Top-ranked Tigers Open with 8-1 Victory over James Madison

Feb. 17, 2006

The #1-ranked Clemson Tigers opened the 2006 season with an 8-1 win over James Madison Friday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The Tigers moved to 1-0 with a victory in game one of a doubleheader, and the Dukes fell to 0-1.

Tyler Colvin had the first two-home run game of his career to lead Clemson offensively, as he hit solo shots in the fifth and sixth innings. The junior left fielder entered the season with only seven career homers.

Pitching for the first time since the 2004 season, Jason Berken (1-0) struck out a career-high nine batters and yielded only two hits in five innings to earn the win for Clemson. Travis Miller suffered the loss for James Madison and dropped to 0-1.

The Tigers opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. Brad Chalk tripled down the right field line with one out and scored on Taylor Harbin’s single through the left side.

Marquez Smith reached on a fielder’s choice in the second with one out, and then stole second. With two outs, Adrian Casanova doubled off the fence in left field to drive in Smith.

Smith led off the fourth with a hustle double to right, and after Stan Widmann walked, Casanova sacrificed the runners to second and third. Herman Demmink followed with a single to center to score Smith, which signaled the end of the day for Miller. Chalk hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Widmann, and Ben Hall followed with a double to left-center that scored Demmink.

Clemson added two runs in the fifth. Colvin led off the inning with a towering home run to right. Smith walked, and moved to second on a single by Widmann. Casanova then followed with an RBI single through the left side to score Smith.

Colvin hit his second long ball of the day in the sixth to close out the scoring for the Tigers.

Kellen Kulbacki tripled to lead off the ninth, and scored James Madison’s only run on an RBI groundout by Nate Schill.

Travis Storrer extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single in the third inning, the 30th game in the past 31 that the Tiger rightfielder has hit safely dating back to the 2005 season.

The Tigers improved to 10-3 in home openers under Jack Leggett.

Clemson and James Madison will play game two of the doubleheader at approximately 7:00PM Friday.