Wake Forest vs Clemson Baseball Recap

Wake Forest 11, Clemson 2

The Clemson Tigers suffered an 11-2 defeat on Sunday, losing their three-game weekend series to the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. This nine-run setback represented a giant opportunity to gain ground in the ACC Atlantic Division.

Clemson came into the weekend down by two games in the Atlantic Division to the Florida State Seminoles. The task for the kids from South Carolina was to take down a Wake Forest team that had won four ACC games and only one ACC series all season. That shouldn't have been too difficult to pull off, but the Demon Deacons earned their fifth and sixth wins in blowouts, claiming their second series at the expense of the Tigers. 

After taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning, the Demon Deacons turned it on the second inning Sunday – with some help from the Tigers. Demon Deacons designated hitter Trenton Langston singled down the line to start the inning. Second baseman Mark Rhine served a tailor-made double play ball to Tigers second baseman Mike Freeman, but Freeman botched the delivery to shortstop Brad Miller, giving the Deacs runners on first and second with one out. After the bases were loaded with a walk, Wake Forest centerfielder Steven Brooks singled in Langston and Rhine. The Tigers would go on to give up two more runs to give the Demon Deacons a 5-0 lead, but no runs were charged to Clemson starter Dominic Leone due to Freeman’s error. 

The Tigers never challenged the Deacs from the second inning on; Clemson was overmatched with Wake Forest scoring six more runs to gain an 11-2 lead and win. 

Clemson now has to sweep the division leading Florida State Seminoles to take the Atlantic Division in its final ACC weekend series starting Thursday. 

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Clemson’s pitching staff struggled most of the weekend against the Deacs. The Tigers surrendered 7 walks to the Demon Deacons Sunday, and issues with control put the Clemson pitchers in precarious pitch counts, leading to the large amount of hits over the weekend. The series got off to a bad start for the Tigers with an atypical performance from ace lefty Casey Harman. He gave up a 6 earned runs in a monster fourth inning for Wake Forest on Friday, and he got the loss. The third weekend starter position has been a spot of inconsistency for Clemson all season, and Leone continued the trend on Sunday. He only made it through 1 2/3 innings on Sunday with 4 hits, 2 walks, and the unearned run (one of five runs scored in the second inning). 

The Tigers' batters (comprised mostly of left-handed sluggers) could not get any consistent hitting together against lefty Demon Deacon starters in the Friday and Sunday games. Sunday starter Tim Cooney pitched 8 strong innings for Wake, giving up only 2 runs with 4 strikeouts; Austin Stadler, in Friday’s WFU win, went 6 2/3 innings with 11 strikeouts and one run allowed.  

Clemson faces the Presbyterian Blue Hose on Tuesday before its final regular season series against Florida State starting Thursday. 

By: Brandon Rink
DFN Sports Guest Writer