Clemson baseball snapped out of its funk in a big way.
The Tigers got a strong start from Austin Gordon and some of the timely hits that avoided it earlier in the week late Friday night. The result was a 5-2 win over No. 23 South Carolina at Doug Kingsmore Stadium to begin the rivalry series.
“Just liked the way we set the tone on the opening game of the series,” Clemson coach Erik Bakich said. “We know there’s a lot more weekend left to play.”
The Tigers, who ended their four-game losing streak and handed Carolina its first loss in the process, will try to take the series Saturday when it shifts to Fluor Field in Greenville. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
“We know what it’s like playing the Gamecocks,” third baseman Blake Wright said. “You forget about everything that’s happened. Every team goes through a tough stretch, but it definitely made us stronger.”
Freshman Cam Cannarella had three of Clemson’s nine hits while Cooper Ingle smacked his third home run of the season. Yet it was the Gamecocks who came in as the national leader in homers with a top-5 batting average to boot.
But Clemson (5-4) limited Carolina (9-1) to just seven singles. Gordon set the tone for the bounceback effort on the mound from the Tigers, who were allowing 9.6 runs per game in their previous three.
Pitching a day earlier than usual in place of the injured Ryan Ammons, Gordon redeemed himself after a seven-run outing in his start last weekend against Central Florida, baffling Carolina’s lineup for nearly five innings. The sophomore right-hander faced just two over the minimum through the first four frames and scattered three hits while striking out two. When he exited with two on and two out after 94 pitches in the fifth, Clemson led 4-0.
“We just made some tiny adjustments and worked some new pitches in there just to have more of a mix,” Gordon said. “It worked pretty well.”
Bakich offered more insight into the alterations Gordon made in consultation with pitching coach Jimmy Bellanger coming off his previous start.
“I would say he was overthrowing his cutter (against UCF),” Bakich said. “And if you look at the differentials in the velocity of his cutter and his fastball, they were only one mile an hour to two miles an hour different. If you’re a hitter and can just be on that one speed whether it’s a fastball or a cutter, it’s not like you’re adding that second offspeed pitch. It’s like their just both the same speed. So for UCF’s offense, they were able to get some pretty good swings off because the fastball and cutter were just kind of blended together.
“Coach Bellanger and Austin identified that and did a good job of, you’ve either got to add (velocity) to the fastball or subtract velo from the cutter. I thought he did a good job tonight of being able to have multiple speeds.”
After rain in the area delayed the first pitch until after 8 p.m., Ingle got Clemson off to a fast start when he sent Will Sanders’ first pitch of the night just over the left-field wall to give the home team a 1-0 lead. Clemson used an RBI double from Cannarella later in the frame, an error and a fielder’s choice to build a 4-0 advantage through the first four frames, getting the leadoff man on in three of those.
Gavin Abrams kept the Tigers’ momentum going in the sixth when he pinch hit for freshman Jack Crighton, who’d struck out in his first two-at bats. Abrams squared one up against Sanders, sending a no-doubter deep beyond the right-field wall for his first career long ball.
Jackson Lindley and Casey Tallent took over from there, combining to hold the Gamecocks to four hits over the final 4 ⅓ innings. Lindley came on in relief in the fifth and got leadoff hitter Will McGillis swinging to end that threat and then squashed one of the biggest Carolina posed in the seventh.
The Gamecocks’ first three batters in the inning reached to get them on the board, but Lindley fanned Carson Hornung before getting pinch-hitter Dylan Brewer, a Clemson transfer, to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to limit the damage. Carolina got the tying run to the plate with two outs in the ninth, but Tallent got McGillis to ground out to end it.
“(Gordon) just pitched his butt off,” Wright said. “And it was incredible to see the other guys come in after him and really shut the door. It was fun to watch.”
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