Clemson Tigers Baseball Winning Streak Grows in Win Over Liberty Flames

The Clemson Tigers baseball team started a five-game week at home with a 6-4 win over the Liberty Flames on Tuesday night.

The Tigers (16-1), who rose to No. 10 in the D1Baseball.com poll this week, have now won 14 games in a row, dating back to last month. Clemson hosts Liberty again on Wednesday before taking a short break for their weekend series with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Clemson’s streak is now tied for the 10th-longest winning streak in Tiger history.

With this being a mid-week game, the Tigers tapped into their pitching depth and turned the start over to Brendon Bennett. The freshman left-hander only pitched 1.2 innings, as he gave up one hit, one run and one walk while striking out one.

Liberty took the lead in that second inning, but the Tigers answered with four runs in the bottom half of the frame, putting Bennett’s relief, B.J. Bailey (2-0), in line for the win.

Bailey threw four innings and gave up two hits and one run, but that run was unearned. He struck out four and walked three as he faced 18 hitters.

Right-hander Joe Allen threw 1.2 innings and gave up the remaining two runs on two hits, with one walk. Lucas Mahlstedt claimed his fifth save of the season. He tossed 1.2 innings, allowed one hit and struck out two.

Tigers infielder Jarren Purify, the reigning ACC baseball player of the week, was the only Clemson player with two hits in the game. The Tigers struggled for six hits against the Liberty pitching staff, with Josh Swink (2-2) taking the loss.

Clemson fell behind thanks to a solo home run from a familiar face — Tigers transfer Camden Troyer. But Clemson had an answer when it came to the plate.

Luke Gaffney, with a runner on base, slammed a two-run home run to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Two batters later, also with a runner on base, Andrew Cuifo belted his own two-run shot to push the lead to 4-1.

Purify had a hand in extending the lead to 5-1 in the third inning, as he led off with a single to extend his hitting streak to 10 games and later scored.

Cam Cannarella added to the lead with a two-out, run-scoring single in the fourth inning.

From there, the Tigers had to hang on, as Liberty cobbled together three runs on a groundout, an RBI and a fielder’s choice, which made the final couple of innings a bit uncomfortable for Clemson.

The Tigers are preparing to face Liberty again on Wednesday at 4 p.m.

Clemson host Notre Dame in the ACC opening series for both programs.

Friday’s game, which will likely feature Clemson star Aidan Knaak on the mound, is set to start at 4 p.m. Saturday’s contest has a start time of 3 p.m. and Sunday’s finale will start at noon.