April 24, 1896 – Clemson played its first baseball game, a 20-13 loss to Furman. The home games were played on Bowman Field in front of Tillman Hall. The Tigers’ first head coach was R.T.V. Bowman.
May 12, 1899 – Clemson played South Carolina for the first time. The Tigers won 21-8 in eight innings in Charleston. The Gamecocks are the Tigers’ most common opponent to date.
1900 – Head coach John Heisman, who coached Clemson’s gridders for four seasons, was named the Tigers’ baseball coach. Heisman compiled a 28-6-1 (.814) record in three seasons (1901-03), which still stands today as the best winning percentage in Tiger history, slightly ahead of another legendary football coach, Frank Howard.
1901 – Vet Sitton played his first of three seasons at Clemson. The Pendleton, S.C. native, a 5’11”, 170-pound righty, played one season (1909) for the Cleveland Naps, where he was 3-2 with a 2.88 ERA in 50.0 innings pitched. He later was the Tigers’ head coach in 1915 and 1916 and compiled a 26-18-1 (.589) record.
April 12, 1913 – Doc Ezell pitched Clemson’s first no-hitter in a 5-0 victory over Erskine.
March 27, 1916 – Clemson defeated West Virginia Wesleyan 4-2 in the first game played on Riggs Baseball Field. Clemson played on this field until the 1970 season.
April 29, 1916 – Elmer Long pitched a no-hitter in a 2-0 win over VMI.
1921 – Clemson joined the Southern Conference and was a charter member.
1922 – Flint Rhem, one of the Tigers’ greatest players of the 20th century, played in his first season at Clemson. He played during the 1922-24 seasons and later went on to play 12 major league seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Braves. He had a 105-97 career record with a 4.20 ERA and 534 strikeouts. He was 20-7 with a 3.21 ERA with the Cardinals in 1926 in his best season. He once pitched a no-hitter (in 1924, one year before his rookie season in the majors) while playing for the Fort Smith (Ark.) minor league team. He struck out 16 batters in the game and made it in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” by not allowing a ball to be hit out of the infield.
April 17, 1924 – Lefty Smith pitched a no-hitter in a 6-0 win over South Carolina.
1931 – Clemson’s season was cut short due to an outbreak of meningitis on campus in April. Clemson finished the season with a 6-2 record.
1932 – Legendary Head Football Coach Jess Neely, who coached the Tiger gridders for nine seasons (1931-39), coached his…