With the depth in the infield this season, Head Coach Monte Lee has been experimenting with the arrangement throughout the season. As a result, Grayson Byrd, who played third for the Tigers for the majority of last year, hasn’t seen the same action. Byrd worked his way back into the order for Tuesday’s game and hit three homeruns en route to a x-x Tiger victory.
Charleston Southern’s starter, Jart Bennett, did a good job of keeping Clemson’s offense in check early in the game. He struck out six batters in his 4.0 innings, and the only two hits he gave up were Byrd’s homeruns.
In the opposite dugout, Clemson starter Holt Jones pitched a gem in his first career start. Jones tossed 5.1 scoreless innings and gave up only two hits while striking out eight. He ran into a bit of trouble in the top of the sixth when he loaded the bases via two hits and a walk, and was pulled in favor of Travis Marr.
Marr, Mat Clark, Ryley Gilliam and Bo Gobin combined to pitch 3.2 innings, giving up a combined two hits.
Byrd hit his three homeruns in the second, fourth and seventh innings. Clemson only had two hits by players other than Byrd and he was responsible for all five of the Tigers’ runs.
The Tigers lacked production outside of Byrd and struggled to come up with a hit in the rare moments there were runners-in-scoring-position. They were 1-6 with RISP to be exact, and that one hit was Byrd’s three-run bomb in the fourth.
Clemson returns to action this weekend with another conference series against NC State. The first game is scheduled for Friday at 6:30 p.m.