CLEMSON – It was just one of several opportunities on the day in Clemson’s bid to clinch the series over Duke Saturday, but the cascading effect was felt.
Leading 6-5 in the seventh inning and Blue Devils on first and second, a fairly routine groundball was sent Tiger second baseman Jarren Purify’s way – and with the inning-ending double play surely on his mind, it instead went right through his legs into center field to allow the tying score. That was the first of ten unearned runs charged to Clemson’s staff ERA for the frame as Duke ran away with things to even up the series, 15-10.
It was the lone error of the game for Clemson (38-14, 15-11 ACC) that was marked more by pitching issues in a rain-drenched effort for a good portion of the game. Over those fateful first seven innings, Tiger pitching gave up 10 walks and hit three batters, to go with 13 Duke hits.
The series concludes on Sunday with a 1 p.m. start. The Senior Day ceremony is set to start 30 minutes prior. The Tigers look to avoid three ACC series losses in a row and a first home series defeat of the year.
Duke’s first entrance to the scoreboard came the same as Friday’s opener, by way of an AJ Gracia home run, the first of a trend of Clemson outfielders looking over the fence for a batted ball Saturday.
The Tigers were on the right side of the power surge next with Josh Paino sending a 3-run bomb 427 feet to capture the lead in the first inning. Clemson tacked on three more runs for a 6-1 edge after one complete.
The Blue Devils (34-16, 15-11) added two more solo shots after that in the second and third frames, Gracia getting back in on the action for his third homer of the series.
Clemson starting right-handed pitcher Drew Titsworth lasted three innings and 61 pitches, but gave way to freshman lefty Talan Bell in the fourth. He worked himself into trouble with the bases loaded but proceeded to strike out the next three Duke batters to get out of it.
His first offering of the fifth inning wasn’t as lucky, Duke’s Ben Rounds sending it deep for a fourth solo home run of the game and cutting the Clemson lead to one.
Clemson had the opportunity to add some insurance in those middle innings, but Duke reliever Gabe Nard stranded the bases loaded with a strikeout of Collin Priest and put together a strong effort with seven strikeouts total in three innings.
Tigers left-handed reliever Jacob McGovern (3-1) had mixed results loading up the bases himself, getting out of trouble with a double play in the sixth but a Jake Hyde two-run single in the seventh flipping the score in favor of the Blue Devils. Before that lead-changing hit, the inning was extended by a fielding error on Purify, who had a shot at the double play on a grounder to end the threat but could’ve at least gotten one out and kept the Duke runner at third.
Duke wasn’t done there, scoring two on a Sam Harris single, two more on a Jake Berger double and two more on a Winslow double. For the Tiger pitching staff, it was 10 unearned runs in all within the frame.
The Tigers got three runs back in the bottom half of the inning, with the most damage done on a weak grounder up the first base line combined with a badly overthrown ball to first that scored two.
Clemson added a run in the ninth after a leadoff Luke Gaffney double and Cam Cannarella one-out RBI single.
Six different Blue Devils had multiple RBIs and Berger notched three hits.
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