For the third straight game, Seth Beer hit a home run for the Clemson Tigers. This time, it was a 424-foot shot to dead center field in No. 5 Clemson’s 10-8 victory over Western Carolina Wednesday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson.

“I was just trying to stay through that guy as long as I could,” Beer said after the game. “(Corey Sikes) was definitely a finesse lefty. Credit to him, he did a pretty good job the first couple of times through the order.

“So my thought process going in there was just back up the middle. Stay through the ball as long as possible. I just got a pitch I could handle. I got a fastball. It was a little down-and-in and I just stayed through enough.”

Although the Tigers (37-12) left with the win, it wasn’t before Western Carolina put up a fight. The game was tied at 7 going into the bottom of the sixth inning when head coach Monte Lee huddled his team together once again.

Lee did the same thing in Clemson’s series-clinching win over Florida State two days earlier.

“I think for us the biggest thing was we weren’t used to seeing a finesse lefty and this past weekend we were seeing a lot of velocity from Florida State and the ACC,” Beer said. “They had some really good arms so I think for us it was just trying to get some good timing and staying on the ball well.

“So what Coach was preaching in the dugout was to just see the ball up because he was throwing a lot of sliders, a lot of off-speed pitches. Just see it up and try to put it back through the middle and stay on the ball. I think our team responded well and we started putting up some runs after that.”

The Tigers put up three runs after that to take control of the game. Beer finished the night 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs and two runs scored. He was driven in by Chris Williams’ two-run double in the sixth inning, which gave the Tigers a 10-7 lead at the time.

With only two weekend series and one midweek game left in the regular season, Clemson is eager to make a run in the ACC tournament as well as the post-season, but he is not looking too far ahead to the future.

“I think the biggest thing Coach has talked about is you can’t look too far ahead,” Beer said. “It’s step-by-step so when you’re putting that into baseball terms it’s more like, every at-bat, every pitch. Those kind of things you can’t overlook a team because in the sport of baseball anybody can win on any given day. It’s one of those things where I feel like every single day we are going out there and competing.

“We are giving it our all because our ultimate goal, obviously, is to get as far as we can, but I think the one thing we’re doing really well with is staying in the moment. If you think too far ahead that’s when stuff starts to fray away. So I think we’re doing a pretty good job of that.”

Beer knows his time playing at Doug Kingsmore is nearing the end, but he’s not thinking about that right now. Instead, he’s trying to make the most of some of his final opportunities in a Tiger uniform.

“I’m trying not to (think about it),” he said. “Obviously stuff sneaks in but I’m just excited to play with this great group of guys and hopefully we can just go out there and compete and have fun.”