By Will Vandervort.

By Will Vandervort

Though Wednesday night’s 5-3 loss to Georgia was not as embarrassing as last Sunday’s defeat to Duke, Clemson catcher Garrett Boulware says it was still disappointing.

A night after Clemson dismantled the lowly Bulldogs, 9-1, in Athens, GA it gave up three home runs and only managed seven hits, allowing the Bulldogs to snap a nine-game losing streak. Georgia’s win also marked the second straight year the visiting team won both games in the home-and-home series.

“It was another disappointing loss,” Boulware said. “It’s not as bad as the Duke loss, but it was another team we should have beaten. We should not have allowed them to stay in the game as long as we did and we should not have let them start the game like that.

“We had to battle way too late in the game and we did not give ourselves as much opportunity as we should have.”

Boulware recorded one of Clemson’s seven hits, while Jon McGibbon, Tyler Krieger and Steven Duggar drove in the Tigers’ three runs. Clemson had no one with multiple hits.

“We did not come to play offensively at all,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “We hit backwards, we started taking the fastball and we were not aggressive. Last night, we were a totally different team and that’s what bothers me.

“We played exceptionally well and played exceptionally aggressive, and then tonight we decided to out think ourselves and that’s disappointing.”

That’s exactly what happened at the end of the game. With runners on the corner and two outs, Duggar forced Georgia’s Jared Walsh into a 3-2 count. Looking for maybe something outside, Walsh surprised the freshman with a fastball down the middle that the right fielder could not catch up with.

“We weren’t hitting the fastball the way we know how to,” Boulware said. “When you get a fastball, you hit it. We were sitting up there guessing and trying to see what the pitcher was going to throw. We are thinking that maybe he is not going to throw a fastball here, and then we get surprised by a fastball.”

Clemson’s pitching also got surprised. Despite pitching decent at times, Brody Koerner, Zack Erwin and Joseph Moorefield gave up home runs, while Clate Schmidt balked in a run. All signs of the Tigers inconsistency the last few weeks.

Koerner, Erwin and Schmidt are all freshmen, while two freshmen—Duggar and Krieger—played in the lineup. Boulware says the Tigers’ youth is no excuse for their inconsistencies.

“I really don’t know how to pinpoint it,” the sophomore said. “We just did not play good. Honestly, we did not bring it tonight. We are a good ball team, but we started thinking up there and did not play the game we know how to play.”

The Tigers (16-9, 5-4 ACC), better not think too much this weekend. Clemson will visit top-ranked North Carolina in Chapel Hill for a three-game series starting on Saturday.