It certainly wasn’t perfect, but Clemson baseball remained undefeated on the early season with a 9-5 win over the Charlotte 49ers Tuesday afternoon at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
A game and talented Charlotte team gave the Tigers all they wanted, taking leads of 2-0 and 5-4 before the Tigers pulled away with a four-run bottom of the 7th.
In between, there was mediocre pitching, a big error and missed opportunities, but that’s college baseball when you’re building a program.
After the Tigers tied the score at 2 on a Will Taylor sacrifice fly, freshman Jacob Jarrell cranked a 362-foot home run to left to put the Tigers ahead 4-2.
THE TIGERS TAKE THE LEAD!!! 🚨@jacob_jarrell1 blasts his second dinger of the year!! 👏
— Clemson Baseball (@ClemsonBaseball) February 21, 2023
🚀 362 ft
💨 101 mph
B4 || CHA 2, CU 4
🖥 https://t.co/2VAyYTRjoR pic.twitter.com/uYOHKIZb5k
Charlotte rallied in the sixth, scoring 3 to take the lead with the help of a Taylor error, but the Tigers tied it up in the bottom half of the frame.
The 4-run bottom of the seventh started with a Riley Bertram bunt single to third. Cooper Ingle singled to right, putting runners on first and third with no outs.
A struggling Caden Grice then rapped a double to right center, giving the Tigers the lead with runners on 2nd and 3rd.
.@CadenGrice3 with the CLUTCH RBI double! 😤
— Clemson Baseball (@ClemsonBaseball) February 21, 2023
Grice's double scores @Riley_Bertram12 to give the Tigers the lead! 💪
B7 || CHA 5, CU 6
🖥 https://t.co/2VAyYTRjoR pic.twitter.com/03OHXDrnrd
Blake Wright continued his hot start with a single through the rights side that plated two runs, before a Benjamin Blackwell triple scored Wright.
Casey Tallent started on the hill for Clemson and had a mediocre outing, pitching well at times, but walking back-to-back batters in the second that led to the 49ers first two runs.
Clemson baseball got a strong performance from their bullpen Tuesday afternoon
Ethan Darden came on in relief and looked sharp in his first two innings, but was eventually hit and the victim of the error in left, which completely changed the inning.
Ty Olenchuk struggled a tad, throwing only 11 strikes on 26 pitches, giving up two hits and a walk in 1.0 innings, and allowed both runners he inherited to score.
B.J. Bailey (1-0) earned the win with 2/3rds of an inning, before Nick Clayton and Jackson Lindley closed it out with an inning of shutout relief each.
Clemson was 7 of 18 with runners on and 5 for 12 with runners in scoring position on the night.
The Tigers host UCF Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.