Max Wagner – Page 3 – Syndication Server

Clemson moves past No. 25 Wofford for latest mid-week victory

Clemson’s offense set the tone. The bullpen took care of the rest. And the Tigers added another mid-week victory to the win column. Behind the bats of Max Wagner and Tyler Corbitt, Clemson (28-14, 6-11 ACC) pounded out 16 hits, as the Tigers cruised …

Clemson’s offense set the tone. The bullpen took care of the rest.

And the Tigers added another mid-week victory to the win column.

Behind the bats of Max Wagner and Tyler Corbitt, Clemson (28-14, 6-11 ACC) pounded out 16 hits, as the Tigers cruised to a 17-4 win over No. 25 Wofford on Wednesday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Clemson got five shutout innings out of the bullpen before Nick Hoffman gave up a run in the top of the eighth. After Wednesday’s starter Nick Clayton lasted just two innings, Jay Dill combined with relievers Ty Olenchuck, Austin Gordon, Nick Hoffman and Jackson Lindley to allow just one run on four hits with six strikeouts and two walks.

Clemson got the scoring starting in the home half of the first. With two outs, Corbitt belted a two-run triple into the left-center field gap. Clemson’s third triple of the season allowed the Tigers to take a quick 2-0 lead.

That lead wouldn’t even last a half-inning, though. Wofford quickly rallied back with three runs on three hits to take a 3-2 advantage in the top of the second inning.

Corbitt (3-for-3) would later add his eighth home run of the season to extend Clemson’s lead to 10-3. A double shy of hitting for the cycle, Corbitt was replaced in left field after homering in the bottom of the fourth.

Getting another crack at a mid-week start, Clayton worked around trouble in the first inning, but the sophomore right-hander played with fire when he took the bump an inning later and got burned.

Clayton was pulled after two innings of work, in which he allowed three runs on four hits with one walk and zero strikeouts.

Following Wednesday’s outing, Clayton’s season ERA is now up to 6.16. He was relieved by Dill, who pitched two scoreless innings out of the bullpen. Dill’s clean outing allowed Clemson to take back control of Wednesday afternoon’s game.

Clemson was able to steal a run on a Benjamin Blackwell (2-for-4) infield single in the bottom of the second inning. Wofford’s catcher Cameron Gill made a tough throw that was dropped by the first baseman John Dempsey. Then, Dylan Brewer raced home from third base and scored as Dempsey’s throw home sailed a bit high, allowing the Tigers to knot the game at 3 apiece.

Cooper Ingle (2-for-3) hit one to dead center to give Clemson a 5-3 lead. Ingle’s sixth home run of the season went 104 MPH off the bat and traveled 399 feet, giving Clemson its second lead Wednesday. A lead which they’d never surrender.

Bryar Hawkins (1-for-5) tacked onto Clemson’s lead with a two-out RBI double in the home half of the third. The Tigers continued to tack on runs an inning later, as Wagner, who is in the midst of an “unreal” tear, added two more RBIs.

Blake Wright (2-for-6) would later single home two runs with the bases loaded, which was followed up by a three-run blast off the bat of Wagner. The sophomore infielder out of Green Bay (Wisc.) added a solo shot in the home half of the seventh inning.

Freshman infielder David Lewis later added the second home run of his collegiate career

Wagner, who is perhaps one of the nation’s hottest hitters at the moment, now has nine home runs in his last eight games. He finished Wednesday’s contest 3-for-5 with two home runs and six RBIs.

He’ll look to continue that hot streak as Clemson, which has now won nine of its last 11 games, will travel to Louisville this weekend for a three-game set with the Cardinals.

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Wagner in midst of ‘unreal’ tear for Clemson baseball

It was suggested to Blake Wright following Clemson’s win over Florida State on Sunday that the Tigers’ second baseman – and No. 3-hole hitter – might currently have the best spot in the lineup. He didn’t disagree. “Having Cooper (Ingle) in front of …

He didn’t disagree.

“Having Cooper (Ingle) in front of me and Max (Wagner) behind me is special because you know someone’s going to come through,” Wright said.

It would be hard to find anyone in college baseball that’s done that more the last couple of weeks than Wagner.

There are hot streaks, and then there’s whatever Clemson’s power-hitting third baseman is on. In the Tigers’ last six games, Wagner is batting .434 (10 of 23) with seven home runs and 15 RBIs. His slugging percentage over that span is north of 1.550 while his OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) is hovering around 2.000.

Wagner has belted five of those homers in Clemson’s last four ACC games. The tear started with a three-run shot in the series-clinching finale at Wake Forest and included a pair of long balls in each of the Tigers’ first two games against Florida State last weekend.

One of those was a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning of Friday’s series opener, putting Clemson on its way to a 6-4 win.

“That was the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Wagner said.

The Tigers’ cleanup hitter drove in two of the team’s three runs with a pair of solo homers in Clemson’s one-run loss Saturday, bringing his home-run total for the season to 17. Wagner nearly had another one in his first-at bat of Sunday’s series finale when he tagged a laser off the wall to the opposite field in the second inning. He settled for a double.

“He’s been unreal for us,” Clemson coach Monte Lee said. “He’s killing it right now. He’s maybe the best player in our league right now. He plays great defensively, and he’s swinging the bat exceptionally well. He’s stepped up for us big-time. Hitting the ball to all fields. He’s a phenomenal player.”

His recent performances earned him not only ACC Player of the Week honors but also a national player of the week nod from Collegiate Baseball. Wagner is third in the ACC in home runs and leads the league in slugging percentage (.851) all while maintaining a .366 average, tied for 10th in the conference. He also ranks in the top 10 in RBIs (47) and on-base percentage (.494).

Wagner said he can’t remember being on a streak quite this sizzling at any point during his career. As for what’s led to it, Wagner said he’s tried to keep his approach simple.

“Just trying to hit the ball hard and swing at strikes,” Wagner said. “I’ve been doing that and just trying to follow along with that. The production has been there but just keep working on it and try to get this team a win.”

Clemson (26-14, 6-11 ACC) has done that seven times in its last nine games as it tries to stay in contention for a spot in next month’s ACC Tournament. A series at Louisville awaits this weekend, but Wagner and the rest of the Tigers will first look to keep their momentum going tonight against Presbyterian at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

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Wagner named ACC Player of the Week

GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Clemson sophomore third baseman Max Wagner has been selected the Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball Player of the Week for April 25, while Pitt junior righthander Billy Corcoran was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week. …

ACC baseball weekly honors are determined by a select 15-member media panel and announced on Mondays throughout the regular season.

Wagner had one of the best slugging weeks in Clemson school history by going 8-for-19 (.421) with six home runs, one double, 10 RBIs, eight runs, three walks against only one strikeout, a 1.421 slugging percentage and .500 on-base percentage in leading the Tigers to a 4-1 record in five games, four of which were against top-10 teams.

On Tuesday at No. 10 Georgia, the Green Bay, Wisconsin, native hit a homer in Clemson’s 8-4 win and added another home run against East Tennessee State on Wednesday. In the three-game series against No. 9 Florida State, he hit four combined home runs in the first two games.

With Clemson trailing No. 9 Florida State 4-2 on Friday, Wagner hit a grand slam on an 0-2 pitch, his second long ball of the game, in the eighth inning to give the Tigers a 6-4 win. On Saturday, he hit two home runs for the second game in a row, upping his homer streak to five consecutive games, tying a school record.

Pitt’s Corcoran allowed just four baserunners in seven innings pitched with eight strikeouts in Sunday’s 9-4 win at No. 4 Miami.

Corcoran won his fourth-straight start, a stretch that includes three wins over top-five teams (then-No. 5 Louisville and then-No. 5 Virginia prior to Sunday). The Milmont Park, Pennsylvania, native racked up 26 strikeouts and issued just two walks while working a combined 22 innings in those three outings.

Wagner’s hot streak continues Saturday

Max Wagner belted his 16th and 17th home runs of the season against Florida State on Saturday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Unfortunately, the sophomore infielder did so in a losing effort. Wagner and Blake Wright hit back-to-back home runs in the home …

Max Wagner belted his 16th and 17th home runs of the season against Florida State on Saturday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Unfortunately, the sophomore infielder did so in a losing effort.

Wagner and Blake Wright hit back-to-back home runs in the home half of the first inning, which gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Clemson would hold that lead until the fifth inning, but the Tigers wouldn’t score again until Wagner hit his second home run of the game, a solo shot into the Chapman Grandstands in left field to tie the game at three apiece.

Florida State would regain the lead in the top of the seventh inning, but alas Wagner did not have another home run in him. For a long stretch of games and the season, Wagner has shown such fire promise for the Tigers and is now hotter than ever at the plate.

This hot streak hasn’t kept Wagner from the goal, to get a win and the Tigers are hungrier than ever to win this series against Florida State on Sunday.

“Production has been there, just trying to keep working on it and try to give this team a win,” he said following the loss Saturday.

Lee, Ammons, Wagner Postgame

Clemson head coach Monte Lee talks about the Tigers comeback win over Florida State. Max Wagner, who hit two home runs including a grand slam, and Ryan Ammons talk about the big win over the Noles. Monte Lee Wagner and Ammons

Clemson head coach Monte Lee talks about the Tigers comeback win over Florida State. Max Wagner, who hit two home runs including a grand slam, and Ryan Ammons talk about the big win over the Noles.

Monte Lee

Wagner and Ammons

Clemson’s offense breaks out, pitching concerns still linger midway through ACC slate

Clemson’s ACC baseball season got a much-needed jolt over the weekend, but do the Tigers have enough pitching to make a postseason push in the last month of the season? That’s still the most pressing question facing the Tigers with the first half of …

Clemson’s ACC baseball season got a much-needed jolt over the weekend, but do the Tigers have enough pitching to make a postseason push in the last month of the season?

That’s still the most pressing question facing the Tigers with the first half of the conference slate in the books. Clemson (22-13, 4-10 ACC) ended it on perhaps its highest note of the season so far, taking two out of three at No. 23 Wake Forest for its first league series win.

“Really proud of our guys, the way that we fought and the way that we swung the bats (Sunday),” Clemson coach Monte Lee said.

Those bats nearly carried the Tigers to a sweep. Clemson combined to score 19 runs over the final two games of the series with Max Wagner and Caden Grice providing most of the fireworks in the series finale.

Tabbed as a preseason All-American by some publications, Grice (.245 average, six HR, 21 RBIs) has struggled to find a rhythm at the plate for much of the season. But the Tigers’ power-hitting sophomore launched two home runs Saturday and drove in three runs. Meanwhile, Wagner continued his power surge with another homer – his 11th of the season – and four RBIs in Clemson’s 10-8 win.

“That one felt really good all around,” Grice said of the offense’s performance Sunday. “We had 13 hits and scored 10 runs. On offense, you really couldn’t ask for a better day than that.”

Yet the Tigers had one less than 24 hours earlier when the lineup pounded out 15 hits to rally from a 9-2 deficit in Saturday’s game. Clemson plated five runs in the seven and eighth innings to send it to extras before Wake Forest notched a 12-9 victory in 10 innings.

The Tigers could have used a win there, too, since there’s still plenty of work to do if Clemson hopes to not only avoid missing an NCAA regional for the second straight season but also being left out of the ACC Tournament, which is limited to 12 teams (highest conference winning percentages regardless of division). Since that 14-0 start, Clemson is just 8-13 in its last 21 games with series losses to Miami, Pittsburgh, North Carolina State and Notre Dame. Clemson has the second-worst record of any ACC team in league play and is just one game in the win column above Boston College – a team that’s lost 15 of its first 18 ACC games – at the bottom of the Atlantic Division standings.

In other words, Clemson, which sits at No. 46 in the latest RPI rankings, needs to start racking up wins in a hurry if it wants to be part of any postseason, which means the Tigers need to get something figured out on the mound Saturday and Sunday.

Mack Anglin (3.18 earned run average) helped Clemson get off on the right foot against Wake Forest in Friday’s series opener with another strong outing. The sophomore right-hander hurled six scoreless innings to combine with Geoffrey Gilbert for a 1-0 shutout, but it’s the remainder of the weekend that’s been problematic for the Tigers’ rotation.

Nick Hoffman and Nick Clayton, the Tigers’ usual Saturday and Sunday starters, both have ERAs north of 5 on the season. And neither has been working deep into games, putting plenty of stress on the Tigers’ bullpen.

The relievers answered the bell Sunday after Clayton lasted just one inning, his third straight start working fewer than four frames. Clemson faced a 3-0 deficit once Clayton’s day was done, but five Tiger relievers held Wake Forest’s offense at bay long enough for the offense to help out. Lee called Jackson Lindley the “MVP” of the day after the right-hander held the Demon Deacons scoreless over the final 2 ⅓ innings to preserve the win.

“I just tried to go out there and be the biggest competitor on the field,” said Lindley, who didn’t allow a hit and struck out three. “Go out there and be aggressive, throw strikes and put myself in a good place to win.”

Lee didn’t stick with the same two starters for the series’ final two games. After hinting that a change to the rotation could be coming earlier in the week, Lee gave freshman Jay Dill his first career start in place of Hoffman on Saturday. But the bullpen was taxed for nine innings after the young right-hander gave up seven earned runs in Wake Forest’s first-at bat. The Demon Deacons combined to score 13 runs in the first four innings of the series’ last two games.

Clemson’s team ERA now sits at 4.45 on the season, though that’s tame compared to how the Tigers’ arms have collectively performed against ACC competition. Clemson has a 6.31 ERA in league play, fourth-highest in the conference.

It won’t get any easier for the Tigers either. Next up is a road trip Tuesday to take on No. 14 Georgia followed by another midweek game Wednesday against East Tennessee State. Then Clemson will host Florida State, winners of four straight, beginning Friday.

With series against No. 11 Virginia, Georgia Tech and Boston College still on the schedule, too, Lee could make more tweaks on the mound. He recently mentioned midweek starter Billy Barlow (4.40 ERA in 10 appearances) and fellow freshman Casey Tallent (2.70 in 16 ⅔ innings of relief) as viable candidates to potentially get a start on the weekend.

Clemson doesn’t have any more time to waste.

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Clemson cruises to midweek win over Upstate

GREENVILLE – Clemson’s baseball team repeated its midweek result Tuesday, giving the Tigers another chance to try to build some much-needed momentum. Clemson put up a crooked number early to propel itself to an 11-2 win over USC Upstate at Fluor …

GREENVILLE – Clemson’s baseball team repeated its midweek result Tuesday, giving the Tigers another chance to try to build some much-needed momentum.

Clemson put up a crooked number early to propel itself to an 11-2 win over USC Upstate at Fluor Field. The win was the Tigers’ first since notching a victory over a top-25 Georgia team exactly one week earlier, but that didn’t carry over to the weekend as Clemson got swept at Notre Dame by a combined score of 21-5.

After scoring their most runs since plating 14 against North Carolina State on April 1, the Tigers (20-12 overall) desperately need to keep the good vibes going when they travel to Wake Forest on Friday if they realistically hope to make a run at a postseason berth. Clemson, which has yet to win an ACC series, is approaching the midway point of the conference slate with the worst league record (2-9).

For one night at least, Upstate (18-15) provided a remedy for Clemson’s ailments.

The Tigers used a five-run second inning to put them on their way to a season sweep of the Trojans, who’ve lost six straight. Ben Blackwell, Cooper Ingle and Tyler Corbitt each drove in runs in the frame while Max Wagner provided the highlight of the inning with an RBI triple to the 420-foot notch in center.

Clemson finished with 14 hits against seven Upstate pitchers. Blackwell went 3-for-3 and scored four runs from the leadoff spot while Wagner finished a homer shy of the cycle as part of a four-hit, two-RBI night. The top four in the Tigers’ lineup combined to go 11-for-19 and drove in all but three of Clemson’s runs.

It was more than enough support for freshman right-hander Billy Barlow, who worked around some trouble in the third inning. Upstate cut into Clemson’s 6-0 lead in the third by plating a pair of two-out runs using the help of a double, a hit batter and an infield single, but catcher Cooper Ingle picked off Jace Rinehart at first to limit the Trojans’ damage in the frame.

It was the final inning for Barlow, who allowed one earned run on four hits while striking out four. But the work for the Tigers’ young arms was just getting started.

Three more freshmen – Casey Tallent, Austin Gordon and lefty Rocco Reid – threw innings in relief. Talent (1-0) faced just one over the minimum in two innings with three punchouts to earn his first win of the season. Gordon and Reid followed with an inning of relief apiece, combining to yield just one hit before Clemson coach Monte Lee made an interesting call to the bullpen.

Right-hander Nick Hoffman, who’s been in the weekend rotation all season, came on to work the eighth on just two days’ rest. Hoffman plunked the first batter he faced before retiring the next three, throwing 18 pitches in his only inning of work. Caden Grice then closed it out with just his fifth appearance of the season and induced a double play to help himself face the minimum in the ninth.

Upstate starter Nate Payne (0-1) was pegged with the loss after allowing one run on three hits in just one inning.

This story will be updated.

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Wagner’s big response to Northeastern

Max Wagner’s third home run of the season was the icing on the cake to Clemson’s big fifth-inning response to Northeastern on Friday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The infielder out of Green Bay (Wisconsin) launched a two-run home run to the Chapman …

Max Wagner’s third home run of the season was the icing on the cake to Clemson’s big fifth-inning response to Northeastern on Friday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

The infielder out of Green Bay (Wisconsin) launched a two-run home run to the Chapman Grandstands to help give Clemson a 7-2 lead.

The Tigers would hang on to win 9-6 with Wagner’s homer being the difference after a late-inning rally from Northeastern.

During the fifth inning, the Tigers came back from a tied 2-2 game and scored three runs before Wagner came to the plate. Wagner “wanted to see it up” and stuck with his usual approach and swing, then delivered a home run to left field allowing for both him and Cooper Ingle to score the last two runs of the inning putting the Tigers up at a satisfying 7-2.

Responding to the opponent has been an emphasis this year for the Tigers.

Wagner reiterated what his head coach, Monte Lee says, which is to “win the inning” and respond immediately. Wagner describes this year’s team as “foot on the gas all the time.”

They are not waiting for anybody or anything. And even with that said, Wagner and the rest of the team are not thinking about the triumph of their 13-0 record.

“We trust ourselves, we trust our teammates, we know we are going to get the job done,” he said. “We just stick to what we practice and trust what we are going to do on the field.”

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