Tigers Defeat Okla. St, 15-1, Will Play for NCAA Regional Championship Monday |
CLEMSON – The Clemson Tigers live to fight another day.
And that day will be Monday, when the top-seeded Tigers play No. 3-seeded Oklahoma St. for the third time in three days, with the winner advancing to the Super Regionals next weekend. Clemson (43-20) continued their hot hitting and got another outstanding pitching performance from a freshman in winning their second game of the day, trouncing Oklahoma St. (34-23) 15-1 in Sunday’s Game Six of the NCAA Regionals at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Clemson starter Chris Dwyer held the Cowboys to just one earned run in striking out a career-high 13 batters on the way to 8 2/3 innings. Combined, the two freshman pitchers on the day (Weismann and Dwyer) combined to allow just one earned run in 17 innings. Dwyer threw 133 pitches, 91 of them for strikes, before being lifted with two outs in the ninth after issuing his first walk of the game. ”Good ballgame for us,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “We played well right from the start. Offensively, I thought we did a really sharp job in the first three innings and then throughout the game. We swung the bats well, and Chris Dwyer went out and pitched a heck of a ballgame for us. “He was outstanding from the start to the finish. We played pretty well defensively. We just kind of put together a perfect game. Now we have to get some rest tonight and come back and be ready to play a good Oklahoma St. team tomorrow. We can’t take anything from today into tomorrow except for some confidence.” Leggett said he was pleased with the performance of his two freshman pitchers in the elimination games on Sunday. ”Our two freshmen, Scott Weismann and Chris Dwyer, went out there and did a heck of a job for us today. Tough to find two freshmen to pitch like that in a pressure situation. I am very proud of both of those guys, and there is more to come, hopefully.” Dwyer, who had not won a game since mid-April, said he had his fastball, curveball, and change up all working on Sunday. ”I was really able to work off my fastball,” Dwyer said. “Any time the offense gets it going early, it makes it easier. I was just trying to keep the hitters off balance, throwing a lot of curveballs and changeups and just work off the fastball.” The Tigers got started early, batting around in the first inning as Cowboy starter Tyler Blandford threw 41 first inning pitches. Chris Epps continued his hot hitting for the day, leading off the game with a single to right. He stole second base and scored when Mike Freeman drove a single into center field. Jeff Schaus followed that with a walk, and after Ben Paulsen lined out to left for the first out, Wilson Boyd drilled a double in the left center field gap, scoring both runners. Miller followed that with a single up the middle that scored Boyd, and Clemson led 4-0 at the end of a half inning. In the second inning, Freeman hit an opposite field homer to left and Clemson led 5-0 at the end of two. The onslaught continued in the third as the Tigers added six more runs. John Nester contributed an RBI single, Johnson slapped an RBI double into left, Epps hit an RBI single, Schaus hit an RBI grounder to second, and Paulsen capped the inning with a two-run, opposite field homer to left for an 11-0 lead. The Cowboys finally got on the board with a single run in the fourth, but the Tigers added two more in the top of the seventh and two more in the ninth for the final of their 15 runs. Leggett said that Ryan Hinson would probably be in line to start the clincher on Monday. He also shook up the lineup a little bit in the second game, subbing in Addison Johnson for Kyle Parker, and Johnson scored a run and drove in one in three at-bats, but Leggett said he will re-evaluate before Monday’s game before making any further lineup decisions. ”We will look at that again tomorrow,” Leggett said. “It’s tough to take Kyle out of the lineup. You just play the player you think is the hottest guy. We will evaluate that tomorrow and see what we do. Everything we did today seemed to work out ok.”
Clemson 15 (43-20)
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