By Will Vandervort.

Clemson pitcher Matthew Crownover has all the confidence in the world in his teammates. This, despite the fact the Tigers wasted his six innings of scoreless pitching and lost their third season opener in the last four years with a 2-0 loss to West Virginia on Friday.

“It’s tough, but most nights when we give up two runs we are going to win games,” Crownover said. “At the end of the year, and we have thirty games in which we have given up two or less runs, I feel like we will win the majority of them, like ninety percent of them.”

Friday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium was part of the 10 percent they will not win. Clemson managed just six hits off freshman pitcher B.J. Myers and junior Blake Smith. The two combined for 10 strikeouts. However, they also gave up six walks. Four of the walks were charged to Smith who struggled early in the game, but the Tigers could not take advantage of the opportunities.

The Tigers loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning with two outs, but freshman pitcher B.J. Myers got out of the inning by striking out Andrew Cox. In the second inning, they advanced Mike Triller to second base on a Tyler Slaton single to right field. But Chase Pinder fouled out down the third baseline, again leaving a runner in scoring position.

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Steven Duggar got a base hit down the third base side to put Pinder on second base and in scoring position. But Chris Okey popped up to the catcher to end yet another Clemson threat with no runs crossing home plate.

Weston Wilson got a one-out base hit in the bottom of the sixth inning and then stole second with two outs. However, Eli White grounded out to shortstop to end the inning.

“We had six hits, six walks and had 12 base runners and we just could not take advantage of it,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “We had a couple of opportunities in the first couple of innings and I think if we break the ice there things go a lot better for us, but they played good defense and their kids pitched well, too.

“It was a good ballgame. We just needed a few more hits.”

Crownover believes those hits will come on Saturday when the Tigers and the Mountaineers play Game 2 of the three-game series at 2:30 p.m. Clemson will throw lefty Zach Erwin.

“It’s tough, but I have all the confidence in our guys and we are going to go out here and score four or five runs tomorrow and we are going to win it because Zack is going to throw a good game for us,” Crownover said.

It was a shame the Tigers (0-1) did not do it for their ace on Friday. Crownover’s day came to an end after the sixth inning as he got one batter to strike out swinging, the second to ground out to second base and the final out to pop up to second base.

The junior allowed just three hits and no walks while throwing 75 pitches. He also had eight strikeouts.

“It was opening day, so you have a pitch count. I feel like I threw the ball pretty well and commanded my fastball pretty well. They made a couple of pretty good plays behind me between Wes (Wilson) and a couple of plays Eli (White) made at short. We had a pretty good thing going there just a couple of tough breaks.”