Cooper Ingle – Syndication Server

Clemson baseball gets swept by Notre Dame

Clemson baseball was swept by Notre Dame on Sunday, giving the Tigers their fifth loss in the past six games.

Clemson baseball suffered its fifth loss in the past six games on Sunday after getting swept by No. 13 Notre Dame.

In the 3-9 loss to the Fighting Irish, third baseman Max Wagner led the Tigers in hits with two, one of which was a home run in the third inning that gave Clemson its first run of the game.

With Sunday’s loss, Clemson now moves to 19-12 on the year after starting 14-0. The Tigers are also 0-4 in ACC series and have the worst conference record in the Atlantic Divison, possessing a 2-9 record against ACC opponents.

Head coach Monte Lee and his team will look to get out of their slump on Tuesday when they travel to Greenville, South Carolina, to face off against USC Upstate.

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Tigers bite Dawgs to remain undefeated against SEC

Clemson, S.C. – The Tigers have struggled the first three series of ACC play, but they moved to 4-0 against the SEC with a 4-3 victory over Georgia Tuesday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Billy Barlow got the start for the Tigers and was strong …

Clemson, S.C. — The Tigers have struggled the first three series of ACC play, but they moved to 4-0 against the SEC with a 4-3 victory over Georgia Tuesday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Billy Barlow got the start for the Tigers and was strong throwing five strikeouts. Bartlow went five innings and only gave up three hits, one run and one earned run.

Georgia took the lead in the first with a solo home run off the roof in right field.

Clemson bounced back with back to back solo home runs from Cooper Ingle and Blake Wright in the bottom of the first.

The Tigers added another run in the third thanks to some hustle from Wright. With one out Wright turned on the burners for a double and then dove into third on a passed ball. A sacrifice fly by Max Wagner scored Wright to put the Tigers up 3-1.

Max Wagner hit a solo home run in the sixth to put the Tigers up 4-1.

In the top of the seventh Georgia’s Parks Harber hits a two-run home run out of the Chapman Grandstands.

With the win Clemson moved to 19-9 on the season. The Tigers open a series at Notre Dame Friday at 5 PM.

Clemson responds with bounce-back win over Winthrop

Behind a five-run second inning and a stellar start from Ricky Williams, No. 20 Clemson cruised to a 10-2 victory over Winthrop at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Wednesday night. After Tuesday’s 16-7 loss to Coastal Carolina, Clemson manager Monte Lee …

Behind a five-run second inning and a stellar start from Ricky Williams, No. 20 Clemson cruised to a 10-2 victory over Winthrop at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Wednesday night.

After Tuesday’s 16-7 loss to Coastal Carolina, Clemson manager Monte Lee told The Clemson Insider that he wanted to see how his team would respond. The Tigers responded by pounding out 12 hits en route to a bounce-back win, which was delayed by 54 minutes due to lightning in the area.

While Clemson’s bats woke up Wednesday, it was able to do so behind the pitching of Williams.

The sophomore right-hander, who hails from Lexington (S.C.) made his second-career start on Wednesday and pitched an absolute gem. After navigating through a shaky first inning, which culminated in Clemson shortstop Benjamin Blackwell gunning down a runner at the plate, Williams (1-0) settled in.

In five innings, Williams tallied three strikeouts and allowed just two hits. He was pulled in favor of Rocco Reid after throwing 67 pitches on the evening.

Reid and Ty Olenchuk both pitched clean innings out of the pen, while Geoffrey Gilbert surrendered a two-run home run. In a non-save chance, Ryan Ammons entered in the top of the ninth and shut the door on Winthrop.

Prior to the lightning delay, all nine of Clemson’s batters reached base safely. All of Clemson’s starters also recorded a hit.

After leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, the Tigers couldn’t afford to do the same in the home half of the second. With the bases juiced, Tyler Corbitt (3-for-4) laced a ball right into the hole between third base and shortstop, scoring two runs.

Cooper Ingle, who is now hitting .405 on the season, followed up Corbitt’s two-run single with a two-run double of his own. Ingle’s 21st and 22nd RBIs of the season were aided by the ball hitting off the first base bag. He finished Wednesday’s contest with a hit, four walks and two RBIs in five plate appearances.

Clemson again loaded the bases in the bottom of the fourth inning, but just one run came to pass on a Dylan Brewer (1-for-5) RBI groundout. The Tigers would load the bases again in the bottom of the seventh after the 54-minute delay.

Prior to the delay, first baseman Bryar Hawkins (1-for-3) was the lone Clemson starter without a hit. That changed when he roped a single past a diving Winthrop second baseman Joey Tepper, scoring two runs.

Blackwell (1-for-4) added an RBI single, while Max Wagner (1-for-4) recorded an RBI on a fielder’s choice.

Clemson fared 1-1 during its mid-week homestand and will travel for its second conference series of the season against Pitt this weekend.

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Monte Lee, Cooper Ingle Tuesday Postgame

Clemson head coach Monte Lee and Cooper Ingle held press conferences after the Tigers’ loss to Georgia State. Watch the full press conferences on TCITV: Monte Lee Cooper Ingle

Clemson head coach Monte Lee and Cooper Ingle held press conferences after the Tigers’ loss to Georgia State.

Watch the full press conferences on TCITV:

Monte Lee

Cooper Ingle

Clemson baseball sees spike in opening-weekend attendance

There’s a long way to go, but support for Clemson’s baseball team didn’t wane on the opening weekend of what will be a critical season for Monte Lee and his program. In fact, attendance at Doug Kingsmore Stadium for the Tigers’ sweep of Indiana was …

There’s a long way to go, but support for Clemson’s baseball team didn’t wane on the opening weekend of what will be a critical season for Monte Lee and his program.

In fact, attendance at Doug Kingsmore Stadium for the Tigers’ sweep of Indiana was among the highest it’s been for an opening series in the last handful of years.

The three-game series drew a total of 15,404 fans with Saturday’s paid attendance of 5,695 being the largest of the weekend. In the last seven years, only the crowds for Clemson’s series against William and Mary to open the 2018 season, which drew 16,179 fans, were collectively larger for an opening weekend.

Home attendance last season was an outlier since it was capped at 1,280 fans for each game (roughly 20% of the stadium’s 6,272-seat capacity) in response to the coronavirus pandemic, making this season the first since 2020 that attendance hasn’t been restricted at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Friday’s season opener drew a crowd of 5,279 while 4,430 fans attended Sunday’s series finale.

“It’s awesome,” catcher Cooper Ingle said. “Last year, we had I think around 30% capacity in the stadium, which it’s still pretty cool getting into the college atmosphere. When I was in high school, the most we’d get was maybe 800 or 900 for a massive game. It’s really nerve wracking once you first get out there, but seeing 5,000 or 6,000 people in the stands, it’s surreal. It’s a really awesome thing and a great experience to take in.”

That 2020 season, which was eventually canceled because of the pandemic, Clemson had a total attendance of just 13,358 for its opening home series against Liberty. Clemson’s total attendance for Lee’s first home series as the Tigers’ head coach against Maine in 2016 was 14,685. The next year, with Clemson coming off an NCAA Tournament berth in Lee’s debut season, the Tigers drew 15,282 fans for their first three home games against Wright State, a number that continued to climb at the beginning of the ‘18 season.

Yet despite Clemson coming off a fifth-place finish in the ACC’s Atlantic Division and its first losing season in more than six decades, attendance on opening weekend picked back up this year after the recent dropoff, particularly among students early in the series.

According to a breakdown of ticket sales obtained by TCI through the university, 1,103 students attended Friday’s opener. University employees accounted for 66 tickets while 482 single-game tickets were sold for that game. That’s in addition to the roughly 3,000 season tickets bought for each game, according to a team spokesperson.

On Saturday, the number of student identification cards scanned for entry increased to 1,124. School employees accounted for 103 tickets while 911 single-game tickets were sold.

Single-game ticket buyers made up the majority of the non-season tickets for Sunday’s finale (653). Student attendance dwindled to 315 while 42 employee tickets were purchased.

Clemson finished off a sweep of the Hoosiers with a walk-off win in extra innings Sunday, capping a strong weekend for both the team and fans that watched it all unfold in person. The Tigers outscored IU 33-8 in the series, which included a 19-4 rout Saturday.

“Another tremendous crowd here today,” Lee said following Sunday’s game. “It’s just great to have our fans here supporting the guys. Just an outstanding atmosphere, and you could certainly feel the crowd in all of those big moments. And we certainly had a lot of them throughout the course of the game.”

Clemson will continue its eight-game homestand to start the season Tuesday against Lee’s former team, College of Charleston, before hosting Hartford beginning Friday.

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This Clemson sophomore is the ‘best hitter in this program’

Statistically, first baseman Caden Grice is the most dangerous hitter returning to Clemson’s baseball team from last season. But in the opinion of Clemson coach Monte Lee, the best pure hitter on the Tigers’ roster is a lesser-known sophomore who’s …

“If you said right now, ‘You get to pick who’s the best hitter in the program,’ it’s Cooper Ingle,” Lee said. “Cooper Ingle is the best hitter in this program based on what he’s done this fall.”

A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Ingle was a part of Clemson’s 2021 signing class and played in 10 games as a true freshman. He hit just .063 in 16 at-bats. So how has a player who had such a limited role a season ago morphed into what Lee believes is the best hitter on the team?

Lee said Ingle has been flashing his potential at the plate ever since arriving on campus before the 2021 season. Ingle impressed two falls ago, too, but the 5-foot-10, 185-pounder suffered an injury that forced him to miss the first few weeks of last season.

Otherwise, Lee said, Ingle might have had a more significant impact as a newcomer.

“We felt like Coop was going to be a piece of the puzzle last year for us,” Lee said. “Once the season started and he was out at the beginning of the season, it just put him behind. And, honestly, it’s very hard once the season starts. Just imagine what it’s like to step in there and face ACC pitching when you haven’t had any reps. We can’t get guys reps against live arms once the season starts.”

But Ingle is healthy heading into this season, and he’s duking it out with third-year sophomore Jonathan French to be the starting catcher. French and Adam Hackenberg split catching duties a season ago, but Hackenberg has moved on to the professional ranks after being drafted by the Chicago White Sox over the summer.

French, who started 25 games at catcher last season, has the edge in experience. But Lee said Ingle is “in the mix” at the position, at least in part, because of his bat.

“We haven’t played a season yet, but in 60-plus at-bats in the fall, Cooper Ingle was the best hitter in the ballpark,” Lee said.

Lee also didn’t rule out another platoon situation between his top two catchers, who also give the Tigers versatility should they need it. French, who hit .248 in 31 games last season, also started two games at designated hitter a season ago while Ingle started four games – two at catcher, one in left field and one as the designated hitter.

Ingle could even play some second base in a pinch, but don’t be surprised to see the one that’s not behind the plate still in the lineup as the DH, Lee said. Clemson is less than three weeks from opening the new season against Indiana on Feb. 18 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

“Both of those guys certainly warrant an opportunity to be in the lineup,” Lee said. “We feel very good about those two guys. That’s certainly a battle.”

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Tigers blast Blazers 20-8 in scrimmage

Clemson took control early on in Saturday’s fall scrimmage at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, overtaking the UAB blazers 20-8. A six-run second inning secured the exhibition win for the Tigers with big-time hits from both catcher Cooper Ingle and outfielder …

Through fourteen innings of play, Clemson put together 20 runs on 19 hits with 5 homers and 2 errors along with putting fourteen different Tigers on the mound.

“It was just a great day of baseball for us,” head coach Monte Lee told The Clemson Insider. “To be able to play fourteen innings against somebody else. Really appreciate UAB coming up to play us here and I thought the guys played really really well. Thought we threw the ball really well, you know, had an inning or two where we had some mishaps and we gave them too many free 90’s, but overall, I thought our pitching staff did a great job and we swung the bats extremely well. A lot of quality at-bats, competitive at-bats.”

“Defensively, I thought we played really well. Ran the bases really hard, a lot of dirt ball reads, first to thirds, and just did a good job on the bases. Still a lot of areas to improve on, but we got a chance to play every position player who was healthy and available, and we threw fourteen different pitchers today. All in all, I thought we did great.”

The Tigers got on the board first thanks to a leadoff homer to right field by sophomore Cooper Ingle along with a two-run bomb also to right field from Chad Fairey. Clemson’s bats continued to stay hot into the second, tacking on six runs, three of which came from Fairey’s deep shot to right center field.

Clemson tacked on another three runs thanks to RBI singles from Tyler Corbitt, Chad Fairey, and J.D. Brock.

Bryar Hawkins struck again for the Tigers in the eleventh inning, hitting Clemson’s fourth homer of the day, good for two runs. Dylan Brewer tacked on another run with a solo bomb to right center field along with Blake Wright’s 3 RBI double and Jonathan French’s RBI double to round out the scoring in the fourteenth.

The Blazers attempted to answer in the second with two runs, the tenth with four, and once again with a homer by Josh Sears in the twelfth, but Clemson ultimately came away with the exhibition victory with a final score of 20-8.

“I think we set the tone early… I think there in the first inning being able to get on the board in the fashion that we did set the tone for the whole day and all in all, just really swung the bats well,” Lee said. “I was really pleased to see that.”

Clemson plays its second and final scrimmage of the fall season against outside competition at Auburn on Saturday, Oct 23 with first pitch scheduled for noon.