FULLERTON, Calif. — For seven and a third innings on Friday, Clemson pitcher Matthew Crownover was cruising over No. 2 seed Arizona State. He started the seventh inning with only 74 pitches thrown and recorded his seventh strikeout of the game when he got David Greer to strike out swinging.
But then he gave up a four-pitch walk to Trever Allen and fell behind Joey Bielek 3-0 before offering up a 3-1 fastball that Bielek took to left centerfield for just his third home run of the season. That gave the Sun Devils a one-run lead and when Brian Serven followed with a solo home run on the next at-bat, the game was all but lost.
Crownover, who had given up just three home runs all year, gave up three overall in ASU’s 7-4 victory at Goodwin Field in Game 1 of the Fullerton Regional. It marked the fourth straight NCAA game the Tigers, the No. 3 seed in the regional, have lost and the third straight year they opened an NCAA regional with a loss.
“Matthew battled for us like he always does. We lost a little bit of control in the seventh and eighth inning and they did a good job putting some swings on some pitches when they had to,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “Up until that point, I thought we were really in control of the game. But you have to give them credit. They came back and did what they had to do late in the ballgame.”
After a scoreless first four innings, Clemson (32-28) finally got things going when Andrew Cox took a two-out, two-strike pitch from Ryan Kellogg and hit it through the middle. The base hit up the middle allowed Chris Okey, who led off the inning with a walk, scored from third and Weston Wilson, who reached on single to right with one out, came home from second.
The Sun Devils (35-21) answered Cox’s two-run single with a home run by Allen in the bottom of the fifth inning. The right fielder took Crownover’s 1-1 pitch down the left field line to make the score 2-1, Clemson.
Arizona State got the tying run at second a few moments later when Andrew Snow doubled down the third base line, but Crownover got the final out of the inning when he forced Jordan Aboites to fly out to right field.
The Tigers had a chance to extend the lead in the top of the sixth inning when Steven Duggar singled to left field and Tyler Krieger sacrificed him to second with a bunt to the mound. Then Kellogg intentionally walked Okey and then walked Robert Jolly on four pitches to load the bases.
But Wilson flew out to centerfield to end the threat.
“We had a great opportunity and Weston hit as good as you can hit it,” Leggett said.
Before the bottom of the seventh inning, Crownover was cruising along. He allowed just three hits through the first six innings and seemed as if he was going to earn his 11th victory of the season. The Tigers ace had nine strikeouts in seven innings of work, but the two long balls he issued in the inning did Crownover and the Tigers in.
Arizona State scored three more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to put the game away. Those insurance runs turned out to be big when Eli White had a two-run, two-out single in the top of the ninth to make score, 7-4. Duggar, who had three hits, followed with a base hit through the middle to put runners on first and second, bringing the tying run to the plate in Krieger. The junior worked the count to 3-2 on closer Ryan Burr before he struck out looking to end the game. It was Burr’s 14th save of the season.
“Again, we showed the same battle and toughness we have been showing all year as we figured out a way to get ourselves back in the hunt at the end, but we let the distance get a little bit too far,” Leggett said.
With the loss Clemson falls to the loser’s bracket and will play in the elimination game on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST.