Jackson Moore drove in four runs and Jack Crighton went 3-for-5 with a two-run homer, as Clemson beat North Carolina, 9-5, Friday night in ACC play at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
The Tigers improved to 23-12 overall, 5-8 in the conference. North Carolina came in at 28-6-1. In front of 5,345 fans, Clemson handed the Tar Heels the latest one.
Aidan Knaak earned the win, going six innings with nine strikeouts and two earned runs allowed. He faced 28 batters, walked two, and finished on 94 pitches. It was his best start since the Tigers took two of three at Stanford earlier this month, and the Tigers needed every bit of it against a UNC lineup that has hit everyone in the ACC this season. Knaak wasn’t unhittable (North Carolina got seven hits off him), but he limited the damage when it mattered, stranding runners in each of the first four innings before the offense gave him separation. Hayden Simmerson closed it out with three innings for his third save of the year.
The game sat at 1-1 through four.
Clemson tied it in the third when a Crighton double to left center moved Nate Savoie to third, and a UNC fielding error let him score. North Carolina answered on a Schaffner run in the same inning. Then four innings of nothing, and the kind of low-scoring tension that makes a single fifth inning feel like a full shift.
Savoie broke it open first. He led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo shot to right field, his 11th of the year. Crighton doubled again, this time down the third base line, and DeCaro walked Luke Gaffney before UNC went to the bullpen. It didn’t matter. Jacob Jarrell singled to shortstop to move the runners up, and then Tyler Lichtenberger drove in Crighton with a single through the left side. Moore came up with two runners in scoring position and punched a two-run single to right, scoring Jarrell and Gaffney. Four runs in the frame. DeCaro, who’d been one of the better starters in the ACC at 5-1 entering Friday, took the loss and finished charged with four runs in 4.1 innings.
Crighton wasn’t done. In the sixth, with Savoie on first, he jumped on Padgett and drove it to left center for a two-run shot, pushing the lead to 7-2. He finished the night with two doubles and the homer.
Moore wasn’t done either. With Jason Fultz on after a hit by pitch in the seventh, he turned on a pitch and drove it to right for a two-run homer, his first of the season. Nine runs, two innings to spare.
North Carolina had chances. UNC put up 10 hits, went 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and left 11 men on base. The Tar Heels scored three against Simmerson in the final two frames, including a Colin Hynek two-run shot in the ninth, but none of it changed the outcome. Clemson went 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position and did its damage in concentrated bursts. Moore’s four-RBI night off two swings is what that looks like when it works.
Savoie’s three-hit performance from the top of the order was a constant irritant. He reached base four times, scored three runs, and made every DeCaro pitch count from the first inning on.
Clemson hasn’t had many nights like this in conference play. At 5-8 in the ACC heading into the weekend, the Tigers have had plenty of games where the offense went quiet and the pitching couldn’t hold. Friday neither happened. Knaak threw strikes, the fifth inning put it out of reach, and a 28-win opponent left town with its seventh loss of the year.
Clemson and UNC continue Saturday at 2 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.
