GREENVILLE, S.C. — Jay Dillard has always been the consummate teammate. The prototypical team-first guy.

Over his first three seasons with the Tigers, most of Dillard’s contributions came from the dugout. They came in the form of loudly cheering on his team and providing insight wherever he could.

However, that all changed on Wednesday. A career .118 hitter coming into the season, Dillard was inserted into the starting lineup at third base against Michigan State on Wednesday night. What resulted was a career night at the plate, with Dillard going 2-for-3 with a homer, a double, a walk and four RBI in the 12-1 run-rule victory.

It was the kind of performance Erik Bakich always believed Dillard was capable of.

“It is awesome. We have thought this all along — that if you just gave him 100 at-bats, he is just going to be a very productive player,” the head coach said. “He has just been patient, and he is just one of those guys that you just know he is going to help your team win. You know he is going to add value.”

Before Wednesday, Dillard had appeared in 19 games, with five of those being starts. He was just 2-for-20 at the plate, with a slugging percentage of .188.

Against the Spartans, though, we saw a different Dillard. His two-run double with two outs in the seven-run seventh inning was just the beginning. He would finish it off with a massive, 407-foot home run over the big, green wall in Fluor Field in the seventh that gave Clemson the walk-off win.

While many players might have taken a moment to watch their first long ball sail over the fence, that’s not Dillard. The utility player took an old-school approach, racing out of the batter’s box towards first base.

“I didn’t actually watch it,” Dillard said. “I put my head down and ran so if anything were to go wrong, I wouldn’t look like an idiot. But it felt pretty good.”

Whether or not Dillard’s career night leads to more playing time remains to be seen. At the very least, Bakich knows there’s a bat on the bench capable of changing a game with one swing of the bat.

“For whatever reason, it hasn’t materialized previously with a lot of playing time,” Bakich added. “But you see glimpses of things like tonight, and it is very easy to envision him finding his way into that lineup and making an impact the rest of the season.”

Photo courtesy of Peter McLean/CUAD