Clemson baseball knows how to make their fans sweat it out, and on Friday afternoon the comeback cats were at it again.
With the Tigers already eliminated from advancing to the next round of the ACC Tournament following an opening game loss to Miami, this time, the Tigers would storm back from a six-run deficit to defeated Louisville, 8-7.
It was the 24th come-from-behind victory of the season for Clemson Baseball which is tied for the most such wins in Division 1 this season. Clemson baseball’s penchant for comebacks shows their fortitude in the face of adversity but does nothing to help ease the anxiety of head coach Erik Bakich.
“Really proud of our club,” said Bakich. “We make it very hard on ourselves at times, but they have that ‘it’ factor and find a way to come back now 24 times. We’re not going to give any of them away and we love the fight of this team. I know it will bode well for us going into next week.”
Erik Bakich
The #3 ranked Tigers trailed the Cardinals 6-0 before making their move. A home run to lead off the game, and another two-run shot in the second inning, handed Louisville a 3-0 lead. They upped that advantage to six by the top of the fourth.
“It was a tale of two games,” Bakich said. “I thought we came out flat. They jumped us with six runs right away. The superpower of this team is the believability that they’re going to come back.”
Erik Bakich
Trailing 6-1 In the bottom of the sixth inning, Clemson scored three times to significantly trim the deficit. Tristan Bissetta triped in the first run of the inning with one out, his second RBI of the game, and that was followed by a two-run blast by Jacob Jarrell to make it 6-4.
Louisville added an unearned run in the top of the seventh to briefly stretch their lead back to three runs, but the Tigers came right back in the bottom of the eighth. The first two batters reached, and Jimmy Obertop promptly belted a three-run homer to tie the game at 7-7.
Clemson walked it off in the bottom of the ninth. Jacob Hinderleider, Blake Wright, and Cam Cannarella all singled to start the frame to load the bases for Obertop. Louisville reliever Tucker Biven walked him on four pitches to bring in the winning run.
In an interesting side note, Obertop’s eighth inning home run was the 100th of the season for Clemson, marking only the fourth time in program history that the Tigers have reached that mark. It is a watershed mark for one of the country’s most dynamic lineups.
Austin Gordon (2-2) pitched a 1-2-3 top of the ninth and earned the win. Clemson starter Rocco Reid lasted just 1 2/3 innings, allowing two home runs, and RBI double, and four earned runs total. Biven took the loss for the Cardinals.
“Could have been real easy to mail it in today down 6-0 in the fourth, and they didn’t” Bakich added. “They just kept fighting. Just more confirming of what we already know about this team…even in a game that technically won’t allow them to advance, they still wanted to compete and play and play hard and play their best baseball and understand the importance of that winning feeling of competing and keep this momentum going.”
Erik Bakich
The two-seeded Tigers finished the ACC Tournament with a 1-1 record and will now await their NCAA Tournament pairings. It is expected that the Tigers will host a regional for the second consecutive season and will have ample time to rest and line up their starting pitching for a run towards Omaha.
