Clemson passes early, high-stress test behind another Jordan Greene walk-off

CLEMSON -- On a night where a four seed took down the one seed over in Tallahassee, another four seed did its best to accomplish the same feat in Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Morehead State gave Clemson all it could handle as the game wandered into early Saturday morning. It was sloppy, heck, even ugly at times for Clemson, but in the end, the Tigers were able to finally break through as they so often seem to do.

It was the bat of Jordan Greene in the bottom of the tenth that finally sent Clemson to the winner's bracket in its home Regional. His single down the third-base line brought a sprinting Drew Wharton home from second to give the Tigers the 4-3 win.

This was the second time Greene came through in the clutch for Clemson this season. His walk-off home run to win a big ACC series against Florida State was the biggest at-bat of his career and Clemson’s season.

Tonight’s at-bat was up there.

He was all smiles, as usual, after the game. Even though he had been there before, the moment still felt surreal to him. He didn’t know what to say.

“I’m still stunned,” Greene said with a laugh. “I really don’t have anything for you. I wish I did. I’m not Seth Beer, I’m very new to this. I hope it keeps going.”

Of course, everyone was stunned with Clemson’s performance for much of the game. The one-seeded Tigers started off the game in a two-run hole after a couple of sloppy errors put the offensive-minded Eagles on top in the second inning.

There were frustrations on the defensive end, and also at the plate. Clemson stranded six runners on base and was 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position through four innings of play. After a double, freshman Sam Hall was picked off at second to end the fourth inning and he yelled into his helmet in frustration, which had summed up the night so far for Clemson.

The feeling around Doug Kingsmore as the game continued was Clemson would find a way to break through eventually. But man, did it take a while.

“I don’t know if I have been in a more stressful ballgame in my life,” head coach Monte Lee said. His voice was already almost shot for the entire weekend after one game.

But the players didn’t show much stress as the game got tight. Seth Beer’s 21st home run of the year in the fifth inning helped ease some of those stresses as Morehead State’s lead was cut in half. But the Eagles responded in the next inning after a triple from Niko Hulsizer, who went 2-for-5.

Starter Brooks Crawford did everything he could to keep Morehead State’s powerful offense at bay. After the two early runs, he shut down ten batters straight at one point and was having a fantastic outing. He did his job while lasting 5.1 innings and only giving up three hits and one earned run.

Clemson’s bullpen came in and pitched extremely well. The four arms of Mat Clark, Carson Spiers, Ryan Miller, and Ryley Gilliam only gave up three hits and only walked one batter the rest of the game.

But on the other side was Morehead State starter Dalton Stambaugh, who had a heck of an outing for his team as well. The Tigers had gotten used to seeing pitches in the 90 MPH range and Stambaugh’s slow pitches put the offense out of rhythm.

Stambaugh struck out seven batters in 5.1 innings of pitching. The Morehead State coaching staff tried to get every last bit out of their starter. There was a runner on first and second when Eagles head coach Mike McGuire signaled to the bullpen that Justin Hawkins would be the last batter Stambaugh would face.

The Eagles played with fire and on the 116th pitch of Stambaugh’s night, Hawkins made him burn as he belted a double to score a run and put Clemson in a position to take the lead. Kyle Wilkie singled to the shortstop with two outs and Reid Leonard wasn’t able to hang on. Greene scored and Hawkins was easily thrown out at the plate trying to aggressively take the lead.

From there, it was a matter of when the Tigers would pull things out. Twice Morehead State had a runner in scoring position in the eighth inning, but Miller escaped as the clock struck midnight.

It was business as usual once Clemson came up to bat in extra innings. Drew Wharton hit a bloop leadoff single and Patrick Cromwell, who went 0-for-4 on the night, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to set up Greene’s heroics.

It was stressful, but these Tigers are used to the stress that comes with these big moments. This was the 20th one-run game they played this season. Clemson has now won 15 of them.

Big deal.

“We can’t be tested any more than we were tonight,” Lee said. “We’ve been tested all year long. I think going through what we went through tonight is only going to help us going into tomorrow when it comes to being ready to go.”

The Tigers will face a Vanderbilt squad that ended their season last year in the winner's bracket Saturday at 7:00 PM. An exhausted Lee said he didn’t know when he was going to get some sleep tonight, or if he’d get any at all.

“Three o’clock AM, bare minimum,” Lee said. “If I am lucky to get four or five hours, that’ll be a good night. I’m usually the last one to leave...

“Thank God we’re playing tomorrow night.”

But Greene’s excited demeanor made it seem like he wasn’t going to get any sleep any time soon, either. His ritual of wearing an arm sleeve with writing on it held true.

“All Gas” is what it said this time around. A team motto the Tigers had going into the game that represented their aggressive mentality and being relentless.

Fitting.

Greene and his teammates will look to keep the pedal to the medal as they try to pass yet another important test on Saturday night.