By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

When he walked out to the mound in the middle of sixth inning Saturday afternoon at Greenville’s Fluor Field, Clemson pitching coach Dan Pepicelli knew what was going to happen.

Though his freshman pitcher Clate Schmidt had just surrender back-to-back home runs that allowed seventh-ranked South Carolina to cut into was once a five-run lead, Pepicelli knew Schmidt was going to be loose and confident that he could strikeout the side and send the Gamecocks back to the dugout with no more damage.

“When I went out to talk with him after the two home runs, you want to see how his eye contact is and what his behavior is like, and he was in the moment and still very capable,” Pepicelli said. “As a matter of fact, I walked back and said to Coach (Jack) Leggett from in the dugout after the mound visit that he is in a good place.

“’Let’s be patient here because he is in a really good place. He is in Clate’s World right now.’”

Schmidt went onto strikeout Joey Pankake and Grayson Greiner, both looking, and Clemson added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning to down the Gamecocks 6-3 in front of 7,125 fans at Greenville’s Fluor Field.

After he struck Greiner out with a slider to finish the sixth, the freshman pumped his fist and screamed out to the Clemson dugout. It was just the emotion his team needed after losing six of the previous seven games to their archrivals from Columbia.

“I was just barking,” he later joked. “I don’t know if I really said anything at all.”

Schmidt instead let his actions to the talking against USC. The righty pitched seven full innings, giving up just two runs off five hits, while striking out five and walking three. He was able to keep the Gamecocks off balance for much of the afternoon with a cut fastball and keeping it down in the zone.

At one point Schmidt retired 11 straight Gamecocks as Clemson staked out to a 5-0 lead through five innings.

“He had a good fastball and was working with good command of his slider when he wanted it,” Pepicelli said. “I guess the most impressive part after he gave up the two home runs, he comes back with really good command of the slider with a whole lot of conviction of what he was doing and a whole lot of belief, which maybe you would not see in a freshman that gives up two home runs.”

It helped that his defense was backing him up, too. The Tigers turned their ninth double play of the season, while Tyler Krieger at shortstop, Jay Baum at third base and Thomas Brittle in centerfield made one play after another.

“We made some really good defensive plays,” Leggett said. “Overall, it was a really good team effort defensively. When you pitch well, you have good pace and you are around the zone, you usually play a lot better defense so Clate was a big part of the defense today.”

With Schmidt controlling things on the mound and the defense playing well, the Tigers finally got the bats going, as they ripped off 11 hits and scored two runs in the second and three in the top of the fifth inning to take control of the game.

Clemson (6-3) got two RBIs hits from Steven Duggar, and one RBI each from Garrett Boulware, Steve Wilkerson, Krieger and Brittle.

“We did some good things,” Leggett said. “We have been a little frustrated offensively the last couple of days and we had a good approach today against and experienced pitcher. We put the ball in play on the ground and we got some big hits with two outs and big hits with men on base.”

Boulware drove in Duggar with a double to left field in the top of the second inning and Krieger picked another one up with a two-out hit which gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead. Clemson opened things up in the fifth and finally ran starter Colby Holmes off with three runs on four hits.

Wilkerson and Duggar both had RBI hits with two outs. Brittle then closed the door on any chances USC had a comeback when he drove in Jay Baum, who singled to left with one out in the top of the ninth.

“Beating a good program like they have is always nice to do,” Brittle said. “We let one slip away from us last night because we did not play our best. We wanted to come out here and kind of be aggressive in the game and get some runs going.

“We got a couple of things going and we were able to hold to the lead late. It was pretty good to beat a good program like that and hopefully we can carry the momentum into tomorrow.”

The Tigers and Gamecocks will play the rubber game tomorrow at 3 p.m. at Carolina Stadium in Columbia.