Jordan Greene’s base knock through the left side in the bottom of the 10th inning scored Drew Wharton from second base, lifting top-seed Clemson to a 4-3 victory over No. 4 seed Morehead State Friday in the second game of the Clemson Regional at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson.
“Coach (Greg) Stabuck told me they would come with the slider and after the FSU game I knew they would not throw the fastball so I looked for the slider and was able to pull it through,” Greene said afterwards.
The Tigers advance to the winner’s bracket game on Saturday where they will play No. 2 Vanderbilt, who beat St. John’s earlier in the day, at 7 p.m.
“We can’t be test anymore than how we were tested tonight,” Clemson head coach Monte Lee said. “We have had 15 one-run wins. We have been tested all season. I think how we were tested tonight is really going to help us tomorrow.”
Wharton led off the bottom of the 10th inning when he dropped a single into right field and then moved into scoring position after Patrick Cromwell sacrificed him to second base with a 5-3 sacrifice bunt. Greene then took J.C. Hatcher’s 1-1 pitch through the left side, bringing Wharton home with the game-winner.
“The bottom of the order did an outstanding job for us,” Lee said. “Greene was 2-for-4, (Justin Hawkins) was 2-for-4….but the bottom of the order did a nice job for us.”
Clemson (46-14) picked up two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the game, 3-3.
Kyle Wilkie’s two-out base hit, which came off the glove of Eagles’ shortstop Reid Leonard, allowed Jordan Greene to come home with the tying run.
The inning ended on the same play as Justin Hawkins was thrown out at home plate with what could have been the go-head run at the time.
Clemson cut the Morehead State lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning when Hawkins doubled down the left field line to score Drew Wharton, who led off the inning with a walk. Two batters later Greene singled to left field to set Hawkins up with his RBI double.
The Tigers struggled offensively for much of the night against starter Dalton Stambaugh, T.J. Satterly and Cory Conway. The three pitchers teamed up to strikeout the Tigers 12 times. Clemson was just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base.
The Tigers did not get on the scoreboard until the bottom of the fifth inning when Seth Beer sent a 2-2 offering from Stanbaugh to deep right field. Beer’s home run sailed into the dark sky and out of Doug Kingsmore Stadium, cutting the Eagles lead to 2-1 at the time.
The junior’s home run was a solo shot and was his 21st of the season.
Beer’s 21 home runs lead the team.
The Eagles (37-25) took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Tyler Niemann doubled down the left field line, which allowed Trevor Snyder to come home. Elli Boggess also scored on the play after Sam Hall booted the ball in left.
Hall’s error was the Tigers’ second of the inning. Earlier, Greene booted a routine double-play ball that allowed Snyder to stay on base at second. Both Morehead State runs in the second were unearned.
Clemson starter Brooks Crawford did his part keeping the Tigers in the game. At one point he retired 10 straight batters. Though he gave up three runs in 5 1/3 innings, just two of those were earned.
The Tigers’ pitchers did well too, holding Morehead State, one of the nation’s best hitting teams, to four hits in the first nine innings. The Eagles came into the game with just one batter in their lineup hitting below .314.
“I felt we really had to get our timing down tonight. The toughest part for us is from playing last Saturday to playing tonight…our guys are really routine guys so not having that midweek game really affected us,” Lee said. “We did a really good job on the mound…but Vanderbilt is a good club. They are going to be tested and they are going to be ready to go.”
Mat Clark, Carson Spiers, Ryan Miller and Ryley Gilliam came on in relief for Clemson. Gilliam earned the win to improve to 3-3 on the season. He pitched two thirds of an inning.
After Beer’s home run in the bottom of the fifth inning, Niko Hulsizer scored on a grounder to second base by Connor Pauly to give Morehead State a 3-1 lead.