Six runs in the last three innings Saturday afternoon at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. And Clemson baseball (19-10, 2-7 ACC) still lost because the first six looked like a team that forgot how to hit. Miami’s Lazaro Collera threw six scoreless innings, Talan Bell coughed up a four-run seventh, and the Tigers spent the rest of the game climbing out of a hole they never should’ve dug. Miami 8, Clemson 6. Hurricanes take the series two games to one.
That’s 2-7 in ACC play now. Nineteen and 10 on the season is not up to standard for Clemson baseball. When you you look at the conference games, where Clemson has lost seven of nine. That is not what coaches, players, and fans expect for Tiger baseball.
“I hate losing, everybody hates losing, but we took a step forward today. That ninth inning showed the kind of belief we need. There was zero doubt in that dugout that we were going to come back and win. We’re close. We’re not over the hump yet, but it’s close. This losing is going to stop, and it’s going to start with a belief system.”
Head Coach, Erik Bakich
Collera was the problem. Or more accurately, Clemson’s inability to do anything against him was the problem. The Miami lefty held the Tigers to five hits over six frames, walking two and working around trouble every time someone reached base. Luke Gaffney got on twice in his first three trips and never scored. Tyler Lichtenberger walked in the fourth. Stranded. Jay Dillard walked in the sixth. Stranded. Nine runners left on base for the game, and most of them came while Collera was still pitching.
Drew Titsworth kept Clemson close enough that the shutout shouldn’t have mattered. But Miami tagged him for two in the first when Jake Ogden doubled and scored on Alex Sosa’s single, and they added single runs in the third and sixth. Four earned on seven hits in six innings. Not his best stuff, but zero walks and seven punchouts against an offense hitting .290 as a team? That’s a start that deserves run support.
He got none.
Bell replaced Titsworth in the seventh, and the inning fell apart before anyone could get loose in the bullpen. Daniel Cuvet walked. Sosa singled. Then Derek Williams, who’d been quiet since his sacrifice bunt in the third, crushed a three-run homer that made it 7-0. Brylan West singled in another run. Four runs, three hits, two walks, one inning. Bell’s line was ugly and the scoreboard reflected it. Eight-nothing after six and a half.
Tryston McCladdie had carried the offense Friday night with two homers and the game-winning shot in Clemson’s 7-6 win.
Saturday he stayed hot. Doubled to lead off the seventh after Collera was gone, and Jacob Jarrell singled him home to finally break the shutout. McCladdie finished 3-for-5 with two RBI. That’s 6-for-9 across the last two games with a double, two homers, and five RBI. If the rest of the lineup hit like him this series doesn’t end the way it did.
Jarrell was the other bright spot, going 3-for-5 with three RBI. His two-run homer in the ninth, his 12th of the season, cut the deficit to 8-5 and gave the dugout a pulse. Bryce Clavon followed with a solo shot two batters later. 8-6.
Too late.
Ryan Bilka came in for the ninth and Clemson made him work. But he got Ty Dalley to fly out with a runner on first and the tying run in the on-deck circle.
Brendon Bennett pitched two clean innings of relief to keep the game within reach. If the rally had started one inning earlier, this is a different game. But you can’t spot a team eight runs and expect the ninth to save you.
The ACC schedule doesn’t get easier. Clemson’s won two conference games all year, and the lineup that went silent for six innings against Collera is the same one that went 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position Thursday and stranded 12. McCladdie and Jarrell can’t carry this offense alone. Someone in the top half of the order has to start driving in runs or 2-7 becomes 2-10 in a hurry.
