CLEMSON BASEBALL

Schaus and Lamb get back in the swing of things, lift Tigers over Gamecocks

Schaus and Lamb get back in the swing of things, lift Tigers over Gamecocks


by - Senior Writer -

CLEMSON – Clemson center fielder Will Lamb said that sometimes you have to forget about the mechanics of your swing, and go back to the old tried adage of “see the ball, hit the ball.”

Some of the Tiger’s big bats have been quiet so far this season, including Lamb’s and left fielder Jeff Schaus, but both hitters finally got back on track on Sunday by just going up to the plate and swinging.

Schaus lined a double to right-center to score the go-ahead run and Lamb later laced a single to center that eventually scored three runs as part of a six-run eighth inning, lifting the 4th-ranked Tigers to a come-from-behind 10-5 win over South Carolina in front of 6,320 fans at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Tigers evened the series at 1-1, and improved to 7-2 overall. The Gamecocks, who fell to 8-1 overall, saw their 14-game winning streak dating back to 2010 snapped.

“This is just what we needed,” Lamb said after the game. “Schaus and I, we have been struggling, and we have been trying to do too much. We were trying to be too mechanical, so we just said ‘screw it, let’s just go out and swing and have fun with it.’ And we were able to do that.”

Heading into the late innings, it looked the Gamecocks were going to be able to pull out another victory as the Tigers continually left runners on base. The Gamecocks took a 5-3 lead with four runs in the top of the seventh inning, and Clemson scored a solo run in the bottom of the seventh to pull to within 5-4. However, with runners at first and third and one out, Clemson’s Phil Pohl bounced into a double play to end the threat.

Lefty Joseph Moorefield, (1-0), a sophomore out of Byrnes High School, earned his first career win by tossing two perfect innings to close out the game. Starter Kevin Brady pitched four strong innings, allowing three hits, one run, and no walks with four strikeouts, but he left the game prematurely due to an arm injury. His status will be re-evaluated during the upcoming week.

The Gamecocks took the game’s first lead on a two-out solo home run, a no-doubter to left, in the first inning. The Tigers put together a two-out rally to take the lead in the third inning. Chris Epps and Brad Miller each hit two-out singles through the right side, and then Schaus laced a double over the first-base bag to score Epps and Miller.

In the sixth inning, Pohl hit a two-out single up the middle and went to third base on Jason Stolz’s double over the third-base bag. After Epps walked, Miller drew another walk to score Pohl, and Clemson led 3-1.

In the seventh inning, the Gamecocks plated four runs to take a 5-3 lead, setting up the final innings.

In the eighth inning, Stolz led off with a single through the right side and advanced to second on Epps’ sacrifice bunt. Brad Miller followed with a single through the left side to move Stolz to third, and then Stolz scored on the play when the ball got away from Mooney. Schaus gave Clemson the lead when he lined a double to right-center to score Miller. Two batters later, Hinson was intentionally walked with two outs, then Kieboom drew a walk to load the bases. Lamb came through with a single to right-center to score Schaus and Hinson, and then Kieboom scored on an error by right-fielder Adam Matthews on the play. Pinch-hitter Jon McGibbon gave Clemson a five-run lead when he laced a double to left-center to score Lamb.

Clemson out-hit South Carolina 15-5 and put 24 batters on base, thanks in part to eight walks. Clemson pitchers allowed the Gamecocks just five hits and nine total baserunners.

Stolz had a game-high three hits, while Schaus went 2-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs. Every Tiger starter scored at least one run and nine of the 10 Tigers in the lineup had at least one hit.

“I thought our kids showed a lot of heart,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “We could have caved in there after they took the lead, but we answered with six runs, and we got some big hits from Stolz and Miller and Schaus and Lamb. We ran the bases pretty good, played pretty good defense and our pitching was pretty good.”

Schaus said he was determined to come through in the clutch in the big eighth inning.

“It’s about time,” Schaus said after the game. “It’s been a long time coming. I just wanted to be aggressive and go down swinging if I went down. I wanted to have an aggressive at-bat and it worked out.”

Lamb said he hopes the good feeling carries over.

“You can’t let negative thoughts into your head,” Lamb said. “If you do, it just snowballs. I’ve been working as much as I can in the cages, trying to get my swing back. I’ve told MJ [coach Michael Johnson] that I just needed that one hit to get me over the mark. I wanted to feel the swing I had before, and this is what I needed.”

Clemson and South Carolina will play for the final time during the 2011 regular season on Tuesday at 7:00 PM at Fluor Field in Greenville, SC. The game will be televised live by WMYA (My40) and will be available via webcast at ESPN3.com.

*NOTE: Brady came out to warm up before the fifth inning, and motioned toward the dugout. After a brief consultation with the coaches, he was removed. Following the game, he said that he felt a tightness in his forearm and elbow that he had never felt before. He said he didn’t know the severity of the injury or when tests would be run.

**Of particular note was that Tigers scored the six runs off of South Carolina right-hander Matt Price. Price, a sophomore out of Sumter, earned the victory in Carolina’s 4-3 win over Clemson in the College World Series that sent the Gamecocks to the national championship series last June. He allowed one run on three hits in 2.1 innings with three strikeouts. In Friday night’s South Carolina win, Price picked up the save by tossing 1.2 scoreless innings.

On Sunday, however, Clemson tagged him for six earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning.

Lamb said it felt good to get over the hump against Price. “We have a very potent lineup and we feel like we can score off of anybody. We know he’s good, so it felt good to finally get some runs and it lets us know we can score on the best of them.”


South Carolina 5 (8-1)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

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

Evan Marzilli lf......... 4 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0

Adam Matthews rf......... 4 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 1

Jackie Bradley, Jr. cf... 4 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0

Christian Walker 1b...... 4 1 2 1 0 1 13 0 0

Brady Thomas c........... 4 1 1 0 0 2 3 0 1

Adrian Morales 3b........ 3 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 1

Peter Mooney ss.......... 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

Jake Williams dh......... 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

Michael Roth ph/dh...... 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Robert Beary ph......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Scott Wingo 2b........... 2 1 0 0 1 0 2 6 0

Tyler Webb p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Steven Neff p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Bryan Harper p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

John Taylor p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Matt Price p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Jose Mata p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals................... 32 5 5 4 2 8 24 10 3

Clemson 10 (7-2)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

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

Chris Epps rf............ 4 1 1 0 1 1 3 0 4

Brad Miller ss........... 4 2 2 1 1 0 0 1 0

Jeff Schaus lf........... 4 1 2 3 1 1 3 0 3

Richie Shaffer 1b........ 4 1 1 0 1 0 9 2 0

John Hinson 3b........... 4 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 3

Spencer Kieboom c........ 3 1 2 1 2 0 7 0 0

Will Lamb cf............. 4 1 2 2 1 0 3 0 1

Phil Pohl dh............. 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

Jon McGibbon ph/dh...... 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0

Jason Stolz 2b........... 5 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 0

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

Jonathan Meyer p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

David Haselden p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

Joseph Moorefield p..... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals................... 36 10 15 8 8 3 27 6 12

Score by Innings R H E

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

South Carolina...... 100 000 400 - 5 5 4

Clemson............. 002 001 16X - 10 15 1

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

E - MARZILLI(1); MATTHEWS(2); MOONEY 2(3); MILLER(2). DP - S. Carolina 2;

Clemson 1. LOB - S. Carolina 3; Clemson 12. 2B - SCHAUS 2(2); McGIBBON(2);

STOLZ(2). HR - BRADLEY(3); WALKER(4). SH - MOONEY(2); EPPS(1); POHL(2). SB -

STOLZ(4).

South Carolina IP H R ER BB SO AB BF

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

Tyler Webb.......... 3.0 6 2 2 2 0 14 16

Steven Neff......... 2.2 2 1 1 3 2 9 13

Bryan Harper........ 0.2 1 1 0 1 1 4 5

John Taylor......... 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Matt Price.......... 0.2 4 6 6 2 0 5 8

Jose Mata........... 0.1 2 0 0 0 0 3 3

Clemson IP H R ER BB SO AB BF

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

Kevin Brady......... 4.0 3 1 1 0 4 15 15

Jonathan Meyer...... 2.0 1 3 3 1 2 8 9

David Haselden...... 1.0 1 1 1 1 0 3 5

Joseph Moorefield... 2.0 0 0 0 0 2 6 6

Win - MOOREFIELD (1-0). Loss - PRICE (0-1). Save - None.

WP - WEBB(1); HARPER(1); MEYER(1); HASELDEN(1). PB - THOMAS(2).

Umpires - HP: Randy Harvey 1B: Troy Fullwood 2B: Tony Walsh 3B: Scott Erby

Start: 3:07 PM Time: 3:21 Attendance: 6320

WEBB faced 2 batters in the 4th.

MEYER faced 3 batters in the 7th.

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