Tigers Fall to Paladins, 4-3
CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson looked to rally in the bottom of the seventh, but fell short of its comeback, falling to Furman, 4-3, on Tuesday evening. The No. 17/17 Tigers drop to 24-11 on the year as the Paladins improve to 18-18.
Alia Logoleo led the Tigers with two hits and one RBI. McKenzie Clark added one hit and two runs. Clemson finished the game with six total hits, with Valerie Cagle, Aby Vieira and Arielle Oda tallying one each. Lindsey Garcia concluded the game with one run and one RBI.
Furman got on the board first after scoring two runs in the top of the second inning after timely hits and wild pitches got away from the Clemson defense. The Tigers responded in the bottom half of the inning by loading the bases. With the heat on, Oda drew a four-pitch walk to bring home Garcia from third, who had reached on a fielder’s choice to make it 2-1 in favor of the Paladins after two.
The Paladins looked to extend their lead in the third after back-to-back singles opened the inning. The Tigers made a pitching change to left-hander Millie Thompson to settle things down. Thompson picked up three quick outs, including a strikeout, to end the inning. Clemson evened the game in the third after Clark and Logoleo singled. Both advanced to put runners on second and third for Garcia to knock in Clark with a sac fly to right field making it 2-2 after three.
The score remained even until the seventh inning, where the Paladins plated two on a fielding error with two outs. The Tigers attempted to respond in the bottom of the seventh as Clark drew a leadoff walk, and Cagle followed with a single. Both advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch to set up a Logoleo sacrifice fly deep into center field on the eighth pitch of the at bat to plate Clark. Clemson went on to leave two runners stranded to end the seventh, leaving 10 total throughout the contest, in the 4-3 loss.
Cagle started in the circle and threw two innings with four strikeouts before being replaced by Thompson. Thompson pitched the final five innings and picked up five strikeouts while only allowing one hit but fell to 4-4 on the year in the circle.
Up Next
The Tigers hit the road this weekend for another three-game ACC series. Clemson will travel to Syracuse, N.Y. to take on the Orange beginning on Friday, April 5 at 3 p.m. All three games over the weekend will be available to watch on ACCNX.