Over the weekend, the Clemson Tigers improved to 8-2 on the season, with wins in two of three games against in-state rival, No. 18 South Carolina.
On Friday night, the Gamecocks beat the Tigers 8-1 in Columbia. Clemson mustered only five hits in eight innings against starter Clarke Schmidt, brother of Clemson pitcher Clate Schmidt. Seth Beer put a home run over the right field fence to break the shutout in the ninth. The Tigers’ bats were scattered all night long with no more than one hit per inning. Beer had one-third of Clemson’s hits on the night (2) and improved his average to .393 on the season with a whopping .850 slugging percentage.
Charlie Barnes was the Tigers’ starting pitcher in Columbia and gave up only three earned runs in five innings pitched. Clemson committed three errors to give the Gamecocks three unearned runs and widen the deficit in the fifth inning to 6-0. Andrew Towns would give up two more runs in the eighth inning while getting only one out. Barnes’ record drops to 1-1 on the season after suffering the loss.
On Saturday, the two teams traveled to Fluor Field in Greenville to play in a neutral setting, although it certainly looked like Clemson had home field advantage. The Tigers had timely hits with runners on base to put up five runs against South Carolina. Clemson actually had less hits than on Friday, but they were benefitted by some walks and errors as well.
Head Coach Monte Lee shuffled the batting order around a little bit, switching Reed Rohlman and Eli White as well as moving Beer up to the number four spot with Weston Wilson and Chris Okey behind him at five and six.
Chase Pinder had yet another home run, to put the leadoff man at four for the year. Pinder also tripled and, surprisingly, so did the catcher, Chris Okey. Okey had three runs batted in (RBI) to put his total at 14 on the year. Reed Rohlman and Seth Beer also contributed with a hit and a run, each.
Clate Schmidt returned to the mound and showed where his younger brother Clarke gets his pitching from. Schmidt threw 5.1 scoreless innings, surrendering only one hit and four walks while fanning six batters. Pat Krall came in to get the long save, pitching 3.2 scoreless innings and also only giving up one hit.
It was an all-around fantastic performance for the Tigers’ defense as well, committing no errors and limiting mental mistakes.
Clemson completed the series win in Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Sunday, in front of a record 6,524 fans, by a score of 4-1. It was a team effort for the Tigers as six different players recorded hits.
Reed Rohlman extended his hitting streak to ten games and increasing his batting average to .351, just five points shy of his average from last season. In the third inning, Clemson put two on the board after a single from Pinder scored Adam Renwick and a double from Rohlman scored Pinder. They would get two more in the fourth when Andrew Cox hit a single just past the second baseman to score Chris Okey and Robert Jolly.
Redshirt freshman Alex Eubanks made his first career start on Sunday and pitched 7.2 innings of one-run baseball. He struck out eight while only walking one. Eubanks’ strikeout-to-walk ratio is a team-best: 10:1 through 17 innings pitched. Eubanks moves to 2-1 on the year with a bright future ahead of him as a useful swingman, available as a starter or reliever. Junior lefty Alex Bostic came in to finish out the eighth and pitch the ninth, recording his first save and striking out two. Bostic touched 95 mph on his fastball, showing he has the stuff to blow it by hitters.
Clemson delivered South Carolina its first two defeats of the year and showed other teams nationwide that they can hang with the big boys.
The Tigers’ next game is Wednesday, March 9 at 4 p.m. in Doug Kingsmore against the Winthrop Eagles.
