In the second-ever meeting between the in-state rivals, the first in McWhorter Stadium, Clemson brought the heat early on en route to their 8-1 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks in Clemson.

It all came down to a huge first inning for the Tigers, who scored five of their eventual eight runs in the first thanks to Valerie Cagle’s three-run bomb to left and two more runs brought in by a Gamecock error at second and an RBI single by infielder Maddie Moore.

“Really proud of our team tonight, the way we came out ready to go in the first inning,” head coach John Rittman said following the win. “The bats came alive and we had some really quality at-bats the first three hitters of the game: Cammy [Pereira] with the walk, McKenzie Clark with a big double, and then Valerie got ahold of one, and that took kind of the pressure off of everybody.”

Clemson ace Valerie Cagle earned the win and complete game in the circle for the Tigers, coming away with eleven strikeouts and giving up no walks in her ninth win of the season. Righthander Bailey Betenbaugh took the loss for the Gamecocks.

Clemson got the bats rolling early on in Wednesday evening’s midweek matchup versus the Gamecocks. In the first, with runners on second and third, Cagle hit a bomb to deep left field, good for three runs. The Tigers struck yet again, bringing in two more runs on an error and Moore’s RBI single to left field. Clemson led 5-0 after one.

The Tigers kept the scoring alive into the second. With a runner on second, left-fielder Sam Russ reached on a fielding error that also scored pinch runner Arielle Oda to put Clemson up 6-0.

South Carolina responded with a run of its own in the top of the third. After advancing to second on a wild pitch and later to third with two outs, outfielder Aaliyah White scored the Gamecocks’ lone run of the night on a wild pitch.

Alia Logoleo and McKenzie Clark both struck again for the Tigers in the fifth and sixth, respectively, with solo homers to left-center field, good for a final score of 8-1. With Clark’s home run, she extends her streak to three-games straight with a ball leaving the park and tallied her sixth of the season.

With the win, 18th-ranked Clemson now leads the series 2-0 over the Gamecocks and improved to 22-10 this season.

Later this week, Clemson travels to Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels in a three-game weekend series. The Tigers open up series play Friday, April 1, with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. on ACCNX.