The momentum Clemson’s baseball team built at the beginning of the season has come to a screeching halt in large part because of an offense that continued to scuffle Saturday.
The 15th-ranked Tigers dropped their opening series of ACC play with a 4-1 loss to No. 23 Miami at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. It was the fourth straight loss after a 14-0 start for Clemson, which has scored just five runs in the first two games of the series and nine during its skid.
Clemson (14-4, 0-2 ACC) had a season-low four hits Saturday – all singles – doing little to support a valiant effort by right-hander Nick Hoffman and five relievers to keep the Tigers close. Clemson will try to avoid the sweep in Sunday’s 1 p.m. series finale.
Hoffman settled in after giving up Jacob Burke’s solo home run to start the second inning, working around seven other hits to turn in his second-longest outing of the season. The sophomore right-hander tallied six strikeouts, finishing just one shy of a career-high in that department, in 5 ⅔ innings.
It looked as if it might be a quick sixth inning for Hoffman after he induced consecutive groundouts to start the frame, but a hit batter followed by Dorian Gonzalez Jr.’s single ended his day after 81 pitches. Freshman righty Jay Dill came on and uncorked a wild pitch on his second offering of the day, allowing Miami (13-5, 4-1) to score a go-ahead second run.
Dill got pinch hitter Zach Levenson to ground into a fielder’s choice to limit the Hurricanes’ damage to a single run in the inning, but Clemson wasted a golden opportunity to get at least one run back in the home half of the frame. A walk to Caden Grice and Dylan Brewer’s bunt single put two on for the Tigers and chased Miami right-hander Karson Ligon after 5 ⅓ innings.
Right-hander Gage Ziehl came on and got Blake Wright to pop out for the second out. Nine-hole hitter J.D. Brock worked a full count against Ziehl, fouling off pitch after pitch to stay alive. But Ziehl got Brock swinging on the 10th pitch of the at-bat to maintain Miami’s lead.
Clemson had other chances against Ligon, who began the day having allowed just four earned runs in 21 innings.
The Tigers answered Burke’s solo homer with a run in the fourth. Wagner, who had singled earlier in the frame and advanced to third on a wild pitch, scored when Brewer stole second and the throw down trickled into the outfield. But Ligon got Wright swinging to strand Brewer in scoring position.
Clemson again put multiple baserunners on with two outs in the fifth when Tyler Corbitt singled and Cooper Ingle reached on an error, but Bryar Hawkins grounded out to second to end the Tigers’ threat.
Clemson had just one hit in 13 at-bats with runners on and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. All those missed chances loomed large when Maxwell Romero Jr.’s two-run single in the seventh padded Miami’s lead.
Romero’s knock came after J.P. Labriola relieved Dill with one on and nobody out in the frame and struck out the first two batters he faced, but Clemson opted to intentionally walk the Hurricanes 3-hole hitter, Yohandy Morales. After a wild pitch moved Miami’s baserunners to second and third, Romero lined Labriola’s 2-2 offering into left to extend the Hurricanes’ lead to 4-1.
This story will be updated.