LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Clemson committed five errors Friday night, and Louisville scored 13. The Cardinals won 13-10 at Jim Patterson Stadium in a game Clemson’s bats kept close and its defense kept giving away.
Luke Gaffney was the best player on either team. He went 3-for-3 with two walks, two RBI, and scored three times. On a night the Tigers gifted away, that production went completely to waste. Nate Savoie matched him with a 3-for-4 night, a solo home run, and three runs scored. The Tigers had the horses. They just couldn’t stop helping Louisville.
Gaffney got Clemson on the board first, going deep to center in the first inning. Brief lead. Aidan Knaak walked Zion Rose, Rose stole second, and then Knaak’s throwing error on a pickoff attempt sent Rose to third. One pitch later, Tague Davis hit a two-run shot to right. Just like that it was 2-1 Louisville, and Knaak was managing trouble he had created himself.
Savoie knotted it at 2-2 in the third with a solo blast to left center. The game settled down for about twenty minutes.
Then the fourth inning happened.
Tryston McCladdie threw two errors in the same inning, and all three runs that scored were unearned. The scoreboard said 5-2. Every bit of it had Clemson’s fingerprints on it.
The Tigers clawed back in the fifth. Savoie singled, McCladdie doubled him home, and Gaffney singled in McCladdie from second. It was 5-4, the same two guys who had thrown the game sideways an inning earlier now pulling it back.
Louisville killed it in the sixth. The Cardinals got Lucas Moore on base, Rose doubled, and Tyler Lichtenberger’s fielding error kept the inning alive when it should have been dying. That left the bases loaded for Ben Slanker, who put a 3-run shot to left center and pushed the lead to 10-4.
Clemson tried.
Talan Bell opened the seventh with a solo homer to left. Savoie walked, Gaffney walked, Jacob Jarrell walked, bases loaded. A wild pitch from Louisville’s Brandon Shannon scored Savoie. Then Jack Crighton doubled to left with two RBI, scoring Gaffney and Jarrell. Four runs in the inning, 10-8, one out. Peter Michael came in and shut the door.
The eighth settled things. Dion Brown and Ariston Veasey couldn’t hold Louisville down. Moore singled home a run. Rose hit a sacrifice fly, but Bryce Clavon’s throwing error let an extra run score on the play. Bayram Hot reached on a fielder’s choice that plated another. Three more Louisville runs, 13-8, and that was the ballgame.
Clemson scored twice in the ninth. Lichtenberger was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, scoring Gaffney. Clavon reached on a Davis fielding error that scored Jarrell. Three runners on when Bell struck out looking to end it. Final: 13-10.
Knaak took the loss, dropping to 2-5. Five runs in four innings, just two earned, though his own first-inning pickoff error started the damage. Wyatt Danilowicz got the win for Louisville, now 4-2, and three relievers handled the final four innings.
Eleven hits and two home runs from Gaffney and Savoie should be enough to win most nights. But Friday followed a pattern Clemson fans have seen too many times this season. The offense fights back, gets close, and the defense gives it back. Four runs in the seventh cut it to 10-8. Three unearned runs in the eighth pushed it back to five.
The Tigers punched and got countered every time.
Five errors in one game is a bad night. At this point for Clemson, it’s also a pattern. And at 6-13 in ACC play, Clemson has no margin left to absorb it. You can’t keep spotting opponents free bases in this conference and expect a different result.
Game 2 of the series is Saturday night at Jim Patterson Stadium, with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. on ACC Network.
