By Trey McCurry / Photo ClemsonTigers.com.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Clemson got a great pitching performance from Zack Erwin and home runs from Steven Duggar and Reed Rohlman as the Tigers knocked off No. 8 Florida State for a second straight night with a 7-0 victory on Friday at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee.
The victory gave Clemson (30-25, 15-13 ACC) the series victory over the Seminoles and assured the Tigers of no worse than the No. 6 seed in next week’s ACC Tournament, meaning they qualify for pool play in the round robin tournament.
Clemson shuts out FSU for the first time since 1996. It also marked the first time they ever shut the Seminoles out in Tallahassee. The Tigers have now won five of its last six games.
Erwin was magnificent in limiting the Seminoles (37-18, 17-12 ACC) to no runs and just three hits in six innings of work. He threw just 73 pitches and the only thing that stopped him was a rain delay in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Though he had just three strikeouts, Erwin was placing the ball all over the strike zone. Of the 19 batters he faced, he induced seven of them into ground outs and did not issue a free pass to anyone.
Rohlman was just as dominant at the plate. He got things going in the top of the second inning when he homered to left field to lead things off in the inning. He later drove in two more runs in the fifth inning with a single to right field. Unfortunately for Clemson, he injured his ankle on the play and was taken out of the game.
The Tigers took a 3-0 lead in the third inning when Tyler Krieger drove in Duggar and Tyler Slaton with a base hit to left with two outs. Rohlman’s two-run single in the fifth inning upped the lead to 5-0 and then Duggar homered to right center to start the seventh inning for a 6-0 lead.
Clemson upped its advantage to seven runs later in the inning when Krieger scored on a throwing error from Florida State catcher DeLaCallie. Four of Clemson’s seven runs came on FSU errors. In all, the Seminoles have committed five errors in the first two games of the series.
Following the rain delay, Taylor Vetzel came on in relief of Erwin and picked up where the lefty left off. He struck out five of the 11 batters he faced and three of those were caught looking. Vetzel was award the rare save due to the rain delay.
Krieger led the Tigers with three hits, while Duggar had two hits. Clemson finished the game with 12 hits overall.
Clemson and Florida State will play Game 3 of the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Tigers will be attempting to sweep the Seminoles for the first time in Tallahassee and for the first time overall since 2010.