The No. 16 Clemson Tigers defeated Boston College 10-0 in a five-inning, run-rule victory at McWhorter Stadium on Saturday, thanks to a stellar performance from Valerie Cagle.
With the win, the Tigers took the series against Boston College, winning two out of three games, with the sole loss being on Friday when Boston College shut out the Tigers and won 4-0. Saturday’s game was the second of the series to only last five innings, the first being when Clemson defeated the Eagles 10-2 on Thursday.
During Saturday’s game, Cagle proved why she was the player of the year last season, as she scored two runs in two at-bats and had two hits and four RBIs.
Cagle really put the exclamation point on the game when she sent a three-run home run over the left-center field wall to give the Tigers the win. Her home run was the only one of the game. Infielder Arielle Oda spoke about Cagle’s importance to the team.
“She’s done so much for us,” Oda said. “Obviously, stats-wise, she’s been a great pitcher, a great hitter, fielder, everything, but we love her more as a player and as a person and how she’s grown, and we support her as we support everybody else on this team, and it’s just awesome to have somebody like that.”
The Tigers had a strong performance from their pitchers throughout the game, holding Boston College to just three hits. Clemson pitcher Brooke McCubbin earned her seventh win of the season during the game, where she pitched the first three innings. McCubbin allowed two hits, walked one batter and struck out a batter.
Senior pitcher Regan Spencer took over for the rest of the game, shutting down Boston College and allowing only one hit and walking one batter while striking out three.
“I started getting really used to the relief role, then it started to switch a little bit on me, but I feel really confident right now going into stuff,” Spencer said. “My defense has my back all the time, so because I’m not going to get a lot of strikeouts, they’ve really helped support me throughout, and it’s just been great to slowly, like, ease into this new role.”
The bats were hot for Clemson during the game, as the team had 14 hits through what would be just a five-inning matchup. The Tigers got on the board in the second inning courtesy of a triple from utility player Alex Brown, who knocked in Oda for a run. The Tigers scored in every inning of the game except for the first, with the fourth inning highlighting Clemson’s batting game as they scored five runs.
The Tigers are now 23-10 on the season and 7-4 in ACC play and will look to continue their momentum when they face Furman on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in McWhorter Stadium.
