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Tigers Rally to Down College of Charleston 7-6 Tuesday Evening

Tigers Rally to Down College of Charleston 7-6 Tuesday Evening

March 18, 2003

Box Score

Mount Pleasant, SC –

Russell Triplett’s two-run single with two strikes and two outs in the ninth inning catapulted #14 Clemson to a 7-6 victory over College of Charleston Tuesday at Mount Pleasant, SC. The game was played in front of 2,177 fans at Patriots Point Field, a majority of which were Tiger fans. The Tigers were facing former Clemson righthander and pitching coach John Pawlowski, who is the College of Charleston skipper. The Tigers improved to 11-0 all-time against the Cougars.

Paul Harrelson (1-0) picked up the win in relief, while Patrick Hogan earned his first save of the season. Reliever Reid Price (1-2) suffered the loss.

Clemson (13-3) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Ryan Hub, who was 2-for-2 with a homer and double earlier in the day against Georgia Southern, hit the first triple of the year by a Tiger to right-center. He scored when Michael Johnson followed with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.

The Tigers put a run on the board in the second inning on Russell Triplett’s line-drive homer down the left-field line. It was the junior’s first career homer.

Hub got the Tigers going again in the third inning. He hit a ground-ball double down the left-field line, advanced to third on Johnson’s groundout to second, and scored on Brad McCann’s bloop double to short right-center.

The Tigers manufactured a run in the fourth inning. Garrick Evans reached on a throwing error by shortstop Phillip Coker and advanced to second on the dead ball. He went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a suicide squeeze bunt by Steve Pyzik.

The Cougars (13-8) got on the board in the fourth inning when Lee Curtis led off with a line-drive homer just inside the left-field foul pole. It was just the third homer allowed by the Clemson pitching staff all season. It also ended the pitching staff’s scoreless inning streak at 20 over the past three games.

College of Charleston cut further into Clemson’s lead in the fifth inning. Matt Hallett led off with a walk, advanced to second on Adam Tolman’s single to center, and scored with two outs on Brett Spivey’s single just over the head of second baseman David Slevin. Curtis then came up with the tying run on first base, but struck out looking to end the threat.

Matt Lauderdale’s long homer to left center in the sixth inning cut the deficit to 4-3. Then with the bases loaded and two outs, Gardner lined a single to left, plating two runs and giving the Cougars a 5-4 lead.

Clemson mustered a two-out rally in the eighth inning to tie the score at 5-5. Triplett got the rally started with a two-out bloop single to right, advanced to second on a single by Evans through the left side. Pyzik followed with a walk and pinch-hitter Kris Harvey drew a bases-loaded walk. Pinch-hitter Brady Everett had a chance to give the Tigers the lead, but struck out.

College of Charleston regained the lead in the bottom of the eighth. Lauderdale led off with a walk and scored two batters later on Hallett’s double to the right-field wall.

Then in the top of the ninth, Johnson beat out an infield single to shortstop with one out to start a rally. After McCann popped up for out #2, Kyle Frank broke an 0-for-11 slump with a single to left field and moved up a base on the throw to third base. Then on an 0-2 pitch, Triplett laced a changeup for a single to centerfield, scoring Johnson and Frank to give Clemson a 7-6 lead. Triplett was 3-for-5 with three RBIs on the evening.

Clemson will next play host to Maine in a three-game series beginning Thursday at 7:15 PM at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

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