Wake Forest gets to Clemson, pitching ace Crownover
Before Friday night, Clemson had not trailed a game this season with Matthew Crownover on the mound.
Once that streak ended in the sixth inning, the floodgates opened up and Wake Forest rolled to an 8-2 victory in the first of a three-game ACC series at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
“We made four mistakes that cost us and each one of them cost us,” Clemson coach Jack Leggett said. “Our defense let us down tonight. We couldn’t piece anything together offensively.”
Crownover (4-1) gave up three runs on four hits through 52/3 innings to earn his first loss as Clemson (12-12, 4-6 ACC) went on to commit three errors in a four-run seventh for the Demon Deacons (18-10, 5-5) that broke the game open.
Crownover had allowed five earned runs this season and saw his ERA rise from 1.09 to 1.53; he also walked four batters and struck out five.
“It’s frustrating. Usually I do a pretty good job of getting us back on track,” Crownover said. “Now I got us off track. I’ve got to do a better job than that.”
Matt Pirro (6-1) picked up the win for the Deacs, who have won four consecutive games, after he pitched seven strong innings, allowing one run on four hits. The Tigers, who had 19 runs on 17 hits Tuesday at Western Carolina, had seven hits Friday. Steven Duggar went 2-for-5 as the only Tiger with multiple hits.
“We’ve done it the other way,” Leggett said. “We’ve won a Friday night game and lost the other two so we’ve got to learn how to lose the Friday night game and figure out how to win the next two ballgames.”
Clemson got on the board in the fourth inning. Tyler Krieger drew a leadoff walk and stole second before Chris Okey recorded the team’s second hit of the game with an RBI single that scored Krieger from second for a 1-0 lead.
Wake answered, with the help of a misplayed ball in left by Reed Rohlman, to score three runs in the sixth. Joey Rodriguez reached on a two-out single and scored on Nate Mondou’s two-out RBI double to left field to tie. Crownover intentionally walked the next batter before giving free passes to the next two batters with the bases loaded to hand Wake a 3-1 lead.
“Lack of concentration. That can’t happen,” Crownover said. “I take full responsibility.”
WF ab | r | h | rbi | Clemsonab | r | h | rbi | ||
Pryor lf | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Duggar rf | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Rodguz cf | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | Krieger dh | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Mondou 2b | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Rohlman f | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Craig 1b | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Okey c | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Fairchild rf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Wilson 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Yurchak dh | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Pinder 2b | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Conway ph | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Whton 1b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Ramsey dh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Cox 1b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Cjzkski dh | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Slaton cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Manpot 3b | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | White ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Bhoff c | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Triller ph | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Steel ss | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
Totals34 | 8 | 7 | 6 | Totals33 | 2 | 7 | 2 | ||
Wake Forest | 000 | 003 | 401 | – | 8 |
Clemson | 000 | 100 | 010 | – | 2 |
E–Okey, Wilson, White. LOB–WF 7, C 9. 2B–Rodriguez, Mondou, Rohlman. HR–Craig. HBP–Pryor, Krieger, Pinder. SH—Yurchak. SB—Pryor, Czajkowski, Krieger, Whyite. CS—Fairchild.
Wake Forest | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Pirro W,6-1 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
McCarren | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Sellers | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Clemson | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
Crownover L,4-1 | 52/3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Bates | 2/3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Bostic | 2/3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Pohle | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
HBP—by Pirro (Krieger); by Pirro (Pinder); by Bates (Pryor). WP—Pirro 3, Bostic 2. Umpires—HP: Greg Street 1B: Tim O’Toole 3B: Bryant Woodall. T: 2:57. A—3,750.
This story was originally published March 28, 2015 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Wake Forest gets to Clemson, pitching ace Crownover."