Tigers Drop ACC Tournament Opener To Miami |
by Dan Scott
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Correspondent
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Wed May 21 16:11:22 GMT-04:00 2008
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Clemson's momentum heading into the ACC Tournament came to a screeching halt Wednesday in Jacksonville.
Top-seeded Miami jumped on Tigers' starter D.J. Mitchell for three runs in the first inning and never looked back, rolling to a 7-1 victory at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The loss snaps Clemson's five-game winning streak.
The early runs proved to be all that Hurricanes' starter Chris Hernandez would need.
Hernandez, the ACC Freshman of the Year and a First Team All-Conference performer, ran his record to a perfect 11-0 by scattering four hits over eight innings. He struck out 10 and didn't walk a batter.
And he made it look easy in the process.
Hernandez allowed just four singles, never more than one in an inning. Two of the hits were of the infield variety.
Meanwhile, Mitchell (6-5) was doomed by his early difficulties. After walking back-to-back hitters with one out in the first and wild-pitching both into scoring position, the Clemson (30-26-1) junior was stung by a two-run double on a 3-2 pitch off the bat of Mark Soboleweski.
Sobolewski later scored on a hit by shortstop Ryan Jackson, and Miami led 3-0.
The Hurricanes (44-8) made it 4-0 on a solo home run by Yasmani Grandal in the second, then polished off Mitchell with three runs in the sixth - a double by pinch-hitter Joey Terdoslavich plating one run, and when Kyle Parker had trouble picking up the ball in right a second run scored.
Blake Tekotte drove in the third run of the inning with a base hit to make it 7-0.
Mitchell ended up allowing seven runs (six earned) through six innings. He did strike out 11, which was the most by a Clemson pitcher since 2003 and the most by any pitcher in an ACC Tournament game played in Jacksonville.
Clemson scratched out a run off the Miami bullpen in the ninth, Kyle Parker's RBI groundout bringing in the run.
Mike Freeman had two hits in the losing effort.
The Tigers return to action in the 8 p.m. game Thursday against N.C. State, which lost 10-9 to Georgia Tech in the day's first game. Then after an off day on Friday, Clemson will face the Yellow Jackets at 10 a.m.
CLEMSON QUOTES
CLEMSON HEAD COACH JACK LEGGETT
Overall thoughts on the game...
"It was a tough ballgame. They're just a good team. Their offense is as good as it gets from top to bottom and they played us well all three times this year. We played them tough a couple of times down there and the kid Hernandez was just very good today. For a kid who's a freshman, throws strikes as much as he does and pounds the strike zone. He had his cutter going and he knows how to pitch. We really never got anything going at all offensively. That was really the story of the day.
"D.J., I thought, once we got past that first inning, pitched well and had some good stuff going for us. We just didn't get enough base runners on or make anything exciting happen. Whenever we got a leadoff man on base, we seemed to hit into a double play. They're also a very good team defensively, and they've got some really experienced players in the infield and they're just playing well."
On approaching the rest of the tournament...
"We just have to come out and play tomorrow against another first-team all-ACC pitcher in (Clayton) Shunick for NC State, so we have another great talent tomorrow night. He was good the last time we played them, we were fortunate to beat them 2-0. Runs are going to be tough to come by tomorrow night. We're going to have to battle and you've just got to try to win a couple of ballgames."
CLEMSON STUDENT-ATHLETE (D.J. MITCHELL, JR, RHP)
On if this outing compared to his prior against Miami...
"It kinda does. I remembered the first time I faced them there was one inning that I struggled with, and then (it was) the same right off the bat today in the first inning. We're not going to give up. We've got two more games at least, and I know we're going to come out there and battle. We're just going to put this one behind us and get after it again tomorrow."
On settling down after the first inning...
"I think I was probably trying to do too much. I didn't really have a good feeling the first part of the game, but then after the later part of that inning, I started to feel a little better. After that, I started to get into a groove. You've got to be ready to go from the get go, and I wasn't today and I didn't have it going in the beginning, and by then, it was a little too late."
CLEMSON STUDENT-ATHLETE (MIKE FREEMAN, SO, INF)
On the performance of Miami starting pitcher Chris Hernandez...
"He just pounded the zone, didn't walk anybody, located inside and outside. It's just tough when you locate like that. It's hard for us to get anything going."
"Coming into the tournament, we felt real confident after swinging the bat real well against UCF and then the weekday game before we swung the bat real well also. Today, I guess, we weren't doing anything much different. That freshman pitcher came out and kept us off balance and couldn't really get anything going. Whenever we thought we did, then something would happen; ground ball double play and we'd be out of it. It was just a tough game against a good pitcher and a good team and it's going to go one way or the other and it didn't go our way today."
2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball
Clemson vs #2 Miami
May 21, 2008 at Jacksonville, Fla. (Baseball Grounds)
Clemson 1 (30-26-1)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
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Mike Freeman 2b.......... 4 0 2 0 0 2 1 4 1
Jeff Schaus lf........... 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0
Kyle Parker rf........... 4 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0
Doug Hogan c............. 4 0 1 0 0 1 13 0 0
Ben Paulsen 1b........... 4 0 0 0 0 2 8 0 2
Stan Widmann ss.......... 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0
Wilson Boyd cf........... 3 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
Matt Sanders 3b.......... 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
J.D. Burgess dh.......... 2 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
D.J. Mitchell p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Casey Harman p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Totals................... 31 1 6 1 1 10 24 7 4
Miami 7 (44-8)
Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
Blake Tekotte cf......... 4 0 1 1 0 1 2 0 0
Jemile Weeks 2b.......... 3 1 1 0 1 1 3 3 1
Yonder Alonso 1b......... 3 1 1 0 1 1 10 1 0
Mark Sobolewski 3b....... 4 1 1 2 0 2 0 4 2
Dennis Raben rf.......... 4 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
Ryan Jackson ss.......... 3 1 1 1 1 0 1 4 0
Adan Severino lf......... 4 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 1
Dave DiNatale dh......... 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
Joey Terdoslavich ph/dh. 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Yasmani Grandal c........ 3 1 1 1 0 2 9 1 0
Chris Hernandez p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
P.J. Fisher p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Kyle Bellamy p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Totals................... 32 7 8 6 3 13 27 13 4
Score by Innings R H E
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Clemson............. 000 000 001 - 1 6 1
Miami............... 310 003 00X - 7 8 1
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E - PARKER(8); Sobolewski(14). DP - UM 3. LOB - CU 4; UM 4. 2B -
Sobolewski(12); Terdoslavich(7). HR - Grandal, Y.(4). SB - WIDMANN(14).
Clemson IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
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D.J. Mitchell....... 6.0 8 7 6 3 11 26 29
Casey Harman........ 2.0 0 0 0 0 2 6 6
Miami IP H R ER BB SO AB BF
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Chris Hernandez..... 8.0 4 0 0 0 10 26 26
P.J. Fisher......... 0.1 1 1 1 1 0 2 3
Kyle Bellamy........ 0.2 1 0 0 0 0 3 3
Win - Hernandez, C (11-0). Loss - MITCHELL (6-5). Save - None.
WP - MITCHELL(11). PB - HOGAN(15).
Umpires - HP: Scott Erby 1B: Scott Graham 2B: Arthur Schmidt 3B: Bryant
Woodall Start: 2:46 pm Time: 2:16 Attendance:
Weather: Cloudy, 84 deg, Wind W 15 mph
Game: ACC02
Play-by-Play
2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball
Clemson vs #2 Miami - Play-by-Play
May 21, 2008 at Jacksonville, Fla. (Baseball Grounds)
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Clemson............. 000 000 001 - 1 6 1
Miami............... 310 003 00X - 7 8 1
-------------------------------------------
Clemson starters: 5/2b FREEMAN; 3/lf SCHAUS; 25/rf PARKER; 30/c HOGAN; 10/1b
PAULSEN; 6/ss WIDMANN; 12/cf BOYD; 21/3b SANDERS; 1/dh BURGESS; 9/p MITCHELL;
Miami starters: 9/cf Tekotte, B.; 2/2b Weeks, J; 19/1b Alonso, Y.; 13/3b
Sobolewski; 18/rf Raben, D.; 8/ss Jackson, R.; 30/lf Severino, A.; 7/dh
DiNatale, D.; 24/c Grandal, Y.; 27/p Hernandez, C;
Clemson 1st - No play. FREEMAN struck out swinging. SCHAUS popped up to
1b. PARKER struck out looking. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Miami 1st - Tekotte, B. grounded out to 2b. Weeks, J walked. Alonso, Y.
walked; Weeks, J advanced to second. Alonso, Y. advanced to second on a wild
pitch; Weeks, J advanced to third on a wild pitch. Sobolewski doubled to left
field, 2 RBI; Alonso, Y. scored; Weeks, J scored. Raben, D. grounded out to 2b;
Sobolewski advanced to third. Jackson, R. singled up the middle, RBI;
Sobolewski scored. Jackson, R. advanced to second on a passed ball. Severino,
A. struck out swinging. 3 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB.
Clemson 2nd - HOGAN struck out swinging, out at first c to 1b. PAULSEN
struck out looking. WIDMANN struck out swinging. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0
LOB.
Miami 2nd - DiNatale, D. struck out looking. Grandal, Y. homered to
right field, RBI. Tekotte, B. grounded out to 2b. Weeks, J struck out swinging.
1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Clemson 3rd - BOYD singled up the middle. SANDERS grounded into double
play 3b to 2b to 1b; BOYD out on the play. BURGESS grounded out to 2b. 0
runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Miami 3rd - Alonso, Y. lined out to rf. Sobolewski struck out swinging.
Raben, D. struck out swinging. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Clemson 4th - FREEMAN singled down the lf line. SCHAUS struck out
looking. PARKER grounded into double play 3b to 2b to 1b; FREEMAN out on the
play. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Miami 4th - Jackson, R. out at first p to ss to 1b. Severino, A.
grounded out to 1b unassisted. DiNatale, D. struck out swinging. 0 runs, 0
hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Clemson 5th - HOGAN grounded out to 3b, bunt. PAULSEN struck out
swinging. WIDMANN grounded out to ss. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Miami 5th - Grandal, Y. struck out swinging. Tekotte, B. struck out
swinging. Weeks, J singled up the middle. Alonso, Y. singled down the lf line;
Weeks, J advanced to third. Sobolewski struck out swinging. 0 runs, 2 hits,
0 errors, 2 LOB.
Clemson 6th - BOYD flied out to lf. SANDERS singled to shortstop.
BURGESS struck out swinging. FREEMAN struck out looking. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0
errors, 1 LOB.
Miami 6th - Raben, D. singled through the right side. Jackson, R.
walked; Raben, D. advanced to second. Severino, A. struck out swinging.
Terdoslavich pinch hit for DiNatale, D.. Terdoslavich doubled, advanced to
third, RBI; Jackson, R. advanced to third, scored on a fielding error by rf;
Raben, D. scored. Grandal, Y. struck out swinging. Tekotte, B. singled to left
field, RBI; Terdoslavich scored, unearned. Weeks, J grounded out to 2b;
Tekotte, B. advanced to second. 3 runs, 3 hits, 1 error, 1 LOB.
Clemson 7th - Terdoslavich to dh. SCHAUS singled down the lf line.
PARKER grounded into double play ss to 1b; SCHAUS out on the play. HOGAN
grounded out to 3b. 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 LOB.
Miami 7th - HARMAN to p for MITCHELL. Alonso, Y. struck out looking.
Sobolewski lined out to 2b. Raben, D. flied out to lf. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0
errors, 0 LOB.
Clemson 8th - PAULSEN flied out to cf. WIDMANN reached on a fielding
error by 3b. BOYD struck out swinging; WIDMANN stole second. SANDERS grounded
out to ss. 0 runs, 0 hits, 1 error, 1 LOB.
Miami 8th - Jackson, R. grounded out to 1b unassisted. Severino, A.
struck out looking. Terdoslavich grounded out to ss. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0
errors, 0 LOB.
Clemson 9th - Fisher, P. to p for Hernandez, C. BURGESS walked. FREEMAN
singled through the right side; BURGESS advanced to second. SCHAUS flied out to
cf; BURGESS advanced to third. Bellamy, K. to p for Fisher, P.. PARKER reached
on a fielder's choice to shortstop, RBI; FREEMAN out at second ss to 2b;
BURGESS scored. HOGAN singled to left center; PARKER advanced to second.
PAULSEN out at first 1b to p. 1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB.
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