Tigers Fall to #2 Gamecocks, 6-3 |
CLEMSON, SC -- The biggest game in the history of the baseball series between
Clemson and South Carolina was no contest. No. 2 South Carolina (33-4) grabbed a quick lead and survived a brief threat by No. 8 Clemson (29-8) to take a 6-3 win in front of 6,134 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium Wednesday night. "I feels awfully good to come here in front of a packed house and get a win," said South Carolina coach Ray Tanner. "It says a lot about your club." South Carolina's freshman shortstop Drew Meyer gave the Gamecocks a quick 2-0 lead with a homerun over the right field fence. Meyer, the second batter in the game, hit a Scott Berney (7-3) pitch out with leadoff hitter Nate Janowicz on first. Brandon Pack added a run in the third with a homerun to right that gave South Carolina a 3-0 lead. That was nearly all South Carolina starter Kip Bouknight (10-0) needed to win. "It's hard to come back when you give him a 3-0 lead and then later a 5-0 lead," said Clemson coach Jack Leggett. Janowicz drove in two more in the fourth with a single after Marcus McBeth reached on a double down the left field line and Chris Plummer reached on a single. John McHenry was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Janowicz drove a pitch from reliever Thomas Boozer up the middle to drive in McBeth and Plummer. Clemson scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to 5-1. Michael Johnson reached on a single to lead off the inning. Meyer botched a double play ground ball by Jarrod Schmidt to set up an RBI single by Casey Stone. South Carolina added a run in the top of the sixth. Meyer drove in Plummer with a sacrifice fly to give South Carolina a 6-1 lead. However, Clemson responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning. And it was nearly many more runs. Jeff Baker, Patrick Boyd and Brian Ellis loaded the bases for Clemson with consecutive singles. The next batter, Michael Johnson, drove the ball to deep right field where it hit the top of the fence. The scoreboard had already showed four runs scoring for Clemson when Johnson had to stop with an RBI-single. "It's a game of inches," said Leggett. "We wanted to make sure that he didn't make a running catch on it." Schmidt drove in Boyd with a sacrifice fly to cut the South Carolina lead to 6-3. However, the inning ended without any more damage by Clemson after Ellis was thrown out at the plate on a ball hit back to Bouknight. The two teams play again next Wednesday night. BOXSCORE
South Carolina 6 (33-4) Clemson 3 (29-8)
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