Upstate Beats Clemson at 5/3

Three weeks ago, USC Upstate (25-27) made the trek over to Tiger town to face Clemson (30-22). The Spartans were in the midst of a slump in which they dropped 9 straight games, and fell 7-2. Since then, Upstate, in spite of their struggles at the midpoint of the season, have won 6 of their last 7, outscoring their opposition 84-29 in that stretch.

On the flipside, Clemson, in spite of their record over .500, has not done particularly well in ACC play this season. The Tigers were 9-18 in league play entering this week, having started conference play 2-8 before finally claiming a series win over Stanford. After that, the Tigers proceeded to drop their next 3 series to UNC, UVA, and Louisville before taking two of three from Boston College. Prior to this week, Eric Bakich’s team dropped two of three at home to Florida State after a midweek upset of Coastal Carolina.

In short, Clemson is having their worst season in conference play since 2008. While USC Upstate, who was picked to finish at the top of the Big South Conference standings with High Point, has found their stride again, making for a matchup with a ton of intrigue Tuesday night for Clemson’s first visit to Spartanburg to play in Fifth Third Park.

It was the Tigers that drew first blood after Wyatt Land gave up consecutive one out walks to Nate Savoie and Jacob Jarrell. With 2 away, Tryston McCladdie doubled to plate Savoie. Land got Jack Crighton to fly out to left to leave two in scoring position, but Clemson held a 1-0 lead after a half inning.

USC Upstate got that run right back in the home half, cashing in a 1 out base hit off Clemson starter Dylan Harrison from Maloy Heaghney, who later stole 2nd and came home on a 2 out single from Johnny Sweeney. That was all for the Spartans as Trey Bentley grounded to 2nd to end the inning in a 1-1 deadlock.

After a three up three down frame for Max Bianchini in the top of the 2nd, Upstate’s bats got going in the bottom of the inning. Jake Armsey was beaned to start the rally, and with one away, Wylie Waters singled. Alex Ritzer kept the train rolling when he laid down a squeeze bunt, beating the rap at first for a single and plating Armsey to put the Spartans in front.

On the throw to first following Ritzer’s squeeze play, the 2nd baseman tossed it wide for an error, putting Waters on third and setting up an RBI base knock from Henry Zenor. Heaghney followed with an RBI double and Tyler Lang added a 4th run in the frame with a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Zenor to give Upstate a 5-1 edge heading to the third.

Bianchini went on to toss one more scoreless inning despite a 2 out walk to Jarrell followed by a single from Luke Gaffney. He gave way to Jack Gibson, who Clemson got one off of in the fifth.

With one down, the Tigers loaded the bases on  a base hit from Savoie, a double from Jarrell that just missed being a 2 run shot to the berm — hitting off the top of the railing instead, and a walk to Gaffney. McCladdie lifted a sac fly to center, plating Savoie, but that was all Clemson could muster as Crighton flew to right to retire the side with Upstate up 5-2.

The Spartans got that run back in the ensuing half inning when they cashed in a leadoff walk to Ritzer. With one out, Heaghney doubled, but Ritzer had to hold up at third, later tagging up and scoring on Lang’s second RBI sac fly of the night to make it 6-2 heading to the 7th.

Aside from the Spartans’ offense building an early edge, a key story behind the upset was the relief effort of Jacob Kirby. The freshman right hander tossed three shutout innings, striking out 2 with one hit and one walk. He gave way to Andrew Kummer for the 9th, who surrendered a leadoff double to Jarren Purify. After a grounder to 2nd, Jarrell grounded to third to push across a run. Gaffney narrowly missed a solo shot, doubling off the base of the wall under the video board in right center. But he was left on as McCladdie popped up to 2nd to secure the 6-3 upset win for USC Upstate.

The Spartans (26-27) will wrap up the regular season this weekend at Harley Park as they host Elon Thursday at 5:00 and finish with two against Northern Kentucky Friday and Saturday. First pitches for those games are set for 6:00 and 1:00 PM, respectively.

Clemson (30-23) will travel to Virginia Tech this Thursday, kicking off the three game ACC series at 6:00 PM. It continues Friday at 3 and will close Saturday at 1.