COLUMBIA, S.C. — Growing up in Medford, N.Y., Andrew Ciufo understands what a good baseball rivalry looks like.
He is a diehard New York Yankees fan.
Obviously, he does not like the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees and Rex Sox are the biggest rivals in Major League Baseball, much like Clemson and South Carolina are in college baseball.
“I think it goes hand-in-hand,” Ciufo said. “I have been to a Yankees-Red Sox playoff game. The atmosphere was awesome. It was really cool being out there. Every time a big play happens the whole stadium erupts.
“So, for me, this was the first time I really have ever been a part of an environment like this.”
No one made bigger plays on Saturday or caused the 9,284 fans at Segra Park in Columbia to erupt more than Ciufo. Of course, the biggest eruption came in the bottom of the 12th inning when Ciufo blasted Garrett Gainey’s 2-0 offering over the left centerfield wall to lift No. 10 Clemson to a 5-4 win over the 19th-ranked Gamecocks.
“It was by far the most fun game I have ever been a part of,” Ciufo said.
It’s understandable why Ciufo had so much fun. Besides his walk-off home run, the first by a Tiger in the history of the rivalry, he also had two more hits in his six at-bats and made one unbelievable play after another from his shortstop position.
“He saved a game-tying run early in the game,” Clemson head coach Erik Bakich said.
The play Bakich is talking about came in the top of the sixth inning when, with two outs, Ciufo robbed South Carolina’s Parker Noland of a sure two-out RBI that would have tied the game at 2. With Talmadge LeCroy sitting on third base, Ciufo picked off Noland’s groundball deep in the hole at short and made an unbelievable throw to first to end the inning.
“It feels good but hats off to our pitchers for doing the job and getting ground balls and being really efficient all night,” Ciufo said.
The junior transfer from Georgetown made a similar play on what looked like a sure infield hit by Ethan Petry to end the eighth inning. He later started a key double-play in the 10th inning that helped the Tigers erase a hit-by-pitch-runner to lead-off the inning.
In all, Ciufo participated in six putouts from his shortstop position.
“Once you experience (this rivalry) once, you get it,” Bakich said. “I experienced it once at Sarge Frye Field twenty-two years ago, and it was like, ‘Okay! I get it.’
“Andrew Ciufo was the same way tonight. This is the most fun he has ever had on a baseball field in his life. It’s a credit to the atmosphere, the quality of both clubs and the intense battle that this game was, which really could have gone either way.”
Because of Ciufo, on this night in Columbia, it went Clemson’s way.
“I think (the rivalry) definitely lived up to the hype,” he said. “This is kind of what we were preparing for. A hard-fought game between two really good teams. It came down to the wire.”
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