The Tigers ate their Wheaties before heading to the ballpark Tuesday night against Coastal Carolina. Clemson hitters combined for four homeruns, and starter Spencer Strider pitched 6.1 innings of no-hit baseball to lead the Tigers past Coastal 6-1 and avenge their loss in Conway over spring break.
Chris Williams got the scoring started with an absolute rocket to left that hit off the overhand in the Chapman Grandstands. It was his seventh homerun this season, and it gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
That was the extent of offensive production for either team until the bottom of the fifth inning. After Kyle Wilkie led things off with a walk, Jordan Greene hit his second homerun in as many games to give the Tigers their second hit and a 3-0 lead.
Logan Davidson then followed up with a solo shot of his own to put Clemson up 4-0. It was his fourth long-ball of the season.
Clemson’s starter Spencer Strider had a no-hitter going until the seventh inning when he gave up a single to Lee Sponseller. He pitched a total of 6.2 innings, giving up one run on two hits. He also struck out seven while walking only three.
He gave up two consecutive hits in the seventh to allow Coastal to score its first run of the game, and was pulled in favor of Alex Schnell.
Schnell pitched 1.1 innings and gave up no runs on one hit and a walk.
Clemson got the run right back in the bottom half of the frame with another homerun, this one by Grayson Byrd. It was Byrd’s fourth homerun of the year and his first since the three-homerun performance against Furman last month.
Greene and Seth Beer then combined to score another run to put Clemson up 6-1.
Schnell allowed the first two batters to reach in the top of the ninth, and Travis Marr entered the game to try and close the book on the Chanticleers. He was able to do just that, as he got two batters to pop up in foul territory and another to groundout.
Clemson managed to only get two hits that weren’t homeruns on the night, and only had six altogether. It was a season high for most homers hit in a single game, and it was enough to power them past the Chanticleers. However, the Tigers may need something other than the deep shot to battle the weather in South Bend, Indiana this weekend.
Clemson will play a three-game series against Notre Dame in South Bend this weekend. The first game of the series is Friday at 6:05 p.m.