Despite fifth-ranked Clemson’s 6-3 loss to Austin Peay Friday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, Ryan Miller came out of the bullpen and pitched as effectively as he could.

The senior set career highs by pitching 4 2/3 innings as well as striking out nine. He only allowed one hit, no runs and two walks.

“I’m just trying to do my job,” Miller said after the game. “Whether it’s me or anybody else behind me I think everybody in the pen is super confident in just about everybody.

“As far as me, I just try to get to two strikes as fast as possible and put them away. That’s really all I think about.”

Miller said his go-to pitches Friday night were his cutter and his fastball.

“I had (my cutter) going pretty well,” he said. “Fastball when I needed it. Today was one of those weird days where I felt like I had more control over my cutter than my fastball.

“Usually it’s the other way around but I made some pitches when I needed to and I guess it worked out for me.”

Coming into a ballgame, especially as early as Miller did Friday night, it can be easy to get caught up in thinking about how deep he has to go. Instead, he tried to focus on one pitch at a time and let the rest take care of itself.

“Just one pitch at a time,” he said. “Sometimes it’s really easy to look ahead and say, ‘Man I have to go five innings, I have to go four innings,’ then you start to lose focus.

“Next thing you know there’s runners on first and second with nobody out so you make it harder on yourself. The best thing to do is just one pitch at a time and don’t lose focus.”

Clemson (37-13) will now look to even the three-game series today at 4 pm back at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

“(Coach Lee) just told us to keep our heads up,” Miller said. “They are a really good club and they played really well.

“They beat us, so the best thing to do like Seth (Beer) said, is shower, clear it, come back tomorrow and tie the series up and then win on Sunday.”