Homer-happy Clemson controls series opener, tops South Carolina
South Carolina baseball kicked off the annual rivalry series with Clemson on Friday by having program great Michael Roth throw the ceremonial first pitch in front of a charged-up sellout crowd of 8,242.
By the end of the night, Founders Park was more empty than not, with large swaths of orange left, as the Tigers crushed the Gamecocks 7-1.
Beyond the box score
Clemson entered Friday with two home runs and 15 total extra base hits in eight games to start the year. The Tigers surpassed that home run total in six innings Friday with three on the night and finished the game with 11 extra base hits.
“Offensively, we swung the bats very, very well,” Clemson coach Monte Lee said. “There’s been a lot of question marks about our offense, and just really proud of how the guys maintained their composure, maintained their confidence and came out and competed the way they did.”
The Tigers got all the runs they’d need in the fourth inning, as sophomore catcher Adam Hackenberg led off with a double and freshman outfielder Dylan Brewer then fell behind 1-2 in the count before catching a hanging offspeed pitch from Gamecock ace Carmen Mlodzinski that he blasted to the Palmetto trees past the right field wall.
Sophomore outfielder Kier Meredith delivered a double down the right field line in the fifth, and he was followed by sophomore DH Davis Sharpe, who also fell behind 1-2 before connecting for a two-run home run to the left field bullpen.
And in the sixth, Meredith pasted a 3-2 offering from Mlodzinski to right to score freshman shortstop Pierce Gallo and record Clemson’s third two-run homer of the game. Sophomore first baseman Bryar Hawkins capped the scoring with an RBI triple in the seventh.
“I don’t know if you can explain it,” Lee said of his team’s performance against Mlodzinski, a projected first-round draft pick. “We all knew that it’s there. We knew it was there. It was just a matter of it happening. It’s more about our guys — our guys continue to believe, and it’s just a matter of getting a good pitch and being on time to it and putting a good swing on it, and we certainly did that tonight.”
Stars of the game
Junior left-handed starter Sam Weatherly was absolutely dominant for Clemson, keeping the Gamecock hitters off-balance for all seven innings he pitched. He struck out 11, allowed just four base runners and no hits and retired 12 of the last 13 hitters he faced.
“I wanted to throw strikes, I wanted to pound the zone, you know. It’s always my goal, it’s something I’ve been working on throughout the season. And I thought their approaches were good, I thought they took good swings. I just happened to be a little bit better tonight,” Weatherly said.
“He was really good. I mean, really good,” South Carolina coach Mark Kingston said. “He had an elite fastball, really good slider, movement on the fastball was good, only walked three guys in seven innings — he was an elite pitcher tonight.”
South Carolina only managed to avoid being shut out and no-hit when sophomore Brady Allen hit a solo home run to lead off the ninth inning.
At the plate, Kier Meredith was just as dominant for the Tigers, collecting hits in each of his first four at-bats and finishing a triple shy of the cycle with two runs scored and two runs driven in.
Key inning
With that two-run shot in the fourth, Clemson had already scored more runs on Carmen Mlodzinski than he had given up in his first two starts combined. In front of a large contingent of scouts, he had worked himself into trouble in each of the first three innings but wiggled his way out of it every time.
“A lot of balls up. Left a lot of balls up in the zone,” Kingston said of Mlodzinski’s struggles. “He was able to match them pitch for pitch for three innings and then starting that fourth inning, he just left a bunch of balls up, and he can’t do that.”
“Yeah, that’s a fair statement,” Mlodzinski said. “I just didn’t put them away when I had to, when I needed it.”
When do South Carolina and Clemson play next?
Who: South Carolina (6-3) vs. Clemson (8-1)
When: 3 p.m. Saturday
Where: Segra Park, Columbia
Watch: Streaming online on ACC Network Extra via WatchESPN
Radio: 107.5 FM in Columbia area (Clemson affiliates | South Carolina affiliates)
Probable starters: South Carolina’s Thomas Farr (Jr. RHP, 1-0, 3.86 ERA) vs. Clemson’s Davis Sharpe (So. RHP, 1-0, 0.00 ERA)