Corbitt, Grice hit home runs in Clemson’s 12-3 home win over Presbyterian College
Presbyterian College threw three pitchers in two innings Tuesday evening, and Clemson had them all figured out.
The Tigers totaled nine runs scored in the second and third innings to power an 12-3 rout over the Blue Hose at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Clemson (27-14, 6-11 ACC) has now won six of its past seven games with No. 25 Wofford coming to town on Wednesday. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. The team then hits the road for an ACC weekend series at 16th-ranked Louisville.
Clemson head coach Monte Lee said the key in those next four games will be pitching and consistency.
“You can’t get off to a tough start against teams like Wofford who are very offensive,” he said. “They love to run so we’ve got to do a good job of getting the leadoff man out to keep them from being able to put the wheels in motion on the bases. … Louisville swinging the bat red hot all year. They’ve got one of the better offenses in our league. So we’re gonna have to be able to go into there and find a way to hold them at bay with our pitching staff and continue to score runs.”
The Tigers’ offensive performance Tuesday evening was highlighted by a leadoff home run from Caden Grice — his ninth of the year — in the second inning and a two RBI homer from Tyler Corbitt — his seventh of the season — in the sixth inning. In the second and third innings, the squad went through the lineup once with Grice having two plate appearances in the third. The second wasn’t as prosperous with the sophomore grounding out to end the inning.
Clemson finished with 15 total hits.
“I think the guys are kind of just buying into the fastball and adjust approach,” Corbitt said. “We’re seeing the fastball up, and we’re hitting it hard right now. And if they’re leaving breaking balls up, then we’re hitting that well, too. So, I think as long as we keep doing that and stay on the fastball time then we’ll keep having success.”
Grice and Dylan Brewer led Clemson with three hits, two runs scored and another batted in. Corbitt contributed two hits and three RBI in addition to his home run, while Blake Wright and Cooper Ingle each had two hits, two RBI and a run scored.
“I thought Dylan Brewer was the hitter of the game, in my opinion,” Lee said. “Thought he had four quality at-bats, had three hits and lined out hard to left field with two strikes. So just all in all played a good baseball game.”
Colbey Klepper (0-6) absorbed the loss, giving up four earned runs on two hits with two walks and two hit batters in one-plus innings. Clark Dearman, Darien Rorabeck, Ryan Folts and Will Farrar also pitched at least an inning for the Blue Hose. Rorabeck went the longest — 3 1/3innings — and allowed two earned runs on five hits and two walks in 17 batters faced.
Defensively, the Tigers gave up a two RBI single to five-hole hitter Jeremiah Boyd in the first inning, but buckled down and didn’t give up much after that. After a leadoff hit from Noah Lebron in the top of the second, the Tigers retired the next 11 batters. Dalton Reeves ended the seven-inning scoring drought with a leadoff home run to centerfield in the eighth inning.
Bryar Hawkins assisted Clemson’s defensive effort with eight putouts while Ricky Williams gave up only two earned runs with a strikeout in a career-high 6 2/3 innings for the win on the mound. The sophomore Lexington native improved his record to 2-0 in his seventh appearance of the year.
“After the first inning, I was kind of all over the place first and I couldn’t really locate much,” Williams said. “And then second inning, I really beared down and just tried to hit my spots and then just mainly just let my defense work and it worked out … I was aiming up a little bit (in the first), so I just kind of changed my eyesight a little bit lower.”
Casey Tallent came in relief during the seventh inning with two on and got the final out via a foul out to Hawkins at first base. Tallent threw 1 1/3 innings before closer Alex Edmondson handled the final inning and had three strikeouts in five batters faced.
“I think the main thing is just we’ve been having fun these past couple weeks and just playing as a team and playing for each other is the main thing,” Williams said, “and just trusting in our coaches and trusting in our brothers and stuff like that just just mainly just having fun as a team. So I think that’s helped a lot.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 9:14 PM.
