Clemson Tigers Baseball Finishes with Series Loss to Florida State Seminoles

It was a clash of ACC and national titans as the No. 2 Clemson Tigers faced the No. 5 Florida State Seminoles this weekend in Tallahassee, Fla.

It ended up being Florida State’s weekend, as the Seminoles (33-10, 14-7 in ACC) finished off a series win over the Tigers (37-12, 14-10) with a 20-9 victory on Sunday in a game that ended after eight innings.

FSU won the first game between the two teams and Clemson claimed the second. For the Tigers, they’re in a rut. They’ve now lost five of their last six ACC games with two more conference series remaining.

In Sunday’s finale, Florida State scored seven runs in the second inning to take control of the game. After the Seminoles made it a 10-0 lead, Clemson did answer with five runs in the fourth inning.

At one point, Clemson got the lead down to 11-9, thanks to a two-run home run by Josh Paino and a two-run home run by Luke Gaffney. But it was a close as the Tigers got.

FSU’s Joe Charles (2-0) earned the win in relief by tossing 2.2 scoreless innings with five strikeouts. Tiger starter Talan Bell (0-1) suffered the loss in 1.1 innings pitched.

The second game spilled over into Sunday due to a rain delay. The play that won the game for Clemson happened Saturday night.

Cam Cannarella’s two-out triple in the eighth inning scored two runs to tie the game. Then he scored on an error to give the Tigers the lead as they eventually won, 6-3.

Inclement weather forced play to be suspended with one out and a runner on first base in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Before the delay, Clemson’s first run was scored on Jacob Jarrell’s suicide squeeze bunt. When the game resumed on Sunday, the Tigers added runs on an error on Dominic Listi’s double and a Jarrell sacrifice fly.

Clemson’s Chance Fitzgerald (4-0) earned the win in relief, while Reed Garris pitched 1.2 innings to record his third save. Seminole starter Joey Volini (8-2) suffered the loss.

Friday’s opener saw the Tigers fall to the Seminoles, 6-5, in an 11-inning game in which FSU’s Max Williams singled home the winning run with one out for a walk-off win.

Cannarella grounded a two-run single to tie the score 2-2 in the seventh, followed by a go-ahead double by Josh Paino. In the eighth, Jack Crighton grounded a run-scoring single to push the lead to two runs. But, the Seminoles rallied in the ninth to tie the game.

In extra innings, Clemson’s Dominic Listi slammed his third homer of the year to put the Tigers in front. But, FSU answered with a Williams home run to tie the game.

Listi was 2-for-3 with a homer, double, two hit-by-pitches and a walk. His second hit-by-pitch of the game established a Clemson single-season record with 22.

Peyton Prescott (4-0) earned the win for FSU while B.J. Bailey (2-3) suffered the loss for Clemson.