CLEMSON — Louisville head coach Dan McDonnell is glad he does not have to play Clemson anymore this season.
Once again, the Tigers rallied from a huge deficit late in the game to beat the Cardinals for a third time in four tries. This time, the third-ranked Tigers rallied from six runs down to knock off the Cardinals in both teams’ final game of Pool Play in the ACC Championships this past Friday at Truist Field in Charlotte, N.C.
“We just lost to what everybody feels like is a national seed because of their ability to finish. Gosh, it’s so hard we lost the game like that,” McDonnell said.
Louisville, who likely will not receive an NCAA bid for a second year in a row, had a 6-0 lead at one point on the Tigers and held a 7-4 lead going into the eighth inning.
Again, this was not the first time McDonnell and the Cardinals had seen this movie.
“I think we were up seven, eight, nine, ten runs on a Friday (at Louisville) and they just kept coming back, coming back and coming back,” McDonell said.
That Friday was April 26. The Cardinals scored 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a commanding 11-4 lead.
The Tigers (41-14) slowly chipped away at the Louisville lead, first getting two in the fifth and then one in the seventh and eighth innings. In the ninth inning, Jacob Hinderleider hit a run-scoring single and Blake Wright lofted a sacrifice fly. Then with two outs, Jimmy Obertop ripped a single to score the tying run and Cam Cannarella followed with a single to score the eventual game-winning run.
“That’s a special team,” McDonnell said. “Obviously they’ve got talent, but there’s something when you can finish the way they finish.”
Clemson finished again in the ACC Championships. Even in their loss to Miami, the Tigers nearly rallied for a victory after trailing the Hurricanes by four runs for much of the afternoon last Thursday.
It took a great catch by Miami leftfielder Edgardo Villegas to rob Tristan Bissetta of what looked like a go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth inning.
“We are not really worried about what they are doing. We are worried about how we are doing it,” Obertop said. “We just try to win one pitch at a time.”
Clemson head coach Erik Bakich calls it this team’s superpower.
“The superpower of this team is their believability that they are going to come back,” he said.
The Tigers did it for the 24th time against Louisville on Friday. They scored seven of their eight runs in the last four innings.
Of course, Obertop helped with a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning that tied the game. And then he gave Clemson another walk-off victory by drawing a bases loaded walk in the ninth.
“Obviously, you want to win on offense and one guy to the next gets on base and we do what we do,” Obertop said. “I am not really worried about what (the other team is) doing out there.”
Clemson waits to see if it will be a top-8 seed in next week’s NCAA Tournament. The Tigers will find out on Monday when the NCAA announces its field, who will host the first weekend and who will be in line for a Super Regional should they get there.
—photo courtesy of ACC Communications
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