By Will Vandervort / Photo by Sara D. Davis, theACC.com.

DURHAM, N.C. — Matthew Crownover was honored to be named ACC Pitcher of the Year earlier this week, but he would gladly give it back if it meant he could take back the only mistake he made against No. 4 seed Florida State in Wednesday’s ACC Tournament.

With runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the third inning, Crownover’s 3-2 offering was a fastball on the outside corner of the plate that FSU’s D.J. Stewart drove to the wall in leftfield. It appeared leftfielder Reed Rohlman was going to be able to camp under it at the wall for the innings final out, but he missed timed his jump and the ball hit the wall right at the top of his glove, allowing both runners to come home.

Stewart’s triple turned out to be all the ‘Noles needed in a 3-1 victory over Clemson at Durham Bulls Park in Durham, N.C.

“I can’t let Stewart beat me,” Crownover said. “He is going to be a Big-League player. I made the mistake of giving up a 0-2 hit to the nine-hole hitter and then walked the two-hole batter that I have had pretty good success with the last two games. So that’s my mistake.

“(Stewart) is going to play in the Big Leagues so I can’t try to let him beat me. I have to beat the other guys.”

No one beat Crownover after that. After giving up three hits in the first three innings, he gave up none the rest of the way. He retired his last five batters and finished the game with eight strikeouts in seven innings of work.

“I felt like I was kind of out of sorts for a while there,” Crownover said. “My four-seam (fastball) was kind of cutting on me so then I kind of added and subtracted on my sinker all day, my sinking fastball. I tried to get ahead, but I fell behind a lot of batters early in the game. Besides that third inning they really did not get a hit off me.

“I should have did a little bit better damage control (in the third inning), but a good team beat me.”

And though he got Stewart to fly out in his last two at-bats, in the end Stewart won the head-to-head battle and in the process the Seminoles ended the Tigers four-game winning streak, while also bouncing back from last weekend’s sweep by the Tigers.

“He doesn’t chase bad pitches,” Crownover said of Stewart. “A lot of guys you can throw some pitches they will chase out of the zone, but he is not going to swing unless it is a strike.”

With runners on first and third, Crownover tried to get Stewart to chase, but he did not budge. He worked the count to 3-2 where Crownover went to his best pitch – a fastball on the outside corner of the plate. The only problem, Stewart knew it was coming too and he delivered what turned out to be the game-winning triple.

“They scored all of their runs in one-inning and other than that, it was a good ballgame,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said.

Now the question is was this the last time Crownover will wear a Clemson uniform. The Tigers find themselves in a must-win-situation against third-ranked Louisville on Thursday if they want to play in next week’s NCAA Tournament.

A lot of experts think the Tigers (31-26) are sure to get in if they can beat the Cardinals and North Carolina on Friday.

“He has had a great season and without him we would not be in the position that we are without him,” Leggett said. “He has given some great efforts in every first-game of a series this whole year. He pitched very well again today. He has been a huge piece of our puzzle and especially the way we have played in the last month and a half or two months. He is one of those guys that has been consistent from the beginning of the season to now.

“He has a great deal of respect from his teammates because he goes about his business and works hard. He is disciplined, focused and locked in to what he has to do and he goes about his business in a business like fashion. Results are indicative on how hard he works.”

Clemson’s ACC Pitcher of the Year isn’t going to worry about that though. He did the best he could to put his team in position to win on Wednesday, but another great player was just a little bit better than he was this time around.

“(Winning ACC Pitcher of the Year) is a big deal, but by no means did it distract me today. It did not distract me at all,” Crownover said. “It is a team award. My teammates scored a lot of runs for me throughout the year and made some plays behind me.

“It was a great, great honor, but I would like to have kept it rolling today.”