Tuesday brought beautiful weather for a game of baseball at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The Clemson Tigers were eager to put their series loss against arch-rival South Carolina behind them and were now set to face East Tennessee State. Taking the mound for the Tigers was Caden Grice, who had been ejected in the 9th inning of their previous game after arguing about strikes and balls.
Bats came alive in the bottom of the second inning, Chad Fairey stepped up to bat for Clemson with the count already at three balls and two strikes. He was able to draw a walk, putting him on first base. Will Taylor was next up to bat, and the first pitch he saw was a ball. After two more balls, he thought he had earned another walk, but the umpire called a strike, much to the dismay of the fans. Despite this, Taylor was still able to draw a walk, loading the bases for Clemson. Gavin Abrams then stepped up to the plate and hit a single, loading the bases even further.
Catcher Jacob Jarrell was next up to bat, but he quickly found himself down 0-2 after a strike and a foul ball. However, he was able to hit a pop-up, scoring a run and leaving runners on second and third with one out. Riley Bertram then hit a ground ball to the first baseman, who made an error, allowing Bertram to reach base safely and another run to score, putting Clemson up 2-0.
Cam was now up to bat with one out, and after a couple of pitches, he hit a ground ball that resulted in a strange play. Clemson’s head coach went out to question whether there was interference, but the umpires ultimately ruled that the play was a hitters’ choice RBI, with a run scoring to make the score 3-0. Both teams had players in the batter boxes during the confusion, but the Tigers eventually took the field. With the score at 3-0, the game headed into the third inning.
Clemson held ETSU to 1 run after they had the bases loaded in the top of the 5th inning. The only other run to score after that came in the bottom of the 5th when Cam Cannarella hit his first career home run to lead off the inning. The Tigers move to 6-6 on the season. Next game up is Wednesday at 4p.m. at DKS against Presbyterian.
