a candidate to fill the designated hitter role whenever he returns. Taylor, in full uniform with no visible knee brace, even went behind home plate Sunday to catch the ceremonial first pitch before the Tigers’ series finale against Florida State.

The Tigers will take all the help they can get as they try to make a move among their ACC counterparts during the regular season’s final month. Clemson notched its second straight series win with Sunday’s win over the Seminoles and has won seven of its last nine games, though the Tigers still have one of the two lowest conference winning percentages among ACC teams.

Clemson needs to finish higher than that to qualify for the league’s 12-team tournament next month. The Tigers, who return to action Tuesday at home against Presbyterian, have four conference series remaining starting with their trip to Louisville, which is tied with Notre Dame atop the Atlantic Division standings.

“(Taylor) has been playing balls off the bat now for a couple of weeks,” Lee said. “He’s taken BP every day. He’s standing down in the bullpen every game. Every time we have a pitcher in the ‘pen warming up, he goes down there and stands in on him.

“We feel like he’s ready to put in there whenever physically he’s ready to go, so it’s going to be more of a decision on his part. But it’s getting close.”

A two-sport standout at Irmo’s Dutch Fork High School, Taylor bypassed the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft last summer to play football and baseball at Clemson. Taylor played five games for the football team last season before sustaining the injury.

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