Clemson led for most of Friday night. Had the bullpen to thank for tying the game at 2-1 in the fourth, then 4-2 after seven. Had five hours to get a win and couldn’t hold it.
North Carolina scored two unearned runs in the top of the 14th inning, both set up by Clemson mistakes, and left Doug Kingsmore Stadium with a 6-4 win. The Tigers drop to 23-14 overall and 5-10 in ACC play. UNC improves to 29-7 and 13-5 in the conference.
The 14th started with a single by Nunez. Then a walk. Then a dropped fly ball in right field that let two runners advance. Howe reached on a bunt fielder’s choice, scoring Hynek. That was the first run UNC had scored since the ninth inning, five frames earlier, and it came on a play that shouldn’t have happened. Hull scored on a Harrison throwing error, the second unearned run of the inning and the second straight mistake that cost Clemson a chance to win.
Both runs were unearned. Harrison, now 2-2 as a starter and reliever, gave up nothing on pitches that mattered. He gave it up in the field.
Clemson went down in order in the bottom half.
Jacob Jarrell put the Tigers in front and kept them there for six innings. Leading off the fourth with Clemson trailing 2-1, he turned on a first pitch and pulled it to left center. Home run. The game was tied. Two batters later, Jackson Moore reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Lichtenberge after he reached on a throwing error. Just like that, Clemson had the lead, 3-2.
That was the third inning Clemson had clawed back. In the second, North Carolina scored first when Hynek lifted a sacrifice fly to left that plated Winslow. Clemson answered immediately in the bottom half. Gaffney doubled to left center. Fultz walked. Moore singled to left center, scoring Gaffney. Tied 1-1. UNC retook the lead in the fourth when Hull singled to first base and scored Paulsen. Then Jarrell hit the homer and flipped it back.
Clemson pushed the lead to two runs in the seventh. Crighton singled to left, then stole second. Gaffney got hit by a pitch. Jarrell drew an intentional walk to load the bases. And Lichtenberge, working a full count, took four straight balls. Crighton scored. Tigers up 4-2.
That’s when the bullpen took over. And when the night started to unravel.
Brown had been solid through the sixth. Nelson came in to get the final out in the eighth and instead surrendered an RBI double by Nicholson to left center that scored Howe. Cut to 4-3. Then in the ninth, UNC manufactured a run without a hit. Schaffner doubled down the left field line to lead off. LeGuernic came on for Nelson. Paulsen reached on a fielder’s choice to third base and Schaffner scored. Tied 4-4.
Neither team scored again for four full innings.
The real villain in extra innings wasn’t just Clemson’s bullpen. It was UNC’s Glauber. The junior right-hander entered in the bottom of the ninth and didn’t let a single run cross the plate through the 14th: six innings, five hits, zero runs. He walked three but escaped every time. Clemson loaded the bases in the 10th and came away with nothing. They got two runners on in the 11th and couldn’t score. The 12th and 13th were quiet.
Every inning Clemson went back to the dugout with runners left behind.
There were 17 of them by the time it was over. Clemson stranded 17 runners on base across 14 innings. UNC left 15. Those aren’t numbers you associate with a team that had the lead. They’re numbers you associate with a team that couldn’t finish.
The lineup had bright spots. Lichtenberge finished 2-for-6 with an RBI. Jarrell went 2-for-5 with the home run and one RBI. Moore drove in two, extending a stretch where he’s been one of the more consistent run producers in the lineup. He had four RBIs in Friday’s series opener. Crighton had a hit and scored a run. But Savoie went 0-for-7 at catcher, Clavon 0-for-6, Dillard 0-for-6. Four spots in the middle of that lineup went ice cold and stayed there all night.
On the mound, Sharman started and gave Clemson exactly what it needed up front: five innings, two runs allowed, six strikeouts. He wasn’t the problem. The issues came in the eighth and ninth when the inherited situations turned into runs and a 4-2 lead turned into a 4-4 tie. It’s a familiar pattern. This happened in his last start last weekend, and the bullpen questions haven’t gone away. Harrison pitched 2.1 innings in extra frames and held UNC off the board with his arm. Couldn’t say the same for his glove.
Clemson finished with three errors. UNC had one.
This is a game the Tigers had in hand. They led from the fourth inning through the eighth, scored the kind of runs that should be enough to win a league series, and couldn’t protect the lead or manufacture anything late against a pitcher who was throwing zeroes. The bullpen that locked the door in the Stanford series finale didn’t show up Friday night. Glauber was the difference in extra innings. Plain and simple. The win is his, and he earned it.
The loss stings differently when you had it. Clemson didn’t get beaten on a big hit or an opponent’s great at-bat. They handed the game to UNC two errors at a time in the 14th.
Game 3 of the series is Sunday at 12:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
