CLEMSON FOOTBALL

Tigers take out #7 Miami after team meeting

Tigers take out #7 Miami after team meeting


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CLEMSON – The Clemson baseball team gathered at Doug Kingsmore Thursday afternoon for what they thought would be a regular team practice following the Tigers’ embarrassing home loss to Presbyterian on Wednesday.

What transpired instead was a team meeting that second baseman Steve Wilkerson said WAS the practice, a meeting to vent frustrations, clear the air and talk about the intensity required for the team to win night in and night out.

The players apparently took that team meeting to heart, getting a strong relief effort from pitcher Matt Campbell in knocking off the 7th-ranked Miami Hurricanes 3-1 at Doug Kingsmore Friday night, the third time this season and the second time in a week Clemson has knocked off a Top 20 opponent.

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the series, improved to 13-12 overall and 4-6 in the ACC. The Hurricanes fell to 20-6 overall and 7-3 in ACC play. It was the first meeting between the two since 2009.

Wilkerson gave the highlights of the team meeting.

“Wednesday night was obviously a rough night for us,” Wilkerson told TigerNet after the game. “We didn’t have a very good feeling. We had a team meeting before practice on Thursday, and it kind of was our practice. We vented a little bit, we talked about what we needed to do and how everybody needed to keep their head up. We talked about staying in the game, playing hard and that if we did that then everything would come around for us.”

Friday night belonged to relievers Matt Campbell and Scott Firth however, as the two combined to allow only one hit, no runs, and no walks with nine strikeouts in the final 5.2 innings pitched.

Campbell (1-2) established career highs for innings pitched (4.0) and strikeouts (7) to earn the win. He gave up just one hit, no runs, and no walks. Firth recorded his first career save by tossing 1.2 perfect innings with two strikeouts. Kevin Brady, Campbell, and Firth combined for 13 strikeouts and did not allow a Hurricane leadoff batter of an inning to reach base.

Campbell said it was big for the Tigers to win a Friday night game, and said the team meeting had the desired effect.

"Winning a Friday night game like this is big for our team," Campbell said. "Everything just sort of fell into place tonight. This is what happens when everybody does their job. We talked about coming out and having the same mentality and the same approach every time,"

Clemson head coach Jack LeggettJack Leggett
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said the Tigers did what they needed to do to win.

“We played well tonight," Leggett said. “Brady was out there laboring a little bit, so we went with Matt Campbell and he did a nice job, and Scotty Firth was really good at the end. They only got one hit after the fourth inning. Defensively, we played pretty well, and offensively, we did just enough, and then we protected our lead and did what we had to do."

Wilkerson led off the game for the Tigers with a single to right-center, extending his hitting streak to 13 games, and moved to second on a balk. Three batters later with Wilkerson on third base and two outs, Phil Pohl slapped an 0-2 pitch off the pitcher for an infield single to score Wilkerson.

In the second inning, Stephen Perez lined a one-out single to center and stole second. Esteban Tresgallo walked, then both runners moved up a base on a balk. Jarred Mederos drove home Perez with a groundout to second to tie the score.

After both teams squandered scoring opportunities, the Tigers broke through with two runs in the sixth inning to regain the lead. Jon McGibbon led off with a single to left-center on an 0-2 pitch and moved to second on the play when centerfielder Dale Carey booted the ball. McGibbon advanced to third base on Spencer Kieboom's groundout to short. After Dominic Attanasio was hit-by-pitch, Thomas Brittle lofted a sacrifice fly to shallow right field to score McGibbon. Attanasio stole second, then Wilkerson laced a two-out double down the left-field to score Attanasio.

Miami's only hit after the third inning came on a one-out, bloop single in the eighth inning off the bat of Rony Rodriguez.

Wilkerson, McGibbon, and Brittle had two hits apiece to lead Clemson, who totaled eight hits and three stolen bases in the contest. Brittle went 2-for-3 with an RBI in his return to the starting lineup. He did not start the previous seven games due to a finger injury.

Perez had a single and scored the lone run for Miami, who amassed a season-low four hits, all singles.

Clemson and Miami will play game-two of the three-game series on Saturday at 4:00 PM. The game will be televised live by ESPNU.


Miami (FL) 1 (20-6,7-3 ACC)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

------------------------------------------------------

Tyler Palmer rf/1b....... 4 0 0 0 0 4 4 0 0

Michael Broad ph........ 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Dale Carey cf............ 3 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2

Peter O'Brien dh......... 4 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1

Brad Fieger 3b........... 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1

Rony Rodriguez lf........ 3 0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0

Stephen Perez 2b......... 4 1 1 0 0 1 3 3 3

Esteban Tresgallo 1b..... 2 0 0 0 1 2 6 0 0

Chantz Mack ph/rf....... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

Jarred Mederos ss........ 3 0 0 1 1 1 1 2 0

Garrett Kennedy c........ 2 0 0 0 1 1 8 0 1

Julian Santos ph........ 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Eric Erickson p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Adam Sargent p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Christian Diaz p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals................... 32 1 4 1 5 13 24 7 9

Clemson 3 (13-12,4-6 ACC)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

------------------------------------------------------

Steve Wilkerson 2b....... 4 1 2 1 0 2 1 2 0

Jason Stolz ss........... 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1

Richie Shaffer 3b........ 2 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0

Phil Pohl dh............. 4 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 2

Jay Baum lf.............. 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 4

Mike Dunster ph......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Tyler Slaton lf......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Jon McGibbon 1b.......... 4 1 2 0 0 1 6 1 0

Spencer Kieboom c........ 4 0 1 0 0 0 12 2 0

Dominic Attanasio rf..... 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 1

Thomas Brittle cf........ 3 0 2 1 0 0 2 0 1

Kevin Brady p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Matt Campbell p......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Scott Firth p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals................... 32 3 8 3 2 8 27 7 9

Score by Innings R H E

-------------------------------------------

Miami (FL).......... 010 000 000 - 1 4 4

Clemson............. 100 002 00X - 3 8 1

-------------------------------------------

E - CAREY(1); PEREZ(11); MEDEROS(4); KENNEDY(1); McGIBBON(4). LOB - Miami 9;

Clemson 9. 2B - WILKERSON(7). HBP - ATTANASIO. SF - BRITTLE(2). SB -

PEREZ(3); ATTANASIO 2(2); BRITTLE(4).

Miami (FL) IP H R ER BB SO AB BF

-----------------------------------------------

Eric Erickson....... 6.0 7 3 3 2 6 25 29

Adam Sargent........ 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 3 3

Christian Diaz...... 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 4 4

Clemson IP H R ER BB SO AB BF

-----------------------------------------------

Kevin Brady......... 3.1 3 1 1 5 4 13 18

Matt Campbell....... 4.0 1 0 0 0 7 14 14

Scott Firth......... 1.2 0 0 0 0 2 5 5

Win - CAMPBELL (1-2). Loss - ERICKSON (4-3). Save - FIRTH (1).

WP - ERICKSON(3); CAMPBELL(2). HBP - by ERICKSON (ATTANASIO). BK - ERICKSON(2);

BRADY(1).

Umpires - HP: Scott Erby 1B: Frank Sylvester 3B: Troy Fullwood

Start: 6:35 PM Time: 2:52 Attendance: 4117

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