USC Upstate tops Clemson as Tigers drop fourth straight

GREENVILLE — Clemson was hoping to gain a little momentum on Tuesday against USC Upstate ahead of its weekend series against rival South Carolina.

Instead, the Tigers continued to scuffle, dropping their fourth straight game.

USC Upstate scored four runs in the fourth inning and added two big insurance runs in the seventh to earn a 6-3 win for its second ever victory over Clemson.

The Tigers had 12 hits and walked four times but still managed only three runs — leaving 11 runners stranded.

“Very disappointed,” Clemson coach Erik Bakich said. “I thought that we would play a much better brand of baseball tonight coming off of the way we played this weekend, which was very disappointing. But that didn’t happen tonight.”

As Bakich mentioned, Clemson also struggled this past weekend, going 0-3 against UCF.

Some of the same issues that plagued Clemson against the Knights once again showed up Tuesday against the Spartans — most notably situational hitting and poor base running.

Clemson had runners on second and third with one out in the third inning and didn’t score.

In the sixth, the Tigers had four hits — including a pair of doubles — and managed only one run. With runners on second and third and no outs, freshman Jacob Jarrell was thrown out at third on a fielder’s choice on a ball hit to the shortstop.

After back-to-back singles loaded the bases, Blake Wright lined into a double play when Caden Grice took off for second on a ball lined right at the second baseman.

“We had opportunities. We didn’t cash in with runners in scoring position,” Bakich said. “We left a lot of runners at third with less than two outs and didn’t get them home — obviously gave up the big inning there early in the fourth via some free passes and some hits.”

In that four-run fourth inning for Upstate, a single and back-to-back walks by Nick Hoffman loaded the bases with no outs. Noah Rabon and Cole Caruso followed with back-to-back two-run doubles as the Spartans scored all of the runs they would need on the night.

“Adversity is a good thing, but you also have to make adjustments and learn from that adversity,” Bakich said. “You can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over. We made some base running errors tonight that are the opposite of what we’re teaching.”  

Up next, Clemson will face rival South Carolina in a three-game series.

Game 1 is Friday night in Clemson, with Game 2 Saturday afternoon in Greenville. Game 3 will be played Sunday in Columbia.

“We’ve just gotta be tougher and we’ve gotta get to playing to a certain standard – because this team is better than this,” Bakich said. “We will be better. I can promise you that. We will be relentless in our approach to make sure that we have the right guys out there and we’re playing fundamental, Clemson baseball.”