Clemson Tigers Baseball Continues Early Surge, Shuts Out USC Upstate

The Clemson Tigers are on a heater right now, and they showed no signs of slowing down after beating USC Upstate, 7-0, on Tuesday night.

The mid-week game was at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., which is where the Tigers (11-1) played South Carolina on Saturday in the second game of their three-game series. Clemson swept that series, which led them to move up to No. 4 in the national rankings.

Fluor Field is the minor-league home of the Boston Red Sox’s minor league affiliate, the Greenville Drive.

The mid-week game gave the Tigers a chance to dip into their pitching depth, as Jacob McGovern started the game, but only pitched 2.1 innings and didn’t factor in the decision. He allowed two hits, struck out three and walked one.

He and four other relievers scattered nine hits in the shutout, with B.J. Bailey (1-0) claiming the decision. He threw 4.2 innings, giving up four hits while striking out six.

Nathan Dvorsky, Drew Titsworth and Chayce Kieck pitched the final two innings.

USC Upstate burned through eight pitchers, but none pitched more than two innings and four of them didn’t allow a hit, including starter Amp Phillips, who didn’t factor in the decision. Clemson’s run production was concentration in two innings — three in the fifth and four in the ninth — and came at the expense of Max Bianchini (2-2) and Braden Consaul, respectively.

The Tigers brought the power in this game, as all seven runs were scored on home runs by four different players.

In the fifth, catcher Jacob Jarrell hammered a three-run home run off Bianchini for his only hit of the game.

In the ninth, the Tigers went long three times. Josh Paino hit a solo shot to center field to make it 4-0. Tristan Bissetta sent on to left field two batters later, a solo shot that made it 5-0. Two batters after Bissetta, Andrew Cuifo slammed a two-run home run to left center for the final score.

The Tigers play another mid-week game on Wednesday when it faces Presbyterian at 4 p.m. at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson. The weekend series features the Davidson Wildcats, as they’ll play Clemson in a three-game series at Kingsmore starting on Friday.

Clemson hasn’t announced its starting pitcher for the Presbyterian game. But the Tigers and the Blue Hose are long-time acquaintances. Clemson has a 69-23 lead in the all-time series, dating back to 1906, and has a 43-10 record at Clemson, dating back to 1907.