ATHENS, Ga. — It wasn’t the greatest hit of his career, but Robert Jolly ran as hard as he could.

As the ball rolled towards Georgia third baseman Mitchell Webb, with one out in the top of the ninth inning, Jolly hustled down the line as fast as he could. Knowing Webb was going to have to first, try and hold Jordan Greene at second base, and then throw over to first.

But Jolly’s speed caught Webb off guard and the third baseman rushed his throw which was wide of first and up the line, allowing Greene to come home with the go-ahead run in the 12th-ranked Tigers’ 11-6 victory on Tuesday.

“Coach (Monte) Lee teaches hustle all the time. It doesn’t take any talent to hustle,” Jolly said afterwards. “In that big of a situation you have to put the ball in play in that certain at-bat to get the guy over to third or potentially get him in.

“You have to put pressure on the defense. When he sees someone hustling down to first base, it puts more pressure on him to field the play and get it over there. That’s what caused the mishap throw.”

The Tigers (22-7) added on a few more insurance runs after that as Eli White singled to right field to score Maleeke Gibson, who was running for Jolly, while Chris Okey and Seth Beer had RBI singles as well.

Clemson tallied five runs on four hits and the one Georgia error in the top of the ninth inning for the five-run victory at Foley Field in Athens, Ga.

“You could see off the bat that it was going to be a tough play because he had to come get that ball,” Lee said. “Jolly got down the line well and the throw was a little bit up the line just enough for us to score the run. Things opened up for us after that.”

Beer, who extended his hitting streak to 25 games, was 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs, including a two-run home run in the top of eighth inning which tied the game at six at the time. Chase Pinder also had two hits for the Tigers as did White and Okey.

It wasn’t a pretty win for Clemson, which seems to be the theme this year. In all, the Tigers used seven pitchers before Pat Krall came on with one out in the bottom of the eighth to shut Georgia down.

Krall got the win and improved to 4-0 on the year.

The Tigers pitching and defense took an off night. Clemson pitchers walked nine batters, while Georgia stole five bases on All-American catcher Chris Okey. The Tigers also had two fielding errors by Weston Wilson at second base and by Okey.

“We just find ways to win games if we can keep it close,” Lee said. “Our guys play with a lot of confidence. We don’t get tight and we don’t get nervous. I’m proud of our guys. They just compete. They will compete for nine innings and they will give great effort.

“It’s not always pretty. We walked way too many and made errors. We do some things sometimes, where I add about ten gray hairs a game. But at the end of the day I’m proud of them because they will go out and compete for you.”

Georgia (17-13) grabbed a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the seventh inning when Ryley Gilliam threw a wild pitch and Keegan McGovern scored from third base.

Beer’s bomb, which cleared the scoreboard in right centerfield, tied the game at 6, plus it kept Beer’s hitting streak alive, which now stands at 25 games. It ranks fifth all-time in Clemson history.

“It really did not cross my mind at that point. I was just trying to get on,” Beer said. “At that point we were down. I was just trying to do my job and get on base. I was looking for something in the zone. Obviously, they were jamming me really hard and in so I started to look for those pitches.

“He kept peppering that same spot. I fouled it off and fouled it off and finally he threw the same pitch and it was the same spot and I put a good swing on it.”

Clemson took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning when K.J. Bryant got a one-out single up the middle to score Greene, who led off the inning with a base hit to centerfield and reached third on a passed ball and a wild pitch.

The Tigers loaded the bases with a White hit and a drawn walk by Okey with two outs for Beer, who drove in his first run of the night after being hit by Georgia starter Kevin Smith for a second time in the game.

Georgia tied in the game in the bottom of the second, but the Tigers regained the lead in the top of the fourth inning when Wilson drew a two-out bases loaded walk, allowing White to come home with the go-ahead run. White reached after Trevor Kieboom dropped his routine pop up to first base.

But a Clemson error by Wilson in the bottom of the fifth inning allowed the Bulldogs to take the lead as Wilson tried to field a Daniel Nichols’ slow grounder to second. He got to the ball, but he threw it in the dirt and Chris Williams could not dig it out as the ball got passed him and rolled to the first-base dugout.

Wilson’s error allowed Georgia’s Skyler Weber and Keegan McGovern to score for the 4-3 lead.

The Bulldogs extended the lead to 5-3 after six innings, but Williams’ bomb to left centerfield cleared the wall with Wilson on first for a two-run shot, tying the game at five. Wilson led off the inning with a walk.