Baseball has brought Paulsen closer to his father

CLEMSON — The story of Ben Paulsen the player is compelling enough.

Clemson's head baseball coach Jack Leggett said he has never had a player improve as much from his freshman to junior season. Tigers hitting coach Tom Riginos calls Paulsen the poster child for Clemson player development.

Paulsen entered Clemson as a wiry 6-3, 180-pound freshman, posting a .258 average and five home runs as a first-year player. As a junior, Paulsen enters the Clemson Regional against Tennessee Tech at 7 p.m. today stronger, quicker and owning an improved approach to yield a team-best .368 average along with 11 home runs.

His three years at have Clemson have also produced an equally compelling personal story, reuniting and cultivating a relationship with his father, Riginos.

"I've seen him every day the past three years," Paulsen said. "We have just been hanging out, just bonding more or less. It has been a blast."

Riginos was a freshman outfielder at Stetson when Paulsen's mother became pregnant. The relationship failed. As a youth, Paulsen bounced around with his mother from Wisconsin to Alabama to the Atlanta suburbs, while Riginos climbed the coaching ladder at Eastern Kentucky and later Stetson.

Visits to his son were infrequent. Paulsen said they talked over the phone once every "week or two weeks."

Baseball and family fortunes changed when Riginos took an assistant position with Clemson in 2003. With the geographical gap closed, Riginos and Paulsen had more frequent visits while Paulsen's baseball stock soared.

"My high school team had two high draft prospects," Paulsen said. "Scouts starting coming to practice and games, and I started hitting the ball really well. I started getting calls, and the Georgia Tech coaches (told Riginos), 'If you are not going to come we'll take him.' "

Paulsen entered his senior year a mid-major Division I prospect at best, thinking about junior college. He ended with a scholarship offer from Clemson, the program he dreamed about playing for since he attended the 2002 College World Series with his 14-year-old travel squad, in awe of Khalil Greene and "his white cleats."

The baseball growth started a new chapter with what had been an absent father, which Riginos blames on his own "immaturity" as a young father.

"It has been unbelievable to coach my son," said Riginos, who became a father for the fourth time Tuesday when his wife, Shaileen, delivered the couple's third child. "We have become a lot closer.

"It's been a blessing. The first part of his life we didn't see each other on an everyday basis; now we are talking about different things, personal things, father-son things.''

The reunion could soon being drawing to a close.

Paulsen figures to be drafted in the first 10 rounds in June, and with junior leverage, will likely be offered a six-figure signing bonus. The majority of draftees in that situation forego their final year of eligibility.

Clemson is hoping Paulsen will consider returning with Riginos present and the majority of the roster returning.

"I don't know too much really," Paulsen said of his draft stock. "I have gotten a few calls. I'm just waiting to see what happens.

"I have not ruled out coming back at all."

Reach Travis Sawchik at tsawchik@postandcourier.com and check out his Clemson blog at www.postandcourier.com/blogs/tiger_tracks