By Cole Bryson
Clemson prevails on opening day in front of 6,062 fans at Doug Kingsmore Stadium after trailing for 9 innings; 5-4 over William & Mary. The winning hit came from Chris Williams in the bottom of the 10th inning after the Dick Howser trophy winner, Seth Beer was walked to load the bases.
The first run of the game came from the Tribe of William & Mary in the top of the 5th inning where they mounted 2 more on the Tigers. Dorman product Jacob Hennessy got the start for the Tigers where he pitched 4.2 innings, & gave up 6 hits and 3 runs. His evening came to an end after the Tribe took the 3-0 lead over Clemson. Ryan Miller, Ryne Huggins, Carson Spiers, & Ryley Gilliam all saw time on the mound for the Tigers after Hennessy was pulled.
Drew Wharton’s pop fly to left center scored the lone run for the Tigers in the bottom of the 6th. William & Mary knocked in one more run in the top of the seventh; with the score sitting at 4-1 during the seventh inning stretch.
The ninth inning was magical for Clemson where Davidson led off the inning with a hit to center field followed by a double play from William & Mary to quiet the six thousand at Doug Kingsmore. Beer was once again walked which brought Chris Williams to the plate who made a timely hit to left field to bring up Robert Jolly. The senior came through with a two-RBI single to cut it to a one run lead.
After Byrd & Wilkie walked, Cromwell came back to the plate as the DH for Greene. A wild pitch from Charlie Fletcher scored another run for Clemson where Cromwell later struck out sending us to extra innings tied up at 4. A quiet top half of the tenth led to another wild bottom half, where Clemson found a way to prevail as Chris Williams ended the inning with a walk off drive to left field.
The Tigers opening day blues finally came to an end, getting a win on opening weekend for the first time since 2013.
“I would like to first thank our fans for coming out and packing it out for a 4:00pm start.” Monte Lee on the sell out for opening day. Despite Hennessy being pulled, Lee was very pleased with the defensive effort from the Tigers.
“Our pitching staff was incredible, we didn’t walk one batter and our defense didn’t have one error all night. And then the ninth inning, Jolly does what Jolly does.”
Lee was very pleased with the clutch performance from the senior in tonight’s home opener as well as the performance from Teodosio.
“I’m just proud of our guys and I know we have struggled on opening day around here and our guys never wavered. Our guys continued to compete and found the way to get the win in game 1.”
The Tigers host the Tribe again tomorrow in game 2 at 2:00pm where Brooks Crawford will get the start.
