No. 2 Deacs take late lead to clinch series

Nick Clayton kept Clemson in it in relief by matching a career-high in strikeouts (8). (Clemson athletics photo)

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Fri Mar 31 21:20:16 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - Clemson baseball took No. 2-ranked Wake Forest to the wire Friday night, but the Demon Deacons manufactured a ninth-inning run to clinch the series, 4-3.

Each team had seven hits going into that final frame, and the Deacs’ go-ahead run reached by a hit batter from senior Jackson Lindley (1-3). After a bunt moved that runner over, Justin Johnson delivered an RBI single up the middle.

In the bottom half of the inning, Wake shortstop Marek Houston slipped on a tough grounder and Nathan Hall reached for a single to put a runner on with one out, and down to a last out, Cam Cannarella singled to right field to put runners on the corners for catcher Cooper Ingle. It was Cannarella’s team-best third hit of the night. A stolen base put two in scoring position pitches later, but Wake Forest second basemen Justin Johnson was there to field a tough grounder and throw to get Ingle out.

The defeat clinched a third ACC series loss in as many tries this year for Clemson (16-12, 2-6).

“Felt like a heavyweight fight, going toe-to-toe and trading blows. Wake Forest obviously has a very good team," Clemson coach Erik Bakich said. They’re having a banner year and they have an elite team with elite players and a bunch of playmakers and really good hitters and really good pitchers and they were that much better than we were tonight. We were right there…Their second baseman made a heck of a play.

“The reality of it is we walked and hit them 10 times. If Nick (Clayton) hadn’t come in and stabilized us, that could have got away quick…We just weren’t good enough. There are no moral victories for keeping it close. And we’ve just got to be that much better so we can find a way to come out on top in these close games and not have this feeling. We’ve had this feeling too many times to have a tie game or have a lead late and feel like it slips away. But I’ll be a broken record and say this is the thing that will make us resilient and tough and callous us our minds and we just have to keep getting back up and keep fighting and keep throwing punches and keep being aggressive. We will get through this.”

The Deacs (25-3, 9-2 ACC) got a run across in two of the first four frames, but it could’ve been a lot worse.

Wake Forest’s first two batters sent pitches from Clemson freshman right-handed starter Joe Allen deep – one caught at the wall and another from Lucas Costello going up and over that fence in left field to give the Demon Deacons a 1-0 lead after one.

In their next try, Wake Forest loaded the bases on Allen and made Clemson go to the bullpen early for junior right-handed sidearmer Nick Clayton, who extinguished the threat with consecutive swinging strikeouts.

Clayton ran into some trouble in the fourth and surrendered a two-out RBI single before two more Deacs reached, but he worked out of it to give Wake eight runners left on base through four half-innings.

Clemson’s bats warmed up to ride that momentum by loading the bases in the bottom half of the fourth, and transfer second baseman Riley Bertram delivered a two-out, two-run single up the middle to tie up the game.

The Tigers had their own chance to break things open in the sixth after loading up the bags with no outs, but a Blake Wright sacrifice fly to take a one-run edge is all they got out of it.

Clayton exited with that lead and matched a career-best with eight strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings.

Wake left-hander Sean Sulivan, who entered the night with a sub-2.00 ERA over five previous starts, pitched into that sixth inning but didn’t retire a batter in the half-inning, scattering five hits and three runs (one earned) with five strikeouts.

The Deacs evened the score in the eighth inning after Gio Cueto’s leadoff double, reaching third base on a grounder and scoring on a bunt from Costello, his third RBI of the game. Costello and Cueto had the multi-hit efforts for the Demon Deacons (two hits each).

Wake reliever Seth Keener (3-0) pitched three scoreless innings to earn the win.

After starting 4-0 at home this year, Clemson has lost seven of its last 16 in Doug Kingsmore Stadium. As of Friday night, Bakich's Tigers have played the third-ranked schedule in the nation, and he's looking for that to pay off ahead.

“If this ends up where we think it’s going to end up and where we do get hot and we use all this adversity in the first half of the season to really strengthen us and build that resiliency and toughness…There’s nothing that we will have not seen," Bakich said. "This first half of the season, we’ve played a monster schedule. The ACC is always going to be tough and there’s a reason why our schedule is in the top-(3)...We’ve got (a top-3 strength of schedule) and it feels like it. We’ve been taking our lumps, but it’s going to make us better. Where we’re going to be and where we’re at now and bridging that gap – that’s going to be where we have our identity to get there…We’ve been through enough of it in these first 28 games that eventually it just becomes muscle memory for them and we’re playing a tight game and we can say it’s no big deal, we’ve been there 28 times. Because that’s how it feels."

The series wraps up at 2 p.m. on Saturday, where the lefty Caden Grice (1-0, 3.21) takes on Deacs left-hander Josh Hartle (5-1, 1.80).

Notable: Wake's reliever in the ninth, Camden Minacci, made a motion to throw toward an empty bag with two Tigers in scoring position in the ninth, and he had a full Doug Kingsmore Stadium crowd and Bakich questioning if it was a balk. Minacci did step off before the fake throw, and Bakich said it was the correct call and was not a balk because Minacci did not complete the throw to an empty base.