Clemson’s bats overwhelm South Carolina’s bullpen to even series
Freshman pitchers came up big to give South Carolina baseball the series-opening win against Clemson on Friday.
On Saturday, the Gamecocks’ young bullpen came back down with a jolt, as the Tigers evened the set with an 11-5 victory.
Freshman starter Dylan Harley was far from unhittable, but after posting a 1.29 ERA over the last eight games, USC’s bullpen had a particularly rough day, surrendering seven runs and three homers at Fluor Field, while the Tigers (8-2) got RBIs from five different batters and all but one starter reached base.
“When you’re in the pen, you just gotta do your job, throw strikes. And you throw strikes, you get outs, and that’s all I got to say about that,” freshman reliever Brett Kerry said.
The loss snaps South Carolina’s win streak at eight games and sets up a decisive rubber match Sunday at Founders Park.
USC (8-2) seized its first and only lead early Saturday, when senior TJ Hopkins launched a two-run home run over the left-center field wall in the bottom of the first. But as with the rest of the game, any offense Carolina produced was immediately matched by Clemson.
“If you’re going to win, when you score, the other team needs to get a zero the next inning, and we’ve done that eight of the 10 games this year for the most part, so we just need to do a better job of that tomorrow,” Carolina coach Mark Kingston said.
In the top of the second, Tiger freshman Davis Sharpe walked and scored off a single from graduate student Jordan Greene, who then scored off a combined wild pitch and throwing error from the catcher. Harley’s day ended in the third, when Clemson senior Grayson Byrd doubled in a run and Sharpe had an RBI single.
South Carolina got a run back in the bottom of the third on a two-out RBI single from senior Jacob Olson, but Clemson asserted itself in the fourth. Sophomore reliever Parker Coyne gave up a two-run home run to sophomore Sam Hall, then surrendered another run on an RBI single for junior Kyle Wilkie, making it 7-3.
“Just relaxed more. It was more mental than anything, and just trusting in myself and the work that I put in,” Hall said of he and his teammate’s success after a frustrating Friday game.
South Carolina’s only offense for the rest of the day came from junior George Callil, who went 1-for-4 at the plate with a double and a pair of RBIs. Clemson’s bats, meanwhile, kept going. Sophomore Bryce Teodosio and junior Logan Davidson both went deep off USC’s bullpen to punctuate the outburst.
“Two-out hitting is just staying in the strike zone, taking good swings in the strike zone with runners on base, and it was really good to see us do that,” Clemson coach Monte Lee said. “When we’re coming up with two-out hits and putting together opportunities to score runs with two outs like we did today, that’s when your offense is really clicking on all cylinders.”
The Tigers were 7-of-15 at the plate with two outs on the day and got seven of their runs with two outs.
“That was the difference in the game. They did a better job, especially with two outs, of getting the big hit, and you gotta credit the other team’s pitchers. ... They made pitches today and we didn’t. That’s the bottom line,” Kingston said.
Next: South Carolina and Clemson are set to finish their series in Columbia on Sunday. First pitch at Founders Park is scheduled for noon.
This story was originally published March 2, 2019 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Clemson’s bats overwhelm South Carolina’s bullpen to even series."
