Davis Sharpe saves Clemson’s bullpen. Now Tigers in good shape for Oxford Regional
Clemson baseball coach Monte Lee took a risk when he elected to start Jacob Hennessy in the Tigers’ NCAA tournament opener against Illinois on Friday.
It is common for No. 1 seeds to save their ace for a potential winners bracket game in the postseason, but Clemson isn’t a No. 1 seed — or even a No. 2 — in the Oxford Regional. The Tigers are seeded third.
It appeared early on Friday as though Lee’s risky move might backfire. Illinois pounded Hennessy for six hits and three runs, and the lefty was chased in the third inning after only seven outs with Clemson needing to record 20 more.
Luckily for Clemson, freshman Davis Sharpe came in and recorded all 20 as the Tigers went on to earn an 8-4 victory and advance to the winners bracket.
“We would’ve liked to have gotten deeper into the game with Jacob, but we only used two pitchers in today’s game,” Lee said. “Davis stepped up and pitched very well for us and that was a recipe for a win today.”
Sharpe held Illinois to three hits and no earned runs over 6 2/3 innings. Making the performance even more impressive is the fact that it came in his first relief appearance of his college career and in his first NCAA tournament outing.
“It was different. I was talking about it in the bullpen like, ‘This is weird.’ But once I got through that first inning it was just like me starting again,” Sharpe said. “I just embraced the moment and had a lot of fun.”
With Sharpe saving Clemson’s pitching, the Tigers are in a good spot heading into a Saturday’s 7 p.m. matchup with No. 1 seed Ole Miss.
Clemson will start ace Mat Clark, who is 9-2 with a 2.84 ERA this year.
Clark carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning of his last outing against Louisville in the ACC tournament.
“He’s been very consistent for us all year. We need to get deep into that ballgame,” Lee said. “We certainly have a number of options that we can use behind Mat, but hopefully Mat can get us deep into the ballgame and we can shrink the innings on the back end.”
Clemson still has its top four relievers in Carson Spiers, Sam Weatherly, Holt Jones and Owen Griffith available for the rest of the weekend. And it can thank Sharpe for that.
“Those four guys we use a lot out of the bullpen. The fact that we didn’t have to use them today certainly is going to help us tomorrow and the next day,” Lee said. “It was great to be able to get out of here having to use two guys.”
This story was originally published May 31, 2019 at 8:46 PM.
