CLEMSON BASEBALL

Grice homers, Gordon throws a gem to lead Tigers to ACC semifinals
Caden Grice homers in the first inning to put Clemson up 2-0 (Photo by Merrell Mann).

Grice homers, Gordon throws a gem to lead Tigers to ACC semifinals


by - Senior Writer -

The ACC announced after publishing that they will attempt to play the ACC semifinals in Durham at 1 pm on ACCN Saturday now.

DURHAM, NC – With Boston College out of the way and a trip to the ACC Baseball Championship semifinals ensured, Clemson now waits on either North Carolina or the weather.

Caden Grice hit his second home run in as many games and Austin Gordon turned in a stellar start as No. 3 seed Clemson defeated No. 6 seeded Boston College 4-1 to win Pool C at Durham Bulls Athletic Park Friday afternoon.

Clemson improves to 41-17 with the win, while Boston College falls to 35-18 and will wait to see if they host when the NCAA Tournament host sites are announced Sunday.

If the weather holds out (rain is forecasted for both Saturday and Sunday), Clemson will face North Carolina at 5 pm Saturday in the semifinals (ACCN). If the weather cancels the rest of the tournament, the highest-seeded team with the best record in the tournament will earn the ACC’s automatic qualifier.

Clemson notched a 14th win in a row, which is the nation's longest active streak.

"Pitching, defense, timely hitting. I thought Austin Gordon gave us a great start," head coach Erik Bakich said. "That's an outstanding Boston College team and you can easily envision them hosting and winning a regional next week. That is a dangerous lineup and there are no easy outs. And then we had timely hitting with the two-run bomb and then added two more in the second. We knew this would be a bit of a pitcher's duel from the third inning on and Gordo held them down and the bullpen did work. An all-around good game."

The Tigers jumped on Boston College starter Chris Flynn early. Cam Cannarella led off the bottom of the first with a double high off the wall in left and moved to third on Cooper Ingle’s fly ball to deep center. Will Taylor struck out for the second out, but Grice launched a 2-1 pitch down the line in right that stayed just inside the foul pole for a 2-0 lead. The homer was his 16th of the season and allowed him to reach the 60 RBI mark.

Riley Bertram walked to lead off the second and promptly stole second. Benjamin Blackwell turned in a one-out walk, and both runners moved up on a double-steal. Jack Crighton worked the count to 3-1 and then roped a liner to right for a two-run double that gave the Tigers a 4-0 lead.

Both teams' pitchers settled in after that. Gordon pitched six strong innings to pick up his second win of the season and improved to 2-4. He gave up two hits, walked three and struck out three while throwing 91 pitches (53 for strikes). It marks the third time he has pitched more than four innings this season and has not given up a run (South Carolina and Louisville previously).

Nick Clayton pitched a scoreless seventh, Rob Hughes earned two outs in the 8th before leaving with an injury, Reed Garris surrendered a two-out solo homer from BC's Nick Wang to left field, hit a batter and walked a batter in the ninth and closer Ryan Ammons (5) came in to earn the save by stranding the two runners with a strikeout.

Boston College replaced Flynn after two innings with John West, the team's ace. West pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up just one hit while striking out seven.

“We knew they were starting Flynn, so our scouting meeting was all about Flynn and then we figured we would see West at some point,” Bakich said. “But Flynn is really good too. He has good reduced vertical break on his fastball and you have to do a good job as a hitter to push it down because if you chase it up, he is going to have success all day long. He has a good slider and a good curveball.

Clemson hosted North Carolina a week ago and swept the three-game series. However, the Tar Heels have won seven consecutive ACC Tournament games and won the tournament in both 2019 and 2022.


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