The West Coast trips have been notorious for tripping up their Eastern time zone counterparts in all sports in the newly expanded ACC, but so far, so good for the Clemson Tigers, who just completed the road trip with a much-needed series win over fellow conference foe Stanford, followed by a Monday night victory over Santa Clara.
It’s not a secret how abysmal conference play has been for the Tigers. Clemson had yet to win an ACC series, alongside blowing a lead against quality competition in Coastal
Carolina and getting run-ruled by Wake Forest in a classified non-conference game. Coming into the Stanford series, it was now-or-never time for a program that has missed the NCAA tournament only three times in almost 40 years.
In game one, the bats woke up for the first time in a while. The Tigers scored nine runs on eight hits en route to the 9-3 opening game victory. It was really the first time Clemson’s Friday starter, Aidan Knaak, got the run support he needed. Knaak went five innings and gave up five hits, but the damage was limited to three runs. He added seven strikeouts to his final line. The real gem on the mound came in relief, though, with junior RHP Hayden Simmerson providing four innings of one-hit pitching to shut down the Cardinal offense.
Game two was a blown opportunity for Clemson to clinch the series and get their first opportunity at a conference sweep. After a fantastic seven-inning outing from Michael Sharman, the Tigers found themselves up 4-1 heading into the Stanford half of the eighth inning. With the bullpen called upon to close out the game, the Clemson staff gave up four runs in the inning to lose the lead, and the Tigers went on to lose game two, 5-4.
It was an anxious game three on Sunday for the Clemson faithful, as another series loss would deepen the hole for the program to climb out of. Fortunately, the bats came to play. Down 2-0 in the fourth inning, Jack Crighton led off with a home run, and Jason Fultz Jr. delivered a two-out RBI to tie the game at two. From here, the two teams traded blows until Clemson opened up the game with a five-run sixth inning, highlighted by a Stanford error and timely hitting. Up 9-5, the Tigers just needed their bullpen to clamp down and get to the finish line.
That’s exactly what they did. Relievers Dylan Harrison and Danny Nelson held Stanford off the scoreboard, and the Tigers scored three more insurance runs in the eighth to bring home the 12-5 win, clinching their first ACC series win. Clemson tallied 18 hits in the contest, their most all season.
The road trip wasn’t over on Sunday. The Tigers made one more stop on Monday night in Santa Clara to face the Broncos. Clemson jumped out early with an RBI single from Jacob Jarrell in the top of the first and added a second run on a sac-fly in the fourth. The Tiger pitching staff held Santa Clara in check until the bullpen entered in the sixth, and similar troubles as the weekend series emerged. Clemson went through three pitchers in the inning and gave up as many runs in the process, suddenly trailing 3-2.
Still down 3-2 in the eighth, it looked like Clemson was going to fail to muster enough offense yet again, but the Tigers would not go down that way. With two on and two out, Fultz Jr. delivered the biggest hit of the road trip for Clemson, a three-run homer that put the Tigers back in front, 5-3. Clemson brought home one more run, and despite giving that run back in the home half of the eighth, the Tigers held on for the much-needed 6-4 victory.
It was a good weekend overall for the Tigers, even with some outings being more dicey than others. Clemson needs all the wins it can get right now to get itself back into the ACC and NCAA picture. At 22-12 and 4-8 in conference play, the Tigers need to flip the switch in April to make a run at hosting a fourth consecutive NCAA tournament regional. Clemson hosts North Carolina at DKS in a huge showdown that the Tigers desperately need to strengthen their resume. First pitch Friday is set for 6 p.m.
