Tigers Get to Thirty Wins with Victory Over UCF

by Dan Scott - Correspondent - Fri May 07 22:22:25 GMT-04:00 2004

CLEMSON - So much about the game of baseball can be learned from statistics, yet anyone who follows the game closely will tell you there are times numbers can be misleading.

Take, for instance, Friday night's opener of a three-game series at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson. The Tigers, whose team batting average of .295 ranked 119th in the country, entertained the University of Central Florida. The Golden Knights' team earned run average (2.83) is fourth best in the nation.

Further, UCF's starting pitcher, Matt Fox, had the country's seventh best individual ERA at 1.48.

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So naturally Clemson battered the highly-touted Fox (10-2) for seven runs in five innings en route to an 8-5 victory over the Golden Knights before a crowd of 3,457.

It was the Tigers' 30th victory of the season (vs. 16 losses), and the 21st win in their last 27 games.

Clemson pounded Fox for five runs and five hits in the first inning. Lou Santangelo had the big blow, a two-run double to the right field corner. Brad McCann, Russell Triplett and Tyler Colvin also had run-scoring hits off the UCF (35-11) junior.

The Tigers added a run in the third on an RBI fielder's choice by John Ingram, and another in the fourth when Andy D'Alessio walked with the bases loaded.

By the time Fox was lifted after the fifth, he was charged with seven earned runs on nine hits, and his ERA jumped over half a run to 2.14.

"We were seeing the ball good early in the game," Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. "He's not afraid to challenge you with the fastball, and we hit the fastball good tonight. He was missing with his breaking ball and getting a little bit behind in the count, and we took advantage of it."

Meanwhile, Clemson sophomore lefty Robert Rohrbaugh (4-3) was cruising.

Rohrbaugh allowed a single run in the first inning, then shut down the Golden Knights without a run for the next six. Finally, in the eighth with Clemson ahead 8-1, UCF's bats woke up long enough to chase Rohrbaugh.

A solo home run by Kevin Richmond - his first of the year for UCF and the first allowed by Rohrbaugh in his career, began the inning. Rohrbaugh then gave up singles to two of the next three hitters, surrounded by a fly ball out to center.

At that point Rohrbaugh was pulled in favor of Jeff Hahn, who promptly gave up a run-scoring single to Dee Brown. Hahn then walked back-to-back hitters to force in a run, making it 8-4, before he was yanked in favor of relief ace Patrick Hogan.

Hogan got the second out on a force play at second base - with a run scoring to make it 8-5 - then ended the uprising by striking out Drew Butera with runners on the corners.

Rohrbaugh finished with 7 1/3 innings pitched, allowing four earned runs, striking out four and walking none.

"That's a good outing for him," Leggett said. "He threw strikes. He got past that first inning, made the mistake there with the runner on second, but other than that pitched well through the seventh inning. He's one of those guys, when he gets on a roll, the team plays good defense behind him. And we played good defense tonight."

Hogan closed it out with a perfect ninth inning for his 10th save of the season.

"He's the go-to guy," Leggett said. "I didn't really want to go to him until the ninth inning, but he came in and did the job."

Clemson's final run came in the seventh inning on an RBI single from Tony Sipp.

The teams return to action for game two of the series at 7 p.m. tonight. Lefty Tyler Lumsden (3-2) will start for the Tigers, going against UCF's Kyle Bono (7-0).

Central Florida 5 (35-11)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

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Timpner, Clay cf......... 5 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 0

Ray, Matt 2b............. 5 1 1 0 0 1 1 3 1

Brown, Dee lf............ 4 1 1 1 0 1 2 0 0

Bono, Ryan 1b............ 3 0 2 1 1 0 5 0 0

Bernhard, Marshall 3b.... 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 1

Lambert, Dave ph........ 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0

Cooper, Jon 3b.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Rose, Chandler ss........ 4 0 1 1 0 0 3 2 0

Butera, Drew c........... 4 0 0 0 0 3 9 0 3

Richmond, Kevin dh....... 4 1 2 1 0 1 0 0 0

Wade, Drake rf........... 3 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 1

Mann, David ph.......... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Fox, Matt p.............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Billek, Mike p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Bordwine, Brett p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Mercadante, Mike p...... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals................... 36 5 11 5 2 8 24 8 6

Clemson 8 (30-16)

Player AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

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Sipp, Tony cf/lf......... 4 1 1 1 1 0 6 0 2

Storrer, Travis 2b....... 5 2 3 0 0 1 1 0 1

McCann, Brad 3b.......... 5 1 2 1 0 1 1 2 2

Santangelo, Lou c........ 5 1 1 2 0 2 7 1 0

Harvey, Kris rf.......... 3 1 1 0 2 1 1 0 0

Hub, Ryan rf............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

D'Alessio, Andy 1b....... 2 1 0 1 2 2 4 2 1

Evans, Garrick ph/cf.... 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Triplett, Russell ss..... 3 1 2 1 1 0 3 3 3

Colvin, Tyler lf/1b...... 3 0 1 1 0 0 3 0 0

Ingram, John dh.......... 4 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2

Rohrbaugh, Robert p...... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

Hahn, Jeff p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Hogan, Patrick p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals................... 35 8 11 8 6 9 27 9 10

Score by Innings R H E

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Central Florida..... 100 000 040 - 5 11 0

Clemson............. 501 100 10X - 8 11 0

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DP - Clemson 1. LOB - C. Florida 6; Clemson 10.

2B - TIMPNER(11); SANTANGELO(8); TRIPLETT(12);

COLVIN(7). HR - RICHMOND(1). HBP - COLVIN. SB -

SIPP(16); STORRER(4); McCANN(2). CS - TIMPNER(5).

Central Florida IP H R ER BB SO AB BF

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Fox, Matt........... 5.0 9 7 7 4 5 24 29

Billek, Mike........ 2.0 2 1 1 2 3 8 10

Bordwine, Brett..... 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 2 2

Mercadante, Mike.... 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1

Clemson IP H R ER BB SO AB BF

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Rohrbaugh, Robert... 7.1 9 4 4 0 4 29 29

Hahn, Jeff.......... 0.0 1 1 1 2 0 1 3

Hogan, Patrick...... 1.2 1 0 0 0 4 6 6

Win - ROHRBAUGH (4-3). Loss - FOX (10-2).

Save - P. HOGAN (10).

WP - FOX(8). HBP - by FOX (COLVIN).

Umpires - HP: Thomas Price 1B: Billy Pittman

3B: Roger Inman

Start: 7:21 Time: 2:36 Attendance: 3457

HAHN faced 3 batters in the 8th.

Dan Scott covers Clemson University for the Seneca Daily Journal/Clemson Messenger. He also hosts SportsTalk from 9 a.m.-Noon, Monday-Friday, on WCCP-Fm, 104.9. Click here for Dan Scott's SportsTalk discussion board.