By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
Daniel Gossett just shook his head. He could not believe what he just saw. After pitching near flawless baseball for seven innings and leaving the game with a three-run lead, he watched as 12th-ranked Virginia somehow found a way to beat Clemson, again.
The Cavaliers scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning to first force extra innings and then Mike Papi, who tied the game with a single up the middle with two outs in the ninth, hit a solo home run over the Cajun Café in right field in the top of the 11th to lift Virginia to a dramatic 6-5 victory at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
It was the second straight one-run victory by Virginia over the Tigers, going back to last year’s 3-2 win in the ACC Tournament, a game in which the Cavaliers scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat Clemson.
Gossett says he doesn’t understand why Virginia has their number.
“I don’t know man. If you find that out, let me know,” he said. “They are a good team, a great team. They swing the bats very well, solid defense and have good pitching. They are a good team all around so it is going to be tough to beat them.”
Clemson (10-6, 2-2 ACC) has not beat the Cavaliers since 2010 and has now lost nine straight and 19 of the last 21 in the series. The Tigers have not won a three-game series against Virginia since 2005.
It’s almost as if the Cavaliers are in Clemson’s head. Six of Virginia’s nine straight wins have come in games decided by two runs or less.
“Nobody is in my head and nobody is anybody’s head. They just beat us tonight,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “They got the hits that they needed to and we did not do the job pitching (wise) that we needed to at the end of the ballgame.”
It sure did look like Virginia (15-1, 3-1 ACC) was in the Tigers’ head in the bottom of the ninth. Trailing 5-2, Brandon Downs led things off with a double to left field and Joe McCarthy followed with a single to left to end the night for reliever Matt Campbell, who came on in the eighth for Gossett.
Kyle Schnell was able to come in and record the first out with a strikeout and then induced a grounder to short for the second out, allowing one run to score. But it also put Clemson in position to end the long losing streak.
But that did not happen. Down 5-3, Reed Gragnani nearly tied the game by himself when he lifted a Schnell pitch to deep right field. The ball bounced off the top of the wall and McCarthy easily scored from second. Then Papi, who pinched hit for catcher Nate Irving, came off the bench and singled up the middle to score Gragnani for the tying run.
It was a tough pill to swallow for Clemson.
“Yeah, it is,” Leggett said. “Daniel Gossett pitched great and did a great job and we had ourselves in the position we wanted to be in. We had a three-run lead and just could not hold it. We coughed it up and we let it slide away from us which in unfortunate.”
It was really unfortunate for Gossett, who pitched a gem of a game. The sophomore only gave up two runs on five hits in seven innings, while striking out six batters. From a command standpoint it was one his best games this season as he worked the strike zone with more command of his fastball than in any other game.
“That is baseball you know. You just have to come out every game and play your best game and see what happens,” the righty said. “Sometimes it is mean to you and sometimes it is great to you. It is just baseball and it is going to be like that every time out. It is the flip of the coin.”
And right now that coin seems to always come up heads for Virginia when it plays Clemson.