Clemson baseball sweeps rivalry series with South Carolina for first time since 1996

Cooper Ingle has had a hit in every game this season, so why would that stop now?

Clemson’s sophomore four-hole hitter smacked his first career home run to lead off the eighth inning in the Tigers’ 5-2 win over the Gamecocks on Sunday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Ingle, who said after the game he was unaware of his hitting streak, finished the weekend finale with four hits on the day and seven total over the three days.

“I truly believe Cooper Ingle’s one of the best hitters in the country,” Clemson head coach Monte Lee said. “I mean, when he walks up to the plate, you talk about a guy that’s super hard to strike out. He’ll take a wall, he can hit the ball gap-to-gap and he does have some pop in the bat. He’s a special talent.”

The Tigers swept the series in a three- or four-game format for the first time since 1996, when Clemson won all four games. They won both games played in 1999 and won three of four in 2006. The series moved to its current three-game format in 2010.

Lee, who was an assistant coach at South Carolina between 2003 and 2008, said the sweep is something he’ll never forget.

“It’s just special,” he said. “It’s humbling to be a part of it, to be a part of (it as) the head coach of a program and in a historic year where you sweep your rival. It’s just one of those things that I’ll always remember and it’ll be a special team, because of that.”

Clemon’s 11-0 start inched the Tigers two games closer to the 13-0 start from 2002. Icing on the proverbial cake was a record crowd of 6,636 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium for the series finale. It broke the previous record of 6,524, which was set March 6, 2016 when Clemson beat South Carolina 4-1 and won the series 2-1.

“They’re 11-0 for a reason,” Gamecocks coach Mark Kingston said of Clemson. “For me, it starts with their pitching. I think their hitters gain confidence from their pitchers being really good. They take a lot of big swings trying to drive the ball. They don’t really run the bases like maybe they have in the past, but I think it’s because they want to let their guys hit. They play good defense. It’s a complete team.”

Clemson never trailed in the game and, much like Saturday’s game, got on the board in the fourth inning. South Carolina’s pitching struggles played a part: Aidan Hunter hit Benjamin Blackwell with a pitch with the bases loaded to score Bryar Hawkins, and Dylan Brewer’s two-RBI single concluded the scoring.

South Carolina made it a game, though, and came within one after six innings. The Gamecocks strung together a couple hits in the fifth and took advantage of two walks in the sixth to score a run in each inning. Much like Ingle for Clemson, Gamecocks No. 2 batter and leading hitter Michael Braswell kept his 11-game streak alive, smacking a one-out double in the first and a single in the fifth to put runners on the corners. The freshman totaled four on the day and eight over the weekend, improving his season batting average from .436 to .477.

The well ran dry after that, though, with the Tigers retiring the side in the eighth.

Nick Clayton earned the win for the Tigers, allowing one earned run on four hits with four strikeouts and one walk over 4.2 innings. As a defense, Clemson stranded 10 Gamecocks, who went 4-for-20 with runners on base.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have jitters running out there in the first inning,” said Clayton, who found out Wednesday he was switching from the Saturday starting spot to Sunday, “but I just had to stay calm, cool and collected.”

The Gamecocks went with starter John Gilreath on the hill first. He went three innings and allowed two hits and one walk while fanning three before Aidan Hunter gave up three runs, two of which were earned, on two hits with a walk and hit batter in the fourth inning to take the loss.

“We thought he gave us our best chance to get off on a good start and he did that,” Kingston said of Gilreath. “He’s been pitching well as of late, did this a few years ago as a freshman, so we didn’t think it would be too big for him. He gave us exactly what we asked.”

Clemson begins a stretch of five games over the next seven days by hosting East Tennessee State at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. South Carolina (7-4) returns home to play Xavier at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Founders Park with a weekend series against top-ranked Texas looming.

“We just need to have some light days and keep things in perspective,” Lee said. “The biggest message we’ll send to the guys this week is this week’s awesome but it’s over now. We’ve got to move forward and get ready for next week. That’s what great clubs do. We want to be a great club and not just a good club. We’ve got to enjoy our wins but then we’ve got to move on and be ready for the next game on the schedule.”

Clemson baseball schedule this week

• Tuesday: vs. East Tennessee State, 4 p.m. (ACC Network Extra)

• Wednesday: vs. Michigan State at Fluor Field, 6 p.m. (GreenvilleDrive.com)

• Friday: vs. Northeastern, 4 p.m. (ACC Network Extra)

• Saturday: vs. Northeastern, 3 p.m. (ACC Network Extra)

• Sunday: vs. Northeastern, 1 p.m. (ACC Network Extra)

South Carolina baseball schedule this week

• Tuesday: vs. Xavier, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

• Friday: vs. Texas, 7 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)

• Saturday: vs. Texas, 4 p.m. (SEC Network)

• Sunday: vs. Texas, 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network Plus)