Clemson’s baseball team once again got a short outing from its Sunday starter. So did Florida State.
That turned the teams’ series finale at Doug Kingsmore Stadium into a bullpen duel – one that tilted in the home team’s favor late to give the Tigers an all-important victory.
Clemson plated three runs in the eighth inning, helping the Tigers outlast the ninth-ranked Seminoles in an 8-5 win that saw the teams use 13 pitchers and combine for 10 errors. The win – the Tigers’ seventh in their last nine games – clinched Clemson’s second straight ACC series win, which also helps the Tigers (26-14, 6-11) keep pace in the race for a spot in next month’s ACC Tournament.
“A critical win for our team,” Clemson coach Montee Lee said. “During this time of year, it’s just a critical series. I think we know where we’re at and what we’ve got to do.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to put ourselves in position to play baseball as long as we can. You’ve got to win series at this point. Just really proud of our guys and the way we fought.”
The Tigers would still be on the outside looking in if the tournament started this week, though their two wins over FSU (24-15, 11-10) improved their conference winning percentage to .352. Duke, with its 8-13 ACC record (.380 win percentage), is slightly ahead of the Tigers for the final spot in the conference tournament for the time being after winning a series over Georgia Tech this weekend.
Clemson still has four conference series left starting with a trip to Louisville on Friday.
“The last two weekends were big,” said second baseman Blake Wright, who had two of Clemson’s six hits, both doubles. “I think we’ve been playing a lot better baseball of late. We’re just going to have to keep that rolling. Have some good opponents coming up.”
Lee made his second change to the rotation in as many days, giving the start to freshman Billy Barlow instead of Nick Clayton, who hadn’t gone deeper than the fourth inning in any of his previous three Sunday starts. It looked like Barlow might not last long after the Tigers’ usual midweek starter threw four innings in Clemson’s win over Georgia on Tuesday.
The right-hander needed 41 pitches to get through the Seminoles’ three-run first inning, one of which came around to score on shortstop Ben Blackwell’s throwing error that extended the frame. But Barlow needed just 31 pitches to get through the next two innings and returned to the mound to start the fourth before a hit batter and Tyler Martin’s two-out single ended his day.
Barlow finished with 82 more pitches after throwing more than 60 five days earlier. He scattered four hits, walked two and struck out five in the first weekend start of his career.
“He was on four full days of rest. He was certainly recovered enough to be able to start,” Lee said of Barlow. “We wanted to run somebody out there that had the ability to get through a lineup twice, and Billy has done that now several times over the course of this season. We felt like we was the right guy to run out there.”
Caden Grice got those runs back for Clemson in the bottom of the second with a three-run homer into the seats in left, helping chase FSU starter Carson Montgomery after an inning. But Clemson couldn’t muster much against reliever Wyatt Crowell, who held the Tigers to just two hits over the next five frames.
Meanwhile, Barlow’s early exit left the Tigers’ bullpen with more than four innings to work for the second straight day. But six Clemson relievers combined to yield just one earned run on four hits over the final 5 1/3 innings.
“After giving up a big inning in the first, if you give up one earned run for the rest of the game, you would sign up for that,” Lee said. “I would say the bullpen was outstanding.”
Fellow freshman Jay Dill kept FSU at bay for 1 ⅓ innings with some help from the Tigers’ rollercoaster defensive performance. Treyton Rank beat out Wright’s throw on a slow roller with two outs and two on in the top of the fifth, but first baseman Bryar Hawkins threw out Brett Roberts trying to score from second to keep the game knotted at 3.
The Seminoles got to Grice the next inning. The sophomore left-hander, making just his seventh relief appearance of the season, threw wide of first on Alex Toral’s leadoff bunt before issuing a walk. Jordan Carrion then cleared the bases with a double down the third-base line to end Grice’s day after retiring just one of the four batters he faced, leaving another freshman, Austin Gordon, to finish the inning.
Clemson’s first hit since the second came on Wright’s double to start the home half of the frame. Wright scored when Logan Lacey threw away Max Wagner’s grounder, and Wagner moved to third on Tyler Corbitt’s bunt, though Crowl fanned Grice and induced a popup from Dylan Brewer to strand him there.
Clemson brought on its fifth and sixth pitchers of the day after FSU’s one-out single in the seventh. Left-hander J.P. Labriola retired the only batter he faced before Corbitt chased down Colton Vincent’s drive toward the left-center gap to keep the Tigers’ deficit from growing.
Jackson Burmeister relieved Crowl in the home half of the frame but walked two of the three batters he faced, prompting FSU skipper Mike Martin Jr. to call on lefty Jonah Scolaro to face the heart of Clemson’s lineup. Scolaro got Cooper Ingle to fly out, but the Tigers drew even again when Wright delivered a two-out RBI double to left. The Seminoles intentionally walked Wagner to load the bases for Corbitt, who faced right-hander Davis Hare ahead 2-0 in the at-bat. But Corbitt grounded Hare’s first offering into a fielder’s choice to keep the game tied going to the eighth.
Clemson committed a pair of errors in the eighth, though a heads-up play by Wright after booting Jaime Ferrer’s grounder up the middle helped keep things even. Wright chased down the ball in the shallow outfield and nabbed Martin trying to advance to the third for the second out. Lefty Ryan Ammons came on and walked cleanup hitter James Tibbs but got Lacey swinging to preserve the tie.
“I think we just have a bunch of dogs in our bullpen that are all looking to get in there,” Grice said. “I know nobody’s afraid to be taken out, but nobody wants to be taken out. Everybody wants to keep going and keep rolling, but we all have trust in each other. And I think that’s the biggest thing.”
Clemson caught a break to begin its half of the frame when Grice reached on a dropped third strike. He advanced to third on Hawkins’ ensuing single and scored the go-ahead run on Hawkins’ stolen base. The Tigers tacked on two more insurance runs with the help of another error later in the inning, and Ammons (1-2) retired three of the four batters he faced in the ninth to polish off his first win of the season.
“We threw the ball very, very well today in my opinion. We didn’t help ourselves early in the game. Felt bad for Barlow in the first inning. We could’ve helped them a little bit there but ultimately we kept grinding it out. … We kept chipping away and won the back half of the game, and we won the series.”
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