Three in a row. This one earned its place.
Clemson knocked off No. 7 Coastal Carolina 8-4 Tuesday night at Springs Brooks Stadium. Nate Savoie reached base five times. Jack Crighton went 4-for-5. The Tigers scored in four separate innings and answered every time Coastal tried to close the gap. Clemson is 29-20.
The breakthrough came in the third. Savoie and Luke Gaffney worked back-to-back walks, Jacob Jarrell singled to load the bases, and Coastal starter Jackson Smallets couldn’t get out of it. Tryston McCladie singled to right to score two, and Smallets was done. Three to nothing.
Then the sixth happened.
Savoie doubled off the right field wall to score Tyler Lichtenberger, then crossed the plate himself on a wild pitch after Gaffney reached on a Blake Barthol throwing error. Lead stretched to five. Coastal answered: Walker Mitchell lined a two-run double to left center to score both Ty Barrango and Dean Mihos and make it 5-3. Springs Brooks was alive again. But the Chanticleers couldn’t finish what Mitchell started. They went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position and left 14 on base.
Fourteen.
For a 33-15 team, that’s a brutal night with runners on base.
Clemson widened it in the eighth. Lichtenberger singled, Savoie walked, and Gaffney lined a ball down the right field line to score Lichtenberger and send Savoie to third. Savoie scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-3. Jason Fultz Jr. added a sacrifice bunt RBI in the ninth before Brice Estep’s sacrifice fly in the bottom half made the final look slightly tighter than it was.
Drew Titsworth entered in the third and threw two clean innings to pick up his fourth win at 4-3. Danny Nelson opened with two scoreless frames before Titsworth took over, and Hayden Simmerson closed it out. Dion Brown gave up the Mitchell double in the sixth to let Coastal back in, but Dylan Harrison’s scoreless seventh steadied things.
Savoie was the best player on the field. He scored three times, drove in one, and reached base in five of his six plate appearances. His double in the sixth pushed the lead to five, and even after Mitchell answered in the bottom half, Clemson still had a two-run buffer going into the seventh. Crighton’s 4-for-5 night did the quiet work, going out once before collecting four straight singles and keeping pressure on six Coastal pitchers from the second inning through the ninth.
The 14-4 rout of Boston College earlier this week showed what this lineup looks like when it’s clicking. Saturday’s comeback win behind Jarren Purify showed it can win close ones, too. Tuesday showed it can beat a top-10 team on the road.
Clemson is home Friday to open an ACC series against Florida State at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, first pitch at 6 p.m.
