CLEMSON — A closer's walk to the mound has always been one of the more dramatized events in baseball.
That strut brings to mind "Wild Thing" playing over the stadium speakers, the stands abuzz, as Charlie Sheen's character Ricky Vaughn emerged from a bullpen to throw fastballs by a tobacco-chewing home-run masher.
In real life, the electric guitar riffs of Metallica's "Sandman" ushered in Yankees great Mariano Rivera and blasts of Timmy Trumpet's horn play "Narco" to get Mets fans hyped as Edwin Diaz enters in the ninth inning.
Needless to say, it can be an adrenaline-inducing experience to enter a baseball game in late-inning situations. But as Clemson junior Austin Gordon describes his walk to the mound, it's not an especially dramatic thing.
"For me, most of the time, I'm just blank," Gordon said. "When nothing's going through my head, I'm at my best."
Clemson has found the proper vessel for the pressure-packed role of closer, someone fiery and competitive but mentally uncluttered. "Gordo," as they call him, presents as a blank canvas, just a "pitcher" undefined who had no qualms stepping back from a weekend starter's role when asked in late March.
In his first three outings as the Tigers' closer — one at Miami, two at Notre Dame — Gordon posted three straight saves.
"A lot of competitive people love that role and the idea of that role," Clemson coach Erik Bakich said. "Game's on the line, late in the game, and it's in your hands? Who wouldn't love that?"
Ryan Ammons loved it, stepping back into Clemson's closer role in the second half of last season after a forearm strain cut short his run as a Friday starter. The senior came off the shelf and posted five saves in his next seven appearances, showing enough that the Red Sox selected him with a 10th-round pick in July.
Gordon's path to the closer role follows a similar script. The 6-foot-5, 200-pound righty tired in the fall because of a team-high 84 innings as a sophomore followed by work with Team USA and his summer ball team in the offseason. He had to put the ball down completely in late October, which made it more difficult to build up stamina for the spring season.
The Myrtle Beach native just never quite got his legs under him to be Clemson's Friday starter, compiling an earned run average floating around 8.00 through a half-dozen appearances.
"For me, it's just being able to get out there with my guys and have fun at the end of the day," Gordon said. "It's all about competing. But you compete too hard and not have any fun, this game will eat you up."
Gordon admits it "sucked" to put the ball down last fall, dedicating himself to icing his arm and rehabbing. But he doesn't regret throwing with Team USA.
He never pitched more than 4⅔ innings in a start this season, rocked for nine runs total in back-to-back outings against UNC Greensboro and Duke. But that led Gordon and his coaches to consider new possibilities.
Pitching coach Jimmy Belanger compared video from Gordon's 2024 outings to more successful innings two years ago, noting mechanical differences that were sapping power from his pitches. Adjustments were made, and Gordon's fastball ticked up from 91-93 miles per hour to touching 95.
"Added a little more tilt, created a little more deception, but it also added more velocity," Bakich siad. "The velocity also ticked up in the adrenaline role — the sprinter, late-inning, game-on-the-line, closer type of role."
Gordon made his first mid-game walk to the mound in a 3-2 game versus Miami, in the bottom of the eighth, two outs. But the Tigers had just dropped a fly ball. So there was a need to settle things down.
The ex-Friday starter proved unaffected by the situation.
"I'm a blank guy," Gordon said. "I just go out and do what I need to do."
Gordon surrendered a single, moving runners to first and third, but he promptly struck out the next batter.
In the bottom of the ninth, it was strikeout, strikeout, fly out.
Game over.
"He's always thrown strikes, and he's always been one of our best athletes on the whole team, let alone the pitching staff," Bakich said. "And the fact he can impact multiple games on the weekend is a huge boost for us."
Clemson used Gordon twice in a weekend sweep at Notre Dame, and Bakich thinks the righty has the "bounce-back" ability to pitch three times during an ACC weekend series, if needed.
A closer-by-committee situation, tying in the likes of Rob Hughes, Nick Clayton, and Lucas Mahlstedt, has instead turned to Gordon with arms like Aidan Knaak, Tristan Smith, Ethan Darden, and Matthew Marchal proving starter-worthy.
Gordon isn't overthinking the role, preferring to still label himself as a pitcher more than a closer.
"I wouldn't give myself a certain kind of brand or a title or anything. I'm just a pitcher who loves to compete," Gordon said.
That's not to say he hasn't entertained the possibility of a Timmy Trumpet-like intro at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
"Our strength guys loves that, big Mets fan, big Edwin Diaz fan," Gordon said, smiling. "So, you know, maybe something will happen."
