The Clemson Insider takes a look back at No. 14 Clemson’s 10-8 win over Western Carolina on Wednesday night at Hennon Stadium.

What happened?

The Catamounts (11-13) took an early 2-0 lead in the first and the Tigers cut it in half with a single run in the third on Chase Pinder’s RBI groundout. After Western Carolina extended their lead to 3-1 in the fourth inning before Clemson responded with a three-run fifth inning to take their first lead of the game on a Pinder RBI groundout, Eli White RBI single, and Chris Okey RBI double. A Jordan Greene RBI single in the sixth gave the Tigers a 5-3 lead that the Catamounts would cut to a 5-4 advantage with a run in the seventh. Clemson plated five key insurance runs in the ninth as Reed Rohlman earned a RBI with a walk before Chris Williams and K.J. Bryant each had two-run singles to make it 10-4. Western Carolina mounted a comeback with four runs in the bottom of the ninth but it wasn’t quite enough as Clemson won the first game of the home-and-home series.

Game-Changing Moment:

The game had a couple of key moments. The first important moment was Tiger starter Ryley Gilliam settling down after a rocky first inning to allow Clemson (19-6) to come back and take the lead. The other important moment was five important insurance runs in the top of the ninth to give Clemson enough cushion to withstand a Catamount comeback.

What went right?

Gilliam had a nice outing in his first career start, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits and three walks in 6.1 innings. Okey and Williams each had two hits in Clemson’s eight hit attack while Pinder, Williams, and Bryant each had two RBI.

What went wrong?

For the second straight day, the Tigers had some struggles at the plate as they had only eight hits in the game. Defensively, two more errors led to two unearned runs.