Blue Hose survive wild 9th

In a 3-3 game heading into the ninth inning, Presbyterian College scored two runs and held off a late rally in the bottom half to beat Clemson 5-4 and end the Tigers’ modest two-game winning streak at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Clemson (14-14) had the bases loaded with no outs in the final frame, but could only push one across. The Blue Hose (16-12), who last won at Clemson in 2012, improved to 9-37 in Tiger Town.

“You’ve got to give them credit. I think they swung the bats well tonight,” said right fielder Steven Duggar, who went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. “We hit the ball hard tonight right at guys.”

After PC took a two-run lead in the top half on a Glen Casaceli’s single up the middle, Chris Okey led off the bottom half with a walk. Chase Pinder also drew a walk before Weston Wilson then reached on an error by the pitcher on his sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases for Andrew Cox, who lined out to second on a hard-hit ball for the first out.

Eli White then hit bloop single to right that scored Okey to make it 5-4. Tyler Slaton, who came into the game hitting .105 against lefties, hit into a 1-2-3 double play to end the game.

Clemson coach Jack Leggett said he never questioned the decision to go with Slaton, who Leggett thought matched up well against a change-up pitcher and said he’d do it again.

“We had some opportunities,” said Leggett, whose team was outhit 10-7. “We did what we had to do to win, just couldn’t quite finish it off.”

Senior lefty Jake Long took a no decision in his first start of 2015. Before Wednesday, Long had not allowed a run in four innings of relief this season.

Freshman reliever Paul Campbell (0-2) recorded the loss.

Hayden Dean (2-0) earned the win in relief after allowing one run through 11/3 innings; Brian Kehner picked up his third save for the Blue Hose.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 12:02 AM with the headline "Blue Hose survive wild 9th."