The Tigers’ woes on the road continued after a weekend sweep at the hands of the Louisville Cardinals. The Tigers were outgunned 15-2 on Friday, 7-2 on Saturday and a close 9-8 on Sunday. 

Friday’s loss was the worst the Tigers have suffered so far this year. Clate Schmidt (5-2) suffered, lasting just two and a third innings while getting pounded for five runs on 10 hits, with a walk and zero strikeouts. Louisville continued the onslaught by routing the rest of the Tiger bullpen, including Jackson Campana who has normally played as a fielder this year, but was called upon to toe the rubber in the eighth inning. He gave up a walk and a single, which was the 15th run scored for the Cardinals.

In an interesting move, four Tiger pitchers combined to pitch only 1.2 innings of the game. Patrick Andrews came in to finish out the sixth, but he was unable to do so and was pulled for Alex Bostic. Bostic did not record an out before Paul Campbell came in to give up six more runs. By that time the game was well out of hand. 

Clemson was retired in order in four separate innings failing to get any offense whatsoever. The lineup was largely ineffective at everything other than drawing walks, which didn’t help their inability to get timely hits. Seth Beer was held hitless for just the second time this year, but so was most everybody else. 

Saturday was a classic “different day, same story” for Clemson. Once again, they were outhit and outpitched by the Cardinals. This time the Tigers’ lineup had plenty of hits, almost enough to match Louisville, but none of them came at the right time. 

Clemson put up runs in the second and fifth innings, but the Louisville lineup showed up ready for the Tigers’ pitching, ripping off eight hits and five runs (three earned) off of Clemson starter Charlie Barnes.

Pat Krall finished out the seventh inning, but not before giving up three more hits and a run to increase Louisville’s lead to four. Clemson committed two more errors, one by Jordan Greene (3B) and one by Chris Williams (1B). 

Sunday was Clemson’s best performance against the Cardinals even though they still came up short. Alex Eubanks and Pat Krall evenly split pitching duties, each of them going 4.1 innings. Both gave up seven hits, but Eubanks surrendered six runs (four earned) while Krall gave up three runs (two earned). 

Krall has had four straight appearances which may

have had an effect on his most recent appearances. His earned run average (ERA) is still under one with more than 42 innings pitched, but it has risen more than 30 points over his last three games. 

The defense was atrocious, committing five more errors to bring the season total to 56. Eli White continues to lead the team after making two more mistakes on Sunday, raising his total to 12 on the year. In Renwick’s limited

time at third base, he has continued to struggle at the hot corner as he made yet another error which resulted in an unearned run later in the inning. 

Clemson struck first in the hitting department putting up a quick three runs in the first inning off of two hits and an error. They continued to put up runs in the fifth, seventh and eighth innings, but the Cardinals kept hammering out hits to stay in the game. Eventually, the Tigers just couldn’t keep up.

A ground-rule double ended the game with two outs in the ninth. 

The Clemson Tigers will look to rebound during a 13 game homestand as they start on Tuesday against the Georgia Bulldogs at 6:30 p.m.