No. 4 Baseball Edges Wake Forest, 6-5

March 28, 1998

CLEMSON, SC – Doug Ropers RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning capped a two-run Clemson rally and lifted the fourth-ranked Tigers over Wake Forest, 6-5, on Saturday night at Tiger Field in Clemson, SC. With the victory, Clemson improved to 27-3 overall and 5-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference while Wake Forest dropped to 18-12 and 3-7 in league play.

Wake Forest got on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning when Scott Daeley led off the game with a walk and came around to score on a Jon Palmieri groundout. The Tigers answered in the bottom of the inning when Patrick Boyd tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jason Harris and then took the lead in the second inning when Peter Nystrom walked and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

The Demon Deacons tied the score in the third inning when Daeley led off agin with a walk and scored on a Palmieri sacrifice fly. Palmieri finished the night 0-for-3 but drove in two runs while Daeley went 1-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored.

Clemson added an unearned run in the fifth inning to take a 3-2 lead, but the Demon Deacons tied the score in the sixth when Corey Slavik hit a solo home run to right-center, his second homer of the season. Slavik finished the game with three hits, including a triple, and two runs scored. The Tigers regained the lead, 4-3, in the bottom of the frame when Harris singled and scored on a Nystrom single.

Wake Forest finally took the lead in the top of the eighth inning as the Deacs plated two runs in the frame. Slavik tripled and scored on Danny Borrells double to right field and Borrell took third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a balk.

Clemson responded with two runs in their half of the eighth inning. Matt Padgett singled and scored the tying run on Justin Singletons RBI single. Roper plated Singleton with a single to left field to put the Tigers ahead 6-5. Wake Forest starter Mike MacDougal (4-2) was saddled with the loss, allowing six runs five of which were earned on 10 hits and four walks while striking out eight. Clemsons Scott Clackum (3-0) picked up the win in relief, tossing two scoreless innings to close out the game. Wake Forest and Clemson will conclude their three game series on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Tiger Field.