Baseball
CLEMSON DROPS OUT OF RANKINGS FOR FIRST TIME AFTER HOME SWEEP BY DUKE AMID 7-GAME LOSING STREAK
- 2019-04-23 17:17:53
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The Tigers suffered a similar rut in the middle of last season, but they are now mired in the worst losing streak of the Monte Lee era after their second consecutive weekend sweep, this time at home against Duke. The 7-game losing streak began at FSU, which had lost 5 of its last 6 before the weekend series with the Tigers. The Tigers rebounded nicely just two days later in Athens against No.4 UGA but blew a 7th-inning 2-0 lead thanks to a walk and a fluke error. The game went 20 innings--the most ever for both schools--and the Tigers lost 3-2 despite not allowing an earned run for the first 19 innings. That seemed to carry over into the weekend, as the Tigers led 8-7 with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the 9th on Friday night but lost 9-8 to Duke. They proceeded to lose 5-3 on Saturday and 9-8 again on Sunday for the sweep. The Tigers were ranked as high as No.13 just two weeks ago and had 8 players batting over .300. They are now unranked and the only player batting over .300 is Kier Meredith, who has been out for the last month with a leg injury.
The Tigers have dropped from an 11-3 ACC record and an extra-inning game away from sweeping No.10 Louisville to 11-9 in the conference. In addition to Kier Meredith being out, starting center fielder Bryce Teodosio missed the entire Duke series due to an eye injury.
The Tigers have two mid-week games at home against Winthrop and Tennessee Tech. Hopefully they will be able to end this streak and create some positive momentum before they go back on the road to play ACC rival, No.12 Georgia Tech, in Atlanta this weekend.
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