By Kaila Burns-Heffner.
For the second night in a row, Clemson came out on top. The Tigers defeated the Gardner-Webb Bulldogs, 7-5, Wednesday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson.
The game got off to a slow start for the first few innings, but Clemson was able to rally to get some runs in the middle of the game. The Tigers did a great job of holding Gardner-Webb to one run for most of the game before they brought in four in the very last inning.
“We’re starting to come together a little better, and we knew, in these mid-weeks, that we would have to swing the bat and put some runs up. It was nice to do that this week,” said redshirt freshman Reed Rohlman. “We’re in a comfortable place right now, this was a big week for us.”
The Tigers (20-18) brought the heat in the bottom of the third inning when Andrew Cox made it on base after Gardner-Webb caught both Tyler Slaton and Glenn Batson’s pop flies. Cox made it on to first base with a single. Eli White hit a single to advance Cox to third, and Steven Duggar hit a double to send both Cox and White home. Tyler Krieger followed with a double that sent Duggar home and made the score 3-0. Rohlman then hit a single out to left field to send Krieger home and made the score 4-0.
“It is always big when you can get two outs and still find a way to put up some runs. They made a couple errors which we took full advantage of and that’s always a big thing in baseball,” said Rohlman.
Gardner-Webb answered Clemson with a score of their own in the top of the fourth inning after a single was followed by a big hit out to right field, but Clemson played great defense and held them 4-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, Clemson saw some more success at bat. Slaton hit a double, which was followed by a single from Batson. That single sent Slanton home to make the score 5-1
Clemson continued to secure their lead in the fifth inning when they got the first three Gardner-Webb batters out. They separated the score even more when Reed Rohlman hit a double to send Krieger home. Chris Okey then got out on a flier out to left field, which advanced Rohlman to third. Chase Pinder followed with a double of his own to send Rohlman home and make the score 7-1.
“I like the way we’re swinging the bats right now,” said head coach Jack Leggett. “We’ve got more guys contributing.”
Neither team scored a run in the 6th inning, and Clemson didn’t allow Gardner-Webb to score another run in the top of the 7th either. The Bulldogs switched their pitcher at the bottom of the 7th, which led to back-to-back strikeouts from Duggar, Krieger and Rohlman.
Clemson switched their pitcher to freshman Alex Schnell in the top of the eighth inning. He hit the first batter up with a pitch, but Clemson came back to catch two fliers and did not allow Gardner-Webb to get a run in. Clemson got some runners on base in the bottom of the eight, but failed to bring in any more runs that inning as well.
Gardner-Webb brought some life back into the game with a couple of big hits off of Schnell that brought in 4 runs to make the score 7-5. Clemson brought in sophomore pitcher Pat Krall in an attempt to put away the game. He strikes out his first batter, and second baseman Adam Renwick dove to catch a flier out in right field to get the second out of the inning. Clemson put away the game with one more out and the game ended with the Tigers on top 7-5.
“I knew Schnell, if he was left in, he was going to shut it down, and Pat Krall did a great job of coming in and being able to diffuse the situation and get us out with a win,” said pitcher Clate Schmidt.