Loss to Vandy puts Clemson season on the brink
Clemson is in a familiar position.
The Tigers head into Sunday’s regional game at home facing elimination for the second consecutive year after they couldn’t solve Vanderbilt star pitcher Kyle Wright or the Commodores bats Saturday.
Top-seeded Clemson fell behind by seven runs after six innings and lost to second-seeded Vandy 9-4 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
A year ago, it was Oklahoma State that topped Clemson in the winner’s bracket game. The Cowboys went on to best the Tigers the following day to advance to the Super Regional.
To avoid that fate again, Clemson (40-20) will have to win three consecutive games after it was outhit 16-9 on Saturday.
The Tigers will try to start that run against UNC Greensboro (36-23), which gave Clemson all it could handle in a 5-4 loss Friday before it eliminated St. John’s with a 3-1 win Saturday. Clemson and UNCG will begin play at 1 p.m. The winner of that contest gets Vanderbilt (35-22-1) at 7 p.m.
Jeren Kendall went 3-for-5 with three RBIs to lead Vandy, and Will Toffey added three hits and two RBIs.
The Tigers, who got two hits each from Logan Davidson and Reed Rohlman, did get three runs off of Wright, who’s projected to be the first player taken in the MLB draft. The talented, hard-throwing right-handed pitcher struck out nine and walked one, allowing seven hits in seven innings.
Clemson ace Charlie Barnes got ripped for seven runs (all earned) on 13 hits through 5 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts and walked one, but couldn’t escape a disastrous four-run sixth inning.
Clemson had its chances to get to Wright, but star hitter Seth Beer struck out and Reed Rohlman was caught stealing at second for a double play that ended what looked like a promising third inning.
Vanderbilt got to Barnes in the fourth with three runs on three hits and a sac fly. After Hayes led off the frame with a double, he scored on an RBI double by Jason Delay that put runners at second and third with no outs.
Harrison Ray followed with an RBI sac fly, and Toffey capped off the scoring with a two-out double to left for a 3-0 lead.
The Commodores scored four more runs on four consecutive hits, all with two outs, in the sixth. Toffey started the onslaught with a ball that went off the glove of diving first baseman Andrew Cox and into right field. The biggest blow was a two-run double by Kendall that put the Commodores up 7-0.
The Tigers didn’t go away, though. Cox hit a two-run double in the sixth, followed by an RBI single from Greene to cut the lead to 7-3, but Kendall answered with an RBI double in the eighth.
Beer hit his 15th home run of the season in the bottom half to get Clemson within 8-4, but Vandy tacked on another run in the ninth.
Vanderbilt | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Toffey 3b | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Coleman lf | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Kendall cf | 5 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
Infante 1b | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
hayes dh | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Paul 2b | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Delay c | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Ray rf | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Kaiser ss | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
TOTALS | 41 | 9 | 16 | 9 | 3 | 12 |
Clemson | ab | r | h | rbi | bb | k |
Davidson ss | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Rohlman dh | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Beer lf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Pinder cf | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
W. Jackson rf | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Cox 1b | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Greene 2b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Williams ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Cromwell 3b | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Byrd 3b-2b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wharton ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Wilkie c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Jolly ph-c | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
TOTALS | 35 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 11 |
Vanderbilt | 000 | 304 | 011 | — | 9 |
Clemson | 000 | 003 | 010 | — | 4 |
LOB — Vanderbilt 10; Clemson 6. 2B — Toffey(13); Coleman(3); Kendall 2(9); Hayes 2(10); Paul(14); Delay(17); Pinder(15); A. Cox(9). 3B — Byrd(1). HR — Beer(15). HBP — Beer. SH — Coleman(7). SF — Ray(3). CS — Rohlman(4).
Vanderbilt | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Wright, W 5-5 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
King | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Clemson | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Barnes, L 5-5 | 5 2/3 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 4 |
Andrews | 1 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Beasley | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Spiers | 2/3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Hennessy | 1/3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
WP — Wright 2(8). HBP — by Wright (Beer). PB — Jolly(5). Umpires — HP: Pat Riley 1B: Bill McGuire 2B: Chris Coskey 3B: Joe Maiden. T — 3:21 A — 5,097.
This story was originally published June 3, 2017 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Loss to Vandy puts Clemson season on the brink."