No. 14 Clemson baseball scores season-high 14 runs, pounds Presbyterian College
Clemson catcher Kyle Wilkie had one career home run entering Sunday's game against Wake Forest.
The sophomore homered for the third consecutive game Wednesday night against Presbyterian.
Wilkie went 2-for-2 with two walks and three RBIs as No. 14 Clemson pounded PC 14-4 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
The 14 runs are a season-high for the Tigers.
Clemson has won five consecutive games after sweeping Wake Forest over the weekend and beating Kennesaw State on Tuesday.
"We swung the bats very, very well. A lot of quality at bats," Tigers coach Monte Lee said. "The double midweeks are always tough. You have to use a lot of arms, but offensively it was a good two midweek games for us."
Wilkie had a bit of a slow start to the season but is now Clemson's hottest hitter and has raised his average to .277, which is the third highest on the team out of everyday players.
He had plenty of help against Presbyterian as the Tigers finished with 12 hits, including five extra-base hits.
In addition to Wilkie, Seth Beer homered for the 11th time this season, while Grayson Byrd hit his seventh homer of the year.
Freshman Sam Hall, who was making his first career start, added a pair of hits and an RBI as Clemson scored in six of its eight at bats.
"How about Sam Hall? Had a couple of guys banged up after last night’s game, and Sam Hall, we felt like we wanted to give him a start," Lee said. "He’s worked as hard as anybody on our team just trying to prepare for this moment to get his opportunity. Not only did he perform well, but he was very confident, he had great body language and he had fun."
Travis Marr earned the win for Clemson, allowing one run in 3 1/3 innings of relief.
The Tigers are 31-11 entering this weekend's series against Virginia (24-17, 9-12). At 14-7 in the ACC Clemson is one game back of North Carolina and N.C. State for first place in the league with nine conference games remaining.
"We've had a good week. We had a good weekend at Wake Forest and we've had two good midweek games," Lee said. "We're hitting on all cylinders right now the last five games ... We have been playing good baseball as of late and hopefully we can do that this weekend."
This story was originally published April 25, 2018 at 10:18 PM with the headline "No. 14 Clemson baseball scores season-high 14 runs, pounds Presbyterian College."