Baseball
ERRORS PLAGUE NO.18 CLEMSON IN FIRST LOSS OF SEASON, 5-3 TO NORTHEASTERN
- 2022-03-14 15:13:29
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CLEMSON, SC - All win streaks eventually come to an end, and it just felt like one of those days from about the 3rd inning on. The Tigers made mistake after mistake, and that's usually how win streaks end. It started in the 3rd inning when a 2-out throwing error by Blackwell put the Huskies up 1-0. It looked like Wagner should have taken the grounder, but he let it go through to Blackwell, which forced him to rush the throw wide. But that was just the beginning! In the next inning, Clayton hit the leadoff man and then another error by Blackwell gave them runners at the corners with one out. The Huskies' sac bunt attempt went right to Clayton at the mound, and he had the runner on 3rd dead to rights in a run down, but Wagner somehow missed the catch at 3rd base, and that gave the Huskies another run. They would score 3 more runs in the next inning thanks to another hit batter, a walk, a wild pitch and 3 singles off of Clayton and Dill. That put the Huskies up 5-1, and it just felt like the streak was meant to end at that point.
On top of that, the Tigers were facing a really good pitcher in the Huskies' ace. Ingle's 14-game hit streak also came to an end after going 3-5 on Saturday. That tells you how good the Huskies' starter was. Ingle came literally within an inch of an infield single to end the 8th, and that would have made it 5-4, but that's what kind of day it was. It just wasn't in the cards for the Tigers! They actually out-hit the Huskies 7-6 and had homers by Wagner and French, but they were unfortunately both solo HR's. It was the 4th HR of the season for each of them, tying Grice for the team lead. French's HR was his 3rd in the 8th inning this season and second to lead off the 8th, but it was his first opposite field HR to right. I thought maybe Grice's late HR on Saturday would get him out of his slump, but it didn't. He was 0-4 with 2 K's, which makes him 5-34 with 16 K's over the last 8 games. His batting average has fallen from .385 to .250 over those 8 games. The bright side is that the Tigers won 7 of those 8 and would have won all 8 if not for errors! The one Tiger who had a really good day at the plate was Tyler Corbitt. The transfer from The Citadel was 4-4. The rest of the Tigers struck out 12 times with no walks!
Again, the win streak had to end eventually, and better for the error bug to strike against Northeastern than next weekend in their opening ACC series against Miami! I expect the 14-1 Tigers will move up a spot or two in the polls, maybe as high as No.15. They will host Georgia State on Tuesday!
Post-game interviews are below.
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