Clemson Pounds Pirates 24-4 to Advance to Finals

Ryan Riley celebrates his homer in the third which was his first since March 25th.

by Tommy Hood - Correspondent - Sat May 26 18:53:24 GMT-04:00 2001

CLEMSON -- Clemson's problems hitting the ball were a million miles away

Saturday.

The Tigers started hitting in the first inning and never let up, defeating

Seton Hall 24-4 in front of 3,986 in the NCAA regional at Doug Kingsmore

Stadium.

The Tigers scored 21 runs in the third through sixth innings. They made

hitting easy and made Clemson coach Jack Leggett forget, at least for a few

hours, the problems his team has had at the plate.

"When you get people up there swinging the bat and being aggressive, more

people in the lineup start doing it and it permeates the lineup," he said.

"I told them you can't take any of these runs over to tomorrow. But we feel

good about things tonight and we'll hopefully bring the confidence back

tomorrow."

Greene had two steals.

The win sends the Tigers (40-20) into the championship game Sunday at 1 p.m.

against the winner of the Seton Hall - South Alabama game played Saturday night.

Seton Hall (32-22-1) had defeated top-seeded South Alabama on Friday.

However, on Saturday a different team showed up. The Pirates used six

pitchers. Only Jeff Barrow, who pitched the final two innings, had any

success. Starter Shawn Tarkington (6-3) pitched 2 2/3 innings, giving up six

hits and seven runs to earn the loss. Mike Wren and Buddy Hausmann pitched

the next 1 1/3 innings, giving up 11 runs.

"It wasn't in our plan to send that many guys out there," said Seton Hall

interim head coach Rob Sheppard. "The guys that we were sending up there

were just getting hit."

Clemson had 23 hits with every spot in the batting order except the ninth

having at least one hit. Michael Johnson went three for five with an

opposite-field homerun and six RBIs. Kyle Frank, who came into the game

hitting just .240, went three for five with five RBIs and hit the first

homerun of his career. Casey Left fielder Stone returned from a one-game

suspension to give his team a lift with four hits, including two doubles.

"We came off a high yesterday and that's the funny thing about baseball,"

said Sheppard. "It was a tough loss. At this time of the season, anytime you

lose it's a tough loss, but especially when you lose like that it's a little

tough to take."

Schmidt pitched 5 innings for the win.

Jarrod Schmidt (7-3) pitched five innings to get the win for Clemson. He

gave up four hits and three runs. Ryan Childs gave up one run in two innings

and B.J. Lamura shut out Seton Hall over the final two innings.

Clemson has two chances on Sunday to advance to a Super Regional against the

winner of the Coral Gables, Fl. Regional.

"Maybe we're peaking offensively at the right time," said Leggett. "At least

we're swinging the bats a lot more confidently at the right time anyway."

Clemson will start Matt Henrie (5-3, 3.21 ERA) on Sunday. Leggett wouldn't name

a starter for a second game, if one is necessary. "I'm not looking that far

forward," he said. "We want to take care of business early regardless of who

we're playing."

POST-GAME QUOTES

Winning Coach (Jack Leggett, Clemson)

"We pitched well today. Jarrod Schmidt did a nice job on the mound. Again, we played well defensively. I think we've played two ball games in a row without making an error. We're playing good defense right now, which is the key to our success. It was nice to see us break out today and swing the bats very well. We got more production from Kyle Frank, Chad Coder and Ryan Riley. That makes the difference in our team. And of course plugging Casey Stone back in there to come up with four hits. It's good to see him back, he gives us a lift. We're peaking offensively at the right time or at least swinging the bats a lot more confidently at the right time."

"We tried to do the best we could to play everybody today. We got everybody in the ball game in the fifth inning. It was good to see those guys get some regional experience."

"We had some good innings in the middle of the ball game. We were hot offensively at the time. We were taking care of business, swinging the bats aggressively. We were getting on base, getting big hits, and taking advantage of any mistakes that they made. I was really pleased with how we played offensively this game. If we continue to play like that in the batters box and continue to play aggressively while we're on the bases like we have been, then we're a pretty good baseball team."

Losing Coach (Rob Sheppard, Seton Hall)

"There is not a whole to say about this one. Clemson was very good today and they really have shown themselves to be the cream of the crop in this regional so far. They pitched and hit very well, and we did not play very good baseball today. My hats off to them for they way the broke out offensively and the way they played as a team."

"We were coming off a high yesterday with our win in the first game so that makes this an even tougher loss. That is the beauty about baseball though. We now have a chance to come out for another nine innings and try to it all again."

BOX SCORE

Clemson University 24 (40-20)

Player AB R H BI

Ryan Riley 2b 4 4 3 1

Ryan Klosterman ph/2b 3 0 0 0

Casey Stone lf 4 4 4 1

Zane Green ph/lf 3 0 0 0

Jeff Baker 3b 4 2 2 2

Russell Triplett ss 3 1 1 0

Khalil Greene ss/3b 5 3 1 0

Michael Johnson 1b 5 4 3 6

Jarrod Schmidt p 4 3 3 3

Jon Smith ph/dh 2 0 0 0

Chad Coder cf 4 1 3 4

Kyle Frank rf 6 2 3 5

Steve Pyzik c 2 0 0 0

Seth Miller c 3 0 0 0

Ryan Childs p 0 0 0 0

B.J. LaMura p 0 0 0 0

Totals...... 52 24 23 22

Seton Hall 4 (33-22-1)

Player AB R H BI

Joe Cuervo rf 5 1 1 3

Mike Bascom cf 2 0 0 0

Garrett Weir cf 2 0 0 0

Casey Grimm lf 1 0 0 0

Matt Cuttruff lf 0 0 0 0

Brian Leighton 1b 4 0 0 0

Adam Arslanian c 3 0 1 0

Nate Meyl c 1 0 0 0

Kevin Leighton dh 3 0 0 0

Josh Schuck 2b 2 1 0 0

Todd Crawford 2b/3b 1 0 0 0

Joe Scott 3b 2 1 2 0

Kyle Williams 2b 1 0 0 0

Chris Carter ss 3 1 1 0

Santiago Chi ss 1 0 0 0

Shawn Tarkington p 0 0 0 0

Mike Wren p 0 0 0 0

Buddy Hausmann p 0 0 0 0

Elvys Quezada p 0 0 0 0

Bryan Haggerty p 0 0 0 0

Jeff Barrow p 0 0 0 0

Totals...... 31 4 5 3

Score by Innings R H E

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

Clemson University.. 306 564 000 - 24 23 0

Seton Hall.......... 000 031 000 - 4 5 4

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

E - Scott(17); Carter 3(21). DP - Clemson 1; Seton Hall 1. LOB - Clemson 7;

Seton Hall 6. 2B - STONE 2(17); JOHNSON(12); SCHMIDT 2(10); CODER(12). HR -

RILEY(6);JOHNSON(16); FRANK(1); Cuervo(6). HBP - JOHNSON; K. Leighton; Scott. SF -

CODER(3).SB - GREENE 2(16).

Clemson University IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO

Jarrod Schmidt W,7-3 5.0 4 3 3 3 3 0 0 2 0 19 24 8 4

Ryan Childs 2.0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 6 7 2 2

B.J. LaMura 2.0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 6 6 0 2

Seton Hall IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO

Shawn Tarkington L,6-3 2.2 6 7 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 15 15 4 3

Mike Wren 0.2 6 6 6 0 0 0 1 0 0 8 8 2 0

Buddy Hausmann 0.2 4 6 5 2 0 0 0 1 0 6 9 0 1

Elvys Quezada 1.0 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 5 6 1 1

Bryan Haggerty 2.0 4 4 3 1 1 3 0 0 0 10 12 2 3

Jeff Barrow 2.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 8 2 4

WP - CHILDS(5); Tarkington(11); Haggerty 3(5). HB - SCHMIDT 2; Hausmann. BK

- Wren(2).

Strikeouts - KLOSTERMAN; JOHNSON; SMITH; Cuervo 2; Weir 2; Arslanian; Meyl; K.

Leighton; Crawford. Walks - GREENE 2; CODER; MILLER; Grimm 3; Schuck.

Umpires - Home:Kevin Daugherty 1st:Wade Ford 2nd:Dick Flaherty 3rd:Dave

Smith Start: 2:58 Time: 3:02 Attendance: 3986

Game notes:

Hausmann faced 5 batters in the 5th.

BONUS COVERAGE

Clemson, SC-Jarrod Schmidt had three hits and drove in three runs at

the plate, and allowed just three runs in five innings of pitching to

earn the victory, leading Clemson to a 24-4 victory over Seton Hall

in the winners bracket game of the Clemson Regional Saturday

afternoon.

Schmidt had 3 hits and 3 rbi.

The second-seeded Tigers now advance to the Championship game

on Sunday at 1:00 PM. That game had originally been scheduled for

2:00 PM, but was moved up to 1:00 PM due to the possibility of

inclement weather in the Clemson area late Sunday afternoon.

Seton Hall will meet South Alabama in the 7:00 PM elimination

game on Saturday night. The winner of that 7:00 PM game will meet

the Tigers Sunday.

The 24 runs scored by the Tigers tied a school record for

runs in an NCAA Tournament game, quite an accomplishment considering

Saturday's game was the school's 129th NCAA Tournament in history.

Clemson also scored 24 runs in an NCAA game on June 5, 1959, a 24-2

victory over Florida State in a regional contest in Gastonia, NC.

Clemson was still six runs short of the overall NCAA Tournament

record of 30 runs scored by Arizona State in a victory over UNLV in

1978.

The 24 runs tied a season high for the Tigers, who had 24

runs in a win over New York Tech in April. The Tigers had a season

high 23 hits and a season high 22 RBIs in registering their 40th

victory of the season. It marks the 16th straight year that Clemson

has reached the 40-win plateau. The Tigers are now 40-20 for the

season. Seton Hall fell to 33-22-1.

Six different Tigers had at least three hits, led by senior

outfielder Casey Stone, who had a four-for-four day at the plate. He

had two doubles and scored four runs in the contest. Michael Johnson

had a team best six RBIs in the game thanks to a single, double and a

home run and scored four runs.

Ryan Riley added three hits and scored four runs, while Kyle

Frank, Clemson's number-eight man in the order, had five RBIs and

three hits. Chad Coder added four RBIs and three hits.

Clemson also played well defensively, recording its second

straight errorless game in the NCAA Tournament and 20th errorless

game this season.

Clemson jumped out to a three-run lead in the top of the

first inning. Riley and Stone set the table with singles to lead off

the game. Two outs later Michael Johnson set the tone for the day

with a three-run homer to the opposite (left) field. It was the

second home run of the tournament for Johnson and his 16th of the

year. He now has five home runs in his last seven games after going

14 straight games without a homer.

Clemson added six more runs in the third. Riley led off the

inning with a home run to left field, his sixth of the year, but his

first since March 25th. Later in the inning, Kyle Frank homered to

right, his first career home run in 283 at bats as a Clemson player.

The Tigers added five runs on six hits in the fourth inning,

including a two-run single by Frank. Clemson scored six more in the

fifth as 11 Tigers came to the plate. Schmidt had a double to right

to drive in two runs in that inning.

On the mound, Schmidt shut down the Pirates over the first four

innings on just one hit. He allowed a three-run homer to Joe Guervo

in the fifth, but those were the only runs he allowed in the game.

The Pirates added another run in the sixth off reliever Ryan Childs.

Schmidt improved his record to 7-3 for the year. He has not

suffered a loss since losing to Georgia on March 28th. He is now 2-0

in NCAA play over his career. In his two victories the Tigers have

scored a combined 45 runs. He was the benefactor of Clemson's 21-3

victory over Middle Tennessee State last year.

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