Clemson Tigers Baseball Opens Palmetto Series with Win over South Carolina

The Clemson Tigers defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks, 5-3, in the first game of their annual three-game Palmetto Series on Friday night at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson, S.C.

Clemson (8-1) continues the series with the Gamecocks on Saturday at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C., at 1:30 p.m. The finale will be played on Sunday in Columbia, S.C., at 5 p.m.

Friday’s game drew a record crowd of 6,891 fans.

The Tigers, who moved to No. 7 in the nationals polls this week, have now won six straight games. Clemson also handed South Carolina (9-1) its first loss of the season.

Clemson opened the game with back-to-back two-run innings to claim a 4-0 lead before the Gamecocks settled in and ran up three runs in the third inning.

The Tigers’ Collin Priest gave Clemson the initial lead with a two RBI double to right field, which scored Josh Paino and Cam Cannarella.

Clemson doubled the lead with an RBI single by Dominic Listi, which scored Luke Gaffney to make it 3-0. Paino drew a walk with the bases loaded, which scored Andrew Ciufo.

Up 4-0, the large lead didn’t last long, thanks to the Gamecocks. They scored all of their runs in a productive third inning that was sparked by a former Tigers player, Nolan Nawrocki, whose sacrifice fly scored Jase Woita.

Later in the frame, Talmade LeCroy doubled down the third base line, scoring Kennedy Jones and Ethan Petry.

But that proved to be all that South Carolina would put on the board. While the Gamecocks chased off Tigers starter Aidan Knakk after 4.2 innings, the bullpen threw 4.1 shutout innings.

Knaak gave up four hits and three runs, while he struck out nine and walked four. He left with the lead but didn’t pitch enough innings to be in line for the win.

Instead, reliever Jacob McGovern (1-0) earned the win by tossing 1.1 scoreless innings in relief, while Lucas Mahlstedt pitched 3.0 innings to record his third save of the year.

Then, in the seventh, the Tigers tacked on one more run for insurance as Jarren Purify hit a solo home run, which was also his first long ball of the season.

Gamecock starter Matthew Becker (2-1) suffered the loss, as he yielded four runs on five hits in 3.1 innings pitched.

Cannarella, Priest and Gaffney each had two hits for the Tigers, who had eight hits for the game.

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