By Will Vandervort / Photo by Sara D. Davis, theACC.com.
DURHAM, N.C. — Say what you will about Clemson’s baseball team this year, but one thing you can’t say is they make excuses.
Though reporters following Friday’s 6-3 loss to North Carolina tried to excuse the drops by Weston Wilson, Eli White and Steven Duggar due to the baseball getting lost into the bright blue sky at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, the Tigers had none of it.
“The sun obviously was tough, but it’s part of the game. Both teams had to deal with it,” Clemson shortstop Tyler Krieger said. “And we just did not find a way to deal with that.”
Clemson (32-27) finished the game with four errors, which led to four unearned runs by the Tar Heels. White drew first baseman Andrew Cox off the bag on a routine ground ball to short with two outs in the third inning, then Duggar dropped a fly ball, which was going foul down the right side, a couple of batters later which UNC’s Skye Bolt made them both pay for with a three-run bomb to right field.
While Clemson was trying to claw itself back into the game thanks to a two-run sixth inning, White gave a run back when he lost a pop up to short from Bolt in the sun and dropped it, allowing UNC’s Tyler Ramirez to score.
All six of the Tar Heels’ (34-24) runs came with two outs.
“All three facets of the game could have been tighter,” Krieger said. “We didn’t play good enough defense as we could. And we didn’t push the ball as well as we could have. But we’ve got to learn from it and hopefully have the opportunity to build on it, and keep moving forward.”
The Tigers, who won eight of their last 11 games, now have to wait and see if their name comes up on the television this coming Monday when the Field of 64 is announced.
“You assume an opportunity. I don’t think you sit there and think that you’re never going to get an opportunity,” Krieger said. “I always think optimistically. Good things are going to happen to good people.
“I believe we have a lot of good people in this program. We will be waiting until Monday, but until then we will find ways to keep getting better, so we have an opportunity to keep playing.”
And the Tigers hope, if they get that opportunity, they play better than they did on Friday.
“In the game of baseball you’re never out of the game,” Krieger said. “So you just have to keep looking for opportunities, keep plugging away. And hopefully take some shots when you get them.
“Obviously we didn’t convert today as well as we could have, and that’s kind of the name of the game. Yesterday we did and today we didn’t. That’s just part of the game. We have to learn from it and move on and hopefully get some more opportunities.”