On Wednesday night Reed Rohlman delivered for No. 5 Clemson when he hit a walk-off single in the 11th inning allowing the Tigers to defeat Winthrop 6-5.
Wednesday’s win extended the Tigers eight-game winning streak and also improved their overall record to 22-4.
After the game the media spoke with head coach Monte Lee, Rohlman, Ryan Miller and Chris Williams. Here is what we heard:
“Well you’ve got to give credit to Winthrop,” said Lee. “I thought they did an unbelievable job of competing today. Out of all of the teams we’ve played I don’t know if we’ve played a team that put together more quality at-bats than that.”
After Clemson took an early 1-0 lead, Winthrop battled back in the second and third innings to go ahead 4-1.
“They really, really competed in the box,” Lee said. “They were on fastballs. They took good swings. They did a good job with two strikes. It’s just one of those games at the end of the day we are very, very fortunate to come out of that with a win.”
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Clemson rallied to score three runs off of four hits and two sacrifice fly outs to tie the game at four a piece. Catcher, Chris Williams then hit a solo home run in the seventh inning to put the Tigers ahead by one.
“It was a fastball about belt high, middle out and my mindset going up to the plate was just not try to do too much,” said Williams. “I’ve been kind of over swinging I think and I was just trying to barrel the ball and put a good swing on it.”
In the top of the ninth inning Winthrop fought back to tie the game at five. Brooks Crawford took the mound in the 10th inning but then junior, Ryan Miller came in with runners on second and third base with one out. He got out of that jam and continued on, pitching a scoreless and hit-less 1 2/3 innings to get his first win of the season.
“I was just trying to keep us in a position where we could win the game,” Miller said afterwards. “I think that’s what pitching is all about really. Just giving your offense a chance to win it.”
Rohlman, who was not originally in Wednesday’s starting lineup finally ended the game in the 11th inning when he stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. After fouling off several pitches, he blooped a single to center field allowing the Tigers to win 6-5.
“Well the guy was throwing really good pitches and staying off speed later in the count,” Rohlman said. “It got me thinking and I started fouling balls off. He threw a really good pitch low in the zone and kind of ran out of barrel a little bit but that’s baseball. I’m not upset, I’ll take it every day.”
Clemson will now travel to Atlanta for a three-game series with Georgia Tech this upcoming weekend.