No. 1 Baseball Sweeps The Citadel With 6-3 Win

March 26, 2000

CLEMSON, S.C. – The Citadel committed four errors, three of which led to four unearned runs, as #1 Clemson downed the Bulldogs 6-3 Sunday afternoon in front of 3,319 fans at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Clemson (23-3), winners of seven games in a row, finished off the three-game series sweep of The Citadel (18-9) with Sunday’s victory. Clemson defeated the Bulldogs 9-3 Friday and 7-5 Saturday. The Citadel hit just .238 in the series after entering the series with a .338 team batting average.

Freshman righthander Paul Harrelson (2-0), who was making his first career start, earned the win. The Spartanburg, SC native allowed two runs and six hits in 6.0 innings. Thomas Boozer pitched 2.0 scoreless innings and Nick Glaser pitched the ninth to close out the game. Bulldog starter Ron Colvard (5-1) suffered the loss. He allowed four hits, six runs, and six walks in 5.2 innings. Just two of the six runs allowed by the righthander were earned however.

The Citadel, who outhit Clemson 8-4, scored only the third run allowed by Clemson in the first inning all season when Philip Hartig singled home Chris Morris, who led off the game with a walk. Morris scored two of the three Bulldog runs, had two hits, and stole two bases, giving him 39 through 27 games.

Clemson responded with two runs in the first. After Patrick Boyd grounded sharply into a double play, Khalil Greene singled and was brought home on Michael Johnson’s double down the right field line. It was Johnson’s third double in the last two games. Jeff Baker followed with an RBI single, plating Johnson.

The Citadel tied the score 2-2 in the third inning. Morris led off with a single, stole second, and advanced to third on Tavy Smalls’ single with no outs. But The Citadel could only score one time, that coming on Hartig’s RBI groundout.

Baker led off the fourth with a single, giving him a six-game multi-hit streak. The hit was the one and only of the game for the Tigers after the first inning. The freshman shortstop came around to score on Bradley LeCroy’s suicide squeeze bunt.

Clemson scored three runs without the benefit of a hit and took a commanding 6-2 lead in the sixth inning thanks to two costly Bulldog errors. Baker’s fly ball down the right-field line was dropped by Andy Phillips, allowing Baker to reach second. Henri Stanley followed with a walk and Mike Calitri bunted Baker and Stanley to third and second, respectively, with his second sacrifice bunt of the game. LeCroy walked to load the bases. Casey Stone’s RBI groundout plated Baker. With two outs, Boyd grounded to first baseman Hartig for what appeared to be out #3, but Colvard failed to catch the ball as he covered first base, allowing Stanley and LeCroy to score.

The Bulldogs mounted a comeback on Glaser in the ninth inning. After Glaser struck the first two batters out, Matt Dean and Morris walked. Smalls drove home Dean to bring up Stuart Jordan, the potential tying run. But Glaser got Jordan to ground out to second to end the game.

Morris, Smalls, and Phillips each had two hits apiece to pace the Bulldogs. Baker had two of the four Tiger hits. The Citadel left nine runners on base to Clemson’s seven.

Clemson will next play at Georgia Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. The Citadel will next play at N.C. State on Tuesday at 3:00 PM.