Little things. When you watch Clemson play football, its the little things that they don't do that add up and cost them games. Well, the same little things end up beating us in baseball as well. We couldn't hustle in the OF or get a bunt down or take the bat off our shoulders with 2 strikes last week. Our defense botched play after play this weekend, many of them were just routine balls.
Friday wasn't so unexpected at least, with us facing arguably the best pitcher in NCAA baseball. Danny Hultzen and Justin Thompson struck out 18 Tigers and we lost 5-0. From that you'd think we had no chance to score, but we did, and left 10 on base. Four of those in the first couple of innings. Hultzen had walked just one batter all year and walked 3 Tigers. We could never string hits together.
Scott Weismann went 6 2/3 innings, giving up 8 hits and 5 runs, 3 were earned. I watched it, and he deserved a better statline. His defense let him down. One hit bounced over Hinson's head, that led to a run later. One ball dropped between 3 guys and no one could field it. Miller made an error (should've had two) which led to a run, as did Stolz. The 7th inning was pitiful to watch.
Saturday afternoon, as the basketball game was ending, Will Lamb took the mound and did just fine for 3 innings and things imploded in the 4th. Three UVA singles and a double plated 3 runs to make it 4-1 and Lamb was pulled. Scott Firth came in and held UVA in check while Clemson mounted their comeback.
Brad Miller led off the 6th with a single and Richie Shaffer followed up with a home run to LF to make it 4-3. In the 7th, a string of singles, a walk, and a Schaus double plated 4 more runs to make it 7-4.
UVA got two on to start the next frame, and then our defense let us down, bigtime. With one out, Virginia hit a tailor-made DP ball to John Hinson, and he whiffed to load the bases. Brad Miller made 2 errors on one single play, another DP ball, and the tying run scored. Alex Frederick was shaky but got out of it with just the tie, then gave up the go-ahead run the next inning to make it 8-7.
Today's game looked a little better in terms of gameplay, but the Tigers fell short 7-6. David Haselden started the contest, and though he looked good against SC on Tuesday, he really stunk today. He couldn't make it out of the 3rd inning. On the other hand, Jonathan Meyer will likely get a midweek start at some point with his 5 innings of shutout ball in relief.
Clemson's hitting was a little more encouraging as we knocked out VA starter Cody Winiarski early, but we continued to leave men on base in critical situations and couldn't get the singles strung together that UVA has all weekend. Clemson left another 10 on base in this one, despite a big lineup shakeup with Brad Miller out with a rumored broken finger. Jack did put Epps in the 5 hole too, which was the WTF moment of my day.
UVA 1B John Hicks was a big headache all weekend. He was involved in just about every UVA score with a clutch single or just to get on base. For the weekend he hit 6-for-15 with 5 runs scored and 4 RBI. Steven Proscia went 4-for-5 today with a HR and 3 RBI.
Clemson faces PC at Fluor Field this week.