Canes Hold On To Early Lead, Beat Clemson 11-4

 March 19, 2022  Leave a comment

Mike Kaffee

Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
[email protected]

Miami suffering a midweek loss to UCF bounced back taking advantage of Clemson’s pitching staff’s lack of command and control in the early innings to take a commanding 8-0 lead through 4. They did it with small ball and consistently moved the base runners along. It was textbook-style baseball manufacturing runs by finding the holes. With the offense playing picture-perfect baseball, Carson Palmquist was putting on a pitching clinic striking out a personal best of 11 and allowing just 3 hits and 2 walks through 6.1 innings without giving up a run. Clemson did not get their first hit until going through the lineup striking out 6 of the first 9 batters.

Miami had built a 10-0 lead when Carson turned the ball over to the BP. Rather than shutting the door, they opened the door wide giving up 4 runs in the final two innings with a pair of HRs, 5 hits and 4 walks. Miami handed Clemson their 3rd straight loss but a confidence builder for tomorrow’s game after our BP once again fail to produce. 

Lineup unchanged 1-6. Dominic moved up to bat 7th, followed by Mike Rosario bating 8th as DH and rounding out the order with Renzo Gonzalez in right batting 9th. Carson Palmquist ERA 5.21 on the mound.

Pitching for Clemson was their ace Mack Anglin 3-0 with an ERA of 1.71. The Miami offense made short work of their ace knocking him off the mound just after 3 innings and having thrown 82 pitches. Miami went to work right in the first inning after CJ recorded a 5-3 groundout using patience and moving runners along with each at-bat. Back-to-back walks to Villegas and Yoyo setting it up for Miami’s first run with a Max single through the right side of the IF. Burke with runners on the corners SF to right to give Miami an early 2-0 lead.

Two more in the second using small ball with a pair of back-to-back singles by Renzo Gonzalez and CJ, extending his streak to 8 games and 17 reaching base safely, putting runners on the corners. Edgardo, with the hot bat, ground out but bring in the 3rd run and advanced CJ to third after a stolen base earlier. WP brings in the 4th run.

Anglin settled down in the 3rd and after giving up his back-to-back walks to start the 4th, his day is over. Clemson would follow with rotating their BP with an inning each the remainder of the game. Miami’s offense did not slow down a beat with the change in pitching with the third consecutive walk to load the bases. 2 RBI double by Edgardo and SF by Yoyo made it 3 runs. 4th walk in the inning and 2nd SF by Burke extended Miami’s lead to 8.

Clemson’s troubles continued in the 6th with an initial walk to Yoyo and what should have been a 4-6-3 DP resulted in Yoyo coming all away around to score on the throw to second which ends up in LF(E4) and Max standing on second. Dominic also continues his hitting streak at 10 and reaching safely to 15 with an RBI single to center.

Game more or less out of reach by the end of the 7th at 10-0, Gino turns to the BP and the reserves. With Carson no longer a factor, the Clemson Tigers started making the runaway into a semblance of what they are capable of doing in short order. Opened the 8th with a HR, followed by back-to-back singles before Arguelles was able to record an out. Short-lived with a walk to load the bases. This ended Arguelles’s day, and Ronaldo Gallo was brought in. The first batter faced, he walks for the second run. Bases are still loaded. What should have been an inning-ending 6-4-3 DP poor execution in the relay for only the out at second but the 3rd run comes across the plate. Miami had Clemson down and out for the entire game totally demoralized. Miami’s BP failed to drive the final nail in and possibly the incentive they needed for tomorrow’s game.

Miami did manage to add to their total in the 8th before the Clemson bats started firing up with a SF, the third of the game, this time by Dominic.

In the 9th, The Tigers did a bit more of clawing away the lead with their second HR within two innings. Miami ended on a down note with the realization that our starters have to go deep or face the uncertainty of what our BP brings to the game.

Another double-digit game of runs/hits for our offense. Today, only two of the 10 hits were for extra bases: Edgardo (double); Dorian (double). Singles were pretty well spread out throughout the lineup and just two with multiple hits.: Edgardo 2-5(double,3RBI); Dorian 2-4. Excellent contact with the bat today going 18-28 (.643) in advancement opportunities. Even our PH coming right off the bench with a pair of hits: JD Jones and Ariel Garcia ( his first collegiate hit)

Defense needs to continue flawless ball and bats continuing on their hot pace. It is the BP that remains the unknown factor. Karson Ligon is going to have to go deep and we need, like today put runs up early in the game if we expect to take the series without worrying about what Sunday brings. 
Game 2 scheduled to start 3PM.

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