Clemson powers past Louisville on Crighton homer to take game one

Jack Crighton's first career home run put the Tigers up and proved to be the gamewinner.

Grayson Mann - Staff Writer - Thursday, April 17 2025

CLEMSON – Clemson’s offense stared down the barrel of a frustrating evening, unable to crack Louisville’s lead.

Trailing 5-4 at the bottom of the seventh, Crighton’s three-run homer gave Clemson a lead it wouldn’t surrender, securing the first homer of his career and a 7-6 win for the Tigers.

Much like the Sunday loss to Stanford, Clemson fell into a hole early in the action. An early fielding error, paired with a walk, loaded the bases for Louisville.

The Cardinals capitalized on their opportunity to pounce early in this series, adding three runs before most fans settled into the seats.

Despite an early rally from the Cardinals, the Tigers had a quick answer of their own. Cam Cannarella was hit by a pitch, with a Jarren Purify single putting Collin Priest on deck.

Priest drilled a three-run homer to knot things up at three, setting the stage for a back-and-forth clash throughout the evening.

That barn-burner style continued into the second inning, with Louisville adding two more runs, grounding out to first and second, but it was enough to give the Cardinals back the lead.

Clemson endured multiple scoreless innings as the evening raged on, unable to crack past the Cardinals’ two-run advantage.

The Tigers were able to snag a run off a wild pitch, but an opportunity with the bases loaded would pass them by, keeping the Cardinals in control by one.

Those offensive woes would continue, with the unit going on multiple stretches with no runs, with the first and fourth innings being the few exceptions to an otherwise inconsistent evening.

RHP Aidan Knaak’s Thursday outing got off to a rocky start, with the Tigers surrendering three early runs to the Cardinals.

Despite Louisville attempting to deliver an early knockout punch, Knaak produced three straight scoreless innings, doing enough to keep Clemson in the fight. He finished with seven strikeouts and surrendered five runs and six hits.

The Cardinals would chip at Clemson’s newfound lead following Crighton’s three-run homer, cracking into the two-run insurance the Tigers had discovered.

Despite this, RHP Lucas Mahlstedt did enough to close out the matchup, earning his 13th save of the season to take game one over the Cardinals.

Clemson will look to secure the series win on Friday night in game two against Louisville at 5:00 p.m. on the ACC Network Extra.