Despite taking its first lead of the series against No. 2 Wake Forest in the sixth inning, Clemson ultimately succumbed to the loss, dropping its third straight ACC series by a score of 4-3 on Friday evening at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
It all came down to two runs scored in the eighth and ninth innings by the Demon Deacons that brought Wake Forest back from a one-run deficit. With the loss, the Tigers dropped to 16-12 overall and 2-6 in ACC play.
Wake Forest’s Seth Keener tallied the win while righthander Cam Minacci earned the save. Clemson righthander Jackson Lindley recorded the loss for the Tigers, his third of the season.
“It felt like a heavyweight fight, going toe-to-toe and trading blows, blow for blow, and Wake Forest has obviously a very good team,” head coach Erik Bakich said following Friday’s loss. “They’re having a banner year and they have an elite team with elite players and a bunch of playmakers, a bunch of really good hitters, really good pitchers and they were that much better than we were tonight, we were right there.”
Wake Forest was the first to strike for the second game in a row thanks to outfielder Lucas Costello’s solo shot to left field to give the Demon Deacons the early 1-0 lead after one. After two scoreless innings for both ball clubs, Costello came in clutch yet again for Wake Forest in the fourth, this time hitting an RBI single to left to score Gio Cueto and extend the lead to 2-0 over Clemson.
Following three scoreless innings for the Tigers, Clemson evened things up in the fourth, scoring two runs of its own thanks to second baseman Riley Bertram’s two-RBI single up the middle that scored Cooper Ingle and Caden Grice to tie things up 2-2 after four.
Just two innings later, the Tigers took their first lead of the day in the form of third baseman Blake Wright’s RBI sac fly that scored Ingle and gave Clemson the one-run lead by a score of 3-2 through six innings.
Wake Forest came up with its answer to take back the lead for good, though, thanks to Costello’s RBI sac bunt to first that scored Cueto and Justin Johnson’s RBI single to left center in the eighth and ninth innings respectively to hand Clemson the eventual 4-3 loss.
“This is going to be the thing that is going to make us resilient, tough and it’s going to callus our minds,” Bakich said. “We just need to keep getting back up, keep fighting, keep throwing punches and keep being aggressive… We will get through this.”
Next up, Clemson closes out the series against Wake Forest on Saturday, April 1, at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. on ACCNX.
Dear Old Clemson has some fantastic collectibles from some of Clemson’s current and former baseball stars. Now there is a new way you can support Clemson student-athletes. Purchase collectibles from Dear Old Clemson and the proceeds with go to support Clemson student-athletes. 