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Clemson Evens Series With 8-5 Win Over Virginia
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Clemson evened the series with the Virginia baseball team with an 8-5 win Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd of 3,540 at Davenport Field. The attendance figure is a stadium record.
Clemson (18-5, 7-1 ACC), ranked as high as No. 5 nationally this week, scored six runs in the final three innings to break open a 2-2 game. Virginia (19-4, 6-2) saw its seven-game win streak come to an end.
Whit Mayberry (Fr., Alexandria, Va.) took the loss in relief for UVa and dropped to 0-1 this year. He worked 1.1 innings and allowed three earned runs, one hit and two walks. Clemson starting pitcher Will Lamb (3-0) notched the win after seven solid innings. He allowed two runs (one earned), five hits and two walks while striking out a pair. David Haselden tossed the final 1.1 innings to earn his second save.
Virginia starting pitcher Robert Morey (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.) fired six innings, allowing two earned runs, five hits and four walks while striking out seven.
Tyler Cannon (Sr., Pigeon Forge, Tenn.) had a pair of hits to extend his hit streak to 15-game hit streak. Kenny Swab (Jr., Kernersville, N.C.) added a pair of hits, including a solo home run, while Jarrett Parker (Jr., Stafford, Va.) also recorded two hits.
Virginia scored the game’s first run in the third inning. Stephen Bruno (Fr., Audubon, N.J.) led off the inning with a single to right field. He advanced two bases when Lamb made an errant pickoff throw to first base. Phil Gosselin (Jr., West Chester, Pa.) then lifted a sacrifice fly to left center to score the run.
The Tigers strung together four hits in the fifth inning to score a pair of runs and grab the lead. Chris Epps led off with a double to right and moved to third on Mike Freeman’s bunt single. Jeff Schaus then singled up the middle to tie the game. Kyle Parker bunted into a fielder’s choice at third base for the first out, but Wilson Boyd followed with a single to right to score Freeman, and both runners advanced on the throw to the plate. UVa avoided further damage on the following play, as Brad Miller flew out to right, and Dan Grovatt (Jr., Tabernacle, N.J.) cut down Parker at the plate to keep the deficit at 2-1.
Virginia knotted the score in the sixth inning. After the Cavaliers loaded the bases with none out, Steven Proscia (So., Suffern, N.Y.) grounded into a double play, with Gosselin scoring.
In the seventh, Clemson took advantage of a leadoff walk to take the lead again in the seventh. Epps drew a walk to start the inning and then stole second base one out later. He moved to third on a Schaus groundout and scored on a Mayberry balk.
Clemson added a pair of runs in the eighth. With one out, Miller was hit by a pitch. He stole second and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. John Hinson then walked, and Phil Pohl followed with a bloop single to center over the drawn-in infield to give the Tigers a 4-2 lead and move Hinson to third. Neal Davis (Sr., Baltimore, Md.) entered the game in relief, and Addison Johnson, on a squeeze play, popped up the bunt and it landed in no man’s land behind the mound for a single, scoring Hinson to push the Clemson advantage to 5-2.
The Cavaliers battled back for two runs of their own in the bottom of the eighth. UVa loaded the bases with two out, and John Hicks (So., Sandy Hook, Va.) came through with a two-run single to left, scoring Cannon and Grovatt.
Clemson padded its lead with three runs in the ninth inning, taking advantage of two UVa errors. All three Clemson runs against Davis were unearned.
Swab hit a solo home run to left-center on the first pitch of the Cavaliers’ half of the ninth inning. It was his second home run this season.