By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

Last week, the Clemson baseball team had a lot of things go right.

The Tigers posted a 4-1 record, which included two wins over Atlantic Coast Conference foe Duke. They outscored the opposition 31-24 and batted .317 with a .384 slugging percentage and .370 on-base percentage. They also totaled eight doubles, one home run, had 14 walks and had nine stolen bases.

Individually, catcher Garrett Boulware was 8-for-16 with one homer and eight RBIs. Centerfielder Thomas Brittle was 8-for-17 with three RBIs and four stolen bases, while Jon McGibbon hit .421. Even freshman Tyler Krieger, who had struggled all season got in the act. The shortstop had his best week, going 6-for-16 at the plate.

On the mound, Daniel Gossett threw a shutout, while freshman Zack Erwin threw five scoreless innings, picking up a save and win in the process.

But for all that good they did, one inning in the last game of the week did it all in. In the fourth inning in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Blue Devils brought 13 men to the plate and produced eight runs on six hits in what Boulware called one of the longest innings of his baseball career.

“A lot of it has to do with maturity,” the sophomore said. “When they had that eight run inning, a lot of the freshmen and a lot of the sophomores were all looking around at each other like, ‘What do we do?’

“We have to man up. We have to stand up to them. Eight runs should not happen, but when it does, we have to take it on the chin and give it right back to them the next inning.”

Since they did not do it against Duke, the Tigers (15-8) will have to it against Georgia instead. The two teams will begin a home-and-home series Tuesday in Athens, GA. It will be the first of eight road games for Clemson over the next 10 games, a span of two weeks.

Included in that schedule is a three-game series this weekend at top-ranked North Carolina.

“I have not thought about it, yet. It is a tough stretch,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “We have Georgia, and then North Carolina for three, so we have five tough ballgames this week. Our schedule is tough as it is. We had an opportunity (Saturday) to make up some ground and we did not do it.”

Instead, they lost. The only blemish on what was a very good week. But the Tigers have no time to sulk. They have to get the Duke loss out of their minds and be ready to go come Tuesday night in Athens.

Leggett gave the team Sunday off hoping that might help them shake the disappointment and focus on what they did accomplish last week, winning four games in five days. On Monday, they were back at practice getting ready for the Bulldogs.

“It is a little difficult because we have been going for a while,” the Clemson coach said. “Hopefully, we will try and put something together and be ready to play on Tuesday.”

First pitch for the Tigers at Georgia is scheduled for 7 p.m.