No. 4 Tigers ride another rally to take series opener from Panthers |
CLEMSON - For having such a lofty ranking past mid-April,
Erik Bakich’s Tigers have been unusually familiar with coming from behind.
Friday’s series starter with Pitt was no different. The No. 4-ranked Tigers (31-6, 12-4 ACC) rallied from an early four-run deficit at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Friday for an 18th come-from-behind victory of the season to top the Panthers (15-20, 4-15), 6-4. The Tigers and Panthers conclude the series with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday (ACCNX). It was a rough reentry for the Clemson sophomore left-handed starter Tristan Smith, who made his first start since mid-March (ankle). The ball found Smith early with a comeback grounder off the back of his leg and that runner moved to second on a balk and eventually scored on a wild pitch to put the Panthers up 1-0 in the first. With his pitch count hitting the 50s already in the third inning, Smith suffered a dropped flyball in left from Tristan Bissetta that would’ve been out No. 3, and the two runners aboard then moved up on his second wild pitch of the game. After the bases loaded up, Pitt’s Dom Popa went opposite field with a single down the third base line to score two runners. Smith’s day ended with a balk following the line-drive on a pickoff throw to third base and Pitt up 4-0. Smith’s teammates picked him up in the middle innings to keep a zero in the loss column for him, however. The Tigers started to chip away with a Jimmy Obertop solo homer in the fourth inning that split the left field grandstands and went out of the park. Bissetta led off a game-tying fifth frame with a walk and went to third on a Jarren Purify double. Jacob Jarrell’s sacrifice fly to left scored Bissetta and Cam Cannarella doubled in another Tiger after that. Alden Mathes’ single up the middle then scored Cannarella to tie up the game at 4. In the sixth inning, Obertop struck again with his 11th home run of the season on an opposite-field shot that carried over the right field wall and gave Clemson its first lead of the day. The Tiger scoring continued in the frame with a Purify RBI sac bunt, where he ended up reaching on an error at first base. Clemson’s relief was tested in the next inning, with Lucas Mahlstedt (3-0) leaving two on and no out for fellow righty Reed Garris. In 15 pitches, Garris nabbed both a strikeout looking and swinging – and a flyout to right field – to strand the Panthers. Austin Gordon came on to register his sixth save of the season. Mahlstedt threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Purify and Obertop were the lone Tigers with multi-hit efforts. The Tigers improved to 31-2 when scoring at least three runs in a game this season. Note: Bakich said postgame that outfielder Will Taylor will have surgery soon on a wrist injury sustained last weekend and will be out "a few weeks" with a possible target date of "late May."
Friday’s at DKS>>>#Clemson #Team127 pic.twitter.com/GFRfTqVfvx
— Clemson Baseball (@ClemsonBaseball) April 19, 2024
JIMMY JACK💪🚀😱@jobertop_4 got ALL of that one and the Tigers are on the board!
— Clemson Baseball (@ClemsonBaseball) April 19, 2024
🚀 410 ft
💨 110 mph
B4 || PIT 4, CU 1
🖥 https://t.co/Z4826p2HZU pic.twitter.com/lUFCA2yVpI
Heads up @CajunRf‼️@jobertop_4 hits his SECOND homer today to put the Tigers 🔛 🔝
— Clemson Baseball (@ClemsonBaseball) April 20, 2024
🚀 359 ft
💨 104 mph
B6 || PIT 4, CU 5
🖥 https://t.co/Z4826p2HZU pic.twitter.com/Cgz7yKpjnk
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