By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
DURHAM, N.C. – Though Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to NC State hurt, 14th-ranked Clemson still has a chance to win the ACC Championship this year. The Tigers of course need to win their next two games against North Carolina on Friday and Miami on Saturday, but they will also need the Wolfpack to drop its next two games, while owning the tiebreaker to North Carolina at 2-1.
In other words, Clemson needs a lot of help.
“This whole thing is confusing to me anyway, to be honest with you,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “My main concern is winning ball games. We have to get ourselves locked in on what we have to do on Friday.”
The Tigers (39-18) have to lock into pushing runs across home plate. Like in the Florida State series last week, Clemson stranded runners in scoring position and failed to pick up runners in key situations.
After leaving runners in scoring position in both the fourth and the fifth innings, the Tigers loaded the bases for catcher Garrett Boulware— who had already doubled and singled earlier in the night—with no outs in the top of the sixth. But NC State reliever Josh Easley educed Clemson’s best hitter to hit into a double play at short and only Maleeke Gibson scored in an inning that began with so much potential.
“I guess if we score three or four runs there, then momentum goes into our dugout, but we tied the game up at that point so we still felt like we were in it,” Leggett said. “We still had some other chances to build some things. You can always look at certain situations whether it is one hit or one at-bat, but it all comes down to more than that.”
On his next at-bat in the top of the ninth inning, with the Wolfpack (43-13) already on top 6-2, Boulware hit the hardest ball of the day at Durham Bulls Park when he sent an Easley offering over the Bull on top of the wall in left field. Unfortunately for Clemson he was one at-bat too late with the blast.
“You wish you could pick your at-bats and put your hits where you want them, but with the bases loaded, I mean we got a run, but you have to do something other than a double play, especially with my speed I’m not going to leg it out and beat the throw,” Boulware said. “I really wanted to drive one, but he got me off balance and I was out in front of it.”
The game was still tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning when NC State scored four runs off Clemson starter Daniel Gossett. The Tigers’ ace had limited the Wolfpack to three hits through the first six innings, but they loaded the bases with one out and then got an RBI single from Jake Fincher and then Austin followed with a double to left field to score two more runs, breaking the game open.
“I started leaving balls up,” Gossett said. “They are a good hitting team and you can’t leave balls up on good hitting teams. I walked a couple of guys and then hit a guy. You have to be able to keep your composure and keep your command.”
Clemson will try to keep its composure as a team as it tries to finish the rest of the season. Wednesday’s loss was the third straight game in which the Tigers had more hits or equal to its opponent, but failed to win the game.
Clemson also has other things to worry about, too. Wednesday’s loss was its third straight – sending the Tigers’ hopes of hosting a regional in next week’s NCAA Tournament into serious question.
The Tigers had not lost three games in a row since March 27-31 when they dropped one to Georgia and two to North Carolina. Clemson will play No. 3 UNC at 7 p.m. on Friday.
“Really the only thing that is killing us right now is situational hitting, and there’s not really an approach or any mindset you can have to change it,” Boulware said. “You’ve just got to execute when it matters and keep hitting them, because eventually it will fall.”