Coastal Carolina Knocks off Clemson 9-5

After a two hour rain delay, the Clemson Tigers dropped their fourth straight game in a heartbreaker to in state foe Coastal Carolina. The Chants capitalized on a pair of Clemson errors early to jump out to an 1-0 lead. A Robert Jolly home run tied things up in the top of the second, but kept rolling in the bottom of the inning where they added three runs to push the lead to 4-1. After giving up the three runs, Tiger starting pitcher Holt Jones was relieved of duty by Travis Marr, who was able to force a flyout and a ground out to get out of the jam and leave the bases loaded.

The Chants tacked on another run in the third and held their 5-1 lead until the top of the eighth when Clemson's bats finally came alive. With one out, Patrick Cromwell singled to right to score Logan Davidson and push Seth Beer to third. Chris Williams then followed up with a three run shot that tied the game at 5-5. Coastal brought in Jay Causey to pitch, who was able to force the final two outs. Each team went scoreless until the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Miller came on to replace Carson Spiers, inheriting two runners with no outs. He walked DH Zach Biermann, bringing up Lee Sponseller with ducks on the pond. Sponseller proceeded to homer to right center, giving CCU the 9-5 win on a walk off grand slam. Despite the valiant comeback, the Tigers still came up short, losing their fourth straight game.

Clemson moves to 16-5 on the year, with a 0-2 record in true road games, and a 2-2 record away from Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Clemson will look to get back on track this weekend by heading to #11 Louisville for their first ACC road series of the season. First pitch Friday will be 6:30 and will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.