Tigers Escape With 2-1 Victory at #10 North Carolina

April 17, 2004

Chapel Hill, NC –

Tyler Lumsden and Patrick Hogan combined to strike out 16 batters in Clemson’s 2-1 victory at #10 North Carolina in a game that started Friday and ended Saturday afternoon at Boshamer Stadium. Lumsden and Hogan stranded 12 Tar Heel baserunners, while Clemson’s offense left just one on base. The two pitchers also combined to allow no hits in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Clemson improved to 21-13 overall, 7-3 in ACC play. North Carolina fell to 26-9 overall, 8-5 in the ACC.

Lumsden (3-2) struck out 10 and allowed one unearned run on four hits in 5.0 innings pitched to earn the win. Hogan pitched all four innings during the Saturday portion of the game and earned his eighth save of 2004. He allowed two hits and struck out six in 4.0 scoreless innings pitched. It was also his 16th career save, tying him with Nick Glaser (2000,01) for third place in the Tiger career ranks. The two Tiger hurlers struck out at least one batter in all nine innings. North Carolina freshman righthander Daniel Bard (6-1) allowed just five hits and no walks in 6.0 innings pitched, but suffered his first loss as a Tar Heel.

Clemson got on the board in the second inning. Lou Santangelo led off with a single up the middle and went to third on Andy D’Alessio’s sharp single to right-center. Travis Storrer followed with a hard ground ball, but right at the shortstop, resulting in a double play. However, Santangelo scored on the play, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

The Tar Heels threatened to do damage in the bottom of the second inning. Ross Cook and Jay Cox started it off with singles up the middle. They moved up a base on Wes Moyer’s sacrifice bunt. Third baseman Brad McCann made a great one-handed pickup and throw to take away a bunt hit from Moyer. After Bryan Steed walked to load the bases with one out, Lumsden struck out Blair Waggett. Then on a full count, Lumsden got Greg Mangum to fly out to end the inning. Through the first two innings, North Carolina left five runners on base without scoring.

The Tigers increased their lead to 2-0 in the fifth inning, once again thanks to D’Alessio. The freshman led off with a single to left field and advanced to second on Storrer’s sacrifice bunt. Russell Triplett followed with a line-drive single to right field with one out. D’Alessio correctly read that the ball would safely fall in the outfield and scored.

North Carolina came right back to cut the Tiger lead in half in the bottom of the fifth inning. After Waggett drew a one-out walk, Mangum lined a 1-2 pitch to left-center. Garrick Evans was not able to cut the base hit off in the gap, enabling Waggett to score all the way from first. Evans was charged with an error, as the run was unearned. Lumsden, however, struck out the next two Tar Heels with the potential tying run on second base to end the threat. Through five innings, Lumsden had 10 strikeouts to his credit.

The Tar Heels threatened once again in the sixth inning. After striking out in his first two at-bats, Sammy Hewitt led off with a walk. Ross Cook followed with an infield single to shortstop to put runners at first and second with no outs. Then while Hewitt laid on the ground with an ankle injury, four of the eight light towers suddenly went out at 8:31 PM. The delay, caused by a blown fuse, postponed the game until Saturday. When the game picked up, Hogan was on the mound for the Tigers. Cox bunted the runners up a base and pinch-hitter Matt Ellington went down on strikes for out #2. Bryan Steed drew a walk to load the bases, but Hogan struck out Waggett to end the inning.

Clemson avoided trouble once again in the seventh inning. Marshall Hubbard and Craig Corrado hit two-out singles. Then after running the count to 3-1 on Ross Cook, Hogan got the batter to fly out to evans on the warning track in right-center.

Hogan pitched out of potential jam in the eighth inning as well. He plunked Matt Ellington with one out. Then Steed hit a line-drive to the right side, but right at D’Alessio at first. D’Alessio then stepped on first base for the unassisted double play.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Waggett led off with a walk on a 3-2 pitch that just missed outside. After Mangum hit a ball just foul to left field that would have scored Waggett from first, Waggett stole second base. Hogan managed to strike out Mangum for the first out during the same at-bat. Next up was Chris Iannetta, whose 23-game hitting streak was on the line and the tying run at second base. Iannetta hit Hogan’s 2-2 pitch off the end of the bat, as Hogan fielded the slow roller and made the throw to first base for out #2 and Waggett advanced to third. Hubbard then lined what appeared to be the game-tying hit in the gap, but Evans got a great jump on the liner and caught the ball in left-center for the game’s final out.

D’Alessio led the Tigers with two of the team’s six hits. Cook led the Tar Heels, also with two of the team’s six hits. All 12 hits in the game were singles.