Luke Gaffney had two at-bats that defined Tuesday night, and they looked nothing alike.
In the first, he got a pitch he could handle and hit a three-run homer to put Clemson ahead early. In the second inning, with the bases loaded again, he punched a single through the infield and drove in two more. Five RBIs before the game was 30 minutes old. Clemson beat USC Upstate 7-2 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, closing out the last home midweek game of the regular season in front of 4,589. The Tigers are 26-16.
Gaffney’s homer in the first came with McCladdie and Savoie on base. Upstate starter Reece Hemmerling had no answer for it. Three runs in before the Spartans had recorded an out.
The second inning made it worse. McCladdie singled for an RBI, and when Gaffney stepped in with the bases loaded again, he kept it simple. A bases-loaded single drove in two more and chased Hemmerling for good at 1.2 innings pitched. Six runs, three hits, two walks. The Spartans cycled through seven pitchers before the night was over.
That’s the part worth noting about Gaffney’s night. The homer was one kind of at-bat — a first pitch in a good spot, a swing that didn’t require any thought. The bases-loaded single in the second was the other kind. Bases full, game already in hand, and he put the ball in play anyway. Two hits, two different reads, five RBIs. First basemen who can do both are hard to find.
Clemson added a seventh run in the fourth. Jacob Jarrell worked a bases-loaded walk to score Talan Bell, who had reached twice on walks himself as the nine-hitter in the lineup. A walk, a walk, a walk-off walk. Unglamorous baseball, but it counts the same.
The offense finished with five hits and eight walks. Not a clean performance, but the Tigers found a way to put seven on the board against a Spartan staff that didn’t have answers for Clemson’s patience. Tryston McCladdie drew two of those walks, scored twice, and stole a pair of bags. McCladdie and Savoie weren’t the headliners Tuesday, but the scoreboard reflects their work. Savoie, who had a pair of hits in last week’s series finale at Virginia, added a double.
Justin LeGuernic was the story from the mound.
He took over in the third and worked three hitless frames, striking out five and walking three. No damage done. Three walks in three innings would normally invite questions, but LeGuernic stranded every runner he put on. USC Upstate’s lineup had no answers for him. With Louisville on deck starting Friday, three clean innings from a bullpen arm is exactly the kind of insurance Clemson wanted out of a Tuesday night.
Talan Bell opened the game, pitched two innings, and surrendered one run. Noah Samol allowed the second Upstate run in the sixth on a wild pitch, an unearned run that didn’t touch his ERA. Brendon Bennett, Drew Titsworth, Danny Nelson, and Hayden Simmerson each handled a clean inning after that. Twelve strikeouts total from the Tiger staff. USC Upstate went three-for-29 at the plate.
Seven batters were hit by pitches, four of them Upstate hitters. Sweeney and Zenor each got plunked twice. Sloppy baseball from both sides, but Clemson was sloppy with a five-run cushion.
Clemson is doing what 26-16 programs do in late April: find runs any way you can and keep the bullpen from giving them back. The Charlotte win earlier this month followed a similar script. Tuesday’s version had Gaffney doing the heavy lifting instead of Jarrell.
Louisville is a different conversation. The Cardinals play ACC baseball, and Clemson heads there for three games starting Friday with real conference implications on the line. What happened Tuesday against a 19-23 Upstate team won’t matter much. What the pitching staff looks like after a LeGuernic outing — and how Gaffney’s bat carries into the weekend — might.
First pitch Friday is at 6 p.m. on ACCNX.
