As 90,000+ country music fans descended on Tiger Town for George Strait’s return to Death Valley, Clemson baseball left fans with a smile as the Tigers overcame losing game 1 to take its second ACC baseball series of the season over then #20 ranked Boston College. Clemson’s postseason odds are still not great, but every run has to start somewhere, and things are a little more optimistic around Doug Kingsmore after this weekend.
Friday started with more of the same, as BC jumped out early when Eagle outfielder/first baseman Nick Wang took freshman starting pitcher Dane Moehler yard in the first for a 1-0 lead. The Eagle tacked on 3 more runs in the seonc, but Clemson was able to get two back when a throwing error allowed Bryce Clavon to reach first with two outs and score Tyler Lichtenberge and Jason Fultz Jr. to score. BC took back the 2 runs in the top of the third, and while a 2 run bomb for Jacob Jarrell brought the Tigers within two runs, Clemson’s offense was never able to get anything else going. BC tacked on two more runs in the 9th for good measure and went on to win 8-4.
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Saturday’s game, however, finally gave Clemson fans something that we have been waiting all year for. The Tigers score 11 runs in the first inning, the best first inning in the Erik Bakich era. The explosive first inning and Michael Sharman going 6.0 innings with only 2 runs led to the Tigers run ruling BC 14-4, ending the game in the 7th inning and tying the series at 1-1.
Sunday started off similar to Friday, with BC Julio Solier scoring off of a throwing error to give the Eagles the early 1-0 lead, but this time the Tigers were able to hold strong and limit damage. In the seventh, Jarren Purify hit his first homer since returning from injury to cut BC’s lead to 3-2. In the 8th, Tryston McCladdie’s clutch single scored Jackson Moore and tied it up 3-3. On the play, Nate Savoie tried to score to give Clemson the lead, but was thrown out. Then Purify singled to score Jacob Jarrell and finally give Clemson a 4-3 lead. Hayden Simmerson shut down the Eagles in the top of the 9th, inducing a groundout and striking out the next two batter to clinch the series for the Tigers.
Clemson is still most likely in the outside looking in as far as the NCAA tournament is concerned, but Clemson still has some opportunity to ahead to play themselves into the field. It all starts tonight, as the Tigers head to Conway to face #8 Coastal Carolina. These two teams faced off back in March, when Clemson held a 9-3 lead going into the seventh in Doug Kingsmore Stadium. That game saw Clemson meltdown over the last three innings, including a controversial error committed by Jack Crighton at first when he was unable to comedown with a pop up as the umpire was in his way. Coastal would go on to win that game 11-9. The Chanticleers are 33-14 on the year and took 2 of 3 from Georgia Southern in Statesboro over the weekend. Last week, Coastal crushed #2 North Carolina 12-2 in a midweek trip to Chapel Hill. Tiger Righty Danny Nelson will face Coastal righty Jackson Smallets. First pitch is slated for 6:00 PM at Springs Brooks Stadium. The game can be seen on ESPN+ and heard on the Clemson Tigers Radio Network and Clemson Tigers App.
