Instant Replay: Clemson 11, South Carolina 5
By: trey-mccurry March 3, 2019

The Clemson Insider looks back at No. 14 Clemson’s 11-5 win over South Carolina on Saturday afternoon at Fluor Field.

 

What happened?
The Gamecocks (8-2) jumped to a quick lead on a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning. The Tigers (8-2) answered immediately as Jordan Greene hit a two-out RBI single before creating some havoc on the base paths to come around to score and tie the game at 2-2. Clemson took the lead for good in the third on a RBI double by Grayson Byrd and RBI single from Davis Sharpe made it 4-2. South Carolina cut into the lead with a run in the bottom of the frame, but the Tigers answered around in the fourth. Sam Hall hit a two-run homer to give Clemson a 6-3 lead and Kyle Wilkie followed with a RBI single to extend the lead to 7-3. The Gamecocks picked up a run in the fourth, but again the Tigers bounced back as Bryce Teodosio hit a solo homer in the fifth to make it an 8-4 score. South Carolina again plated a run in the sixth, but Clemson scored a run on a Greene sac fly in the seventh and two runs on a Logan Davidson homer in the eighth to even the weekend series.

Game-Changing Moment:
The biggest moment in the game came in the sixth inning. The Gamecocks, trailing 8-4, loaded the bases with no outs and chased reliver Sam Weatherly from the game. Holt Jones entered and recorded a strikeout before Byrd make a great play on a ball down the third base line to record an out and keep South Carolina from scoring multiple runs. Jones would induce a flyout to end the inning and keep the Tigers ahead 8-5.

What went right?
The Clemson offense had a better and balanced day at the plate, tallying 10 hits while drawing seven walks and a HBP. Eight of the nine players recorded a hit while seven players scored at least a run and seven players had at least one RBI. The Tigers scored in six different innings and had seven runs come on two outs. Weatherly earned his second win of the year with 1.1 innings of relief while Holt Jones picked up his first career save with 4.0 scoreless innings of one-hit ball.

What went wrong?
While the offense looked better, Clemson batters still had nine strikeouts including five looking. Davis Sharpe battled, but had the worst outing of his young career as he allowed four runs on seven hits in only 3.2 innings and also had an error where he threw the ball away on a failed pickoff attempt.