Cardiac Cats do it again: Tigers giving their fans heartburn and thrills this season |
The Cardiac Cats did it again, and maybe that’s just who they are.
Clemson fans who watch their favorite baseball team this season are getting used to watching the games with a bottle of Tums or their blood pressure medication close at hand. For those who prefer another way of watching the late-inning thrills, perhaps an adult libation needs to be at hand. No matter how they choose to watch, however, these cats are never out of a game. No. 2 Clemson scored four runs in the ninth inning, capped by Jacob Jarrell’s two-out, two-run double, in its 14-12 win over Charlotte at Truist Field on Tuesday night. The Tigers improved to 37-10. The Tigers plated four runs in the top of the fourth inning to build a 9-2 lead, but the 49ers responded with five unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth inning after a costly error, capped by Shane Taylor’s two-out grand slam to narrow Clemson’s lead to 9-7. Charlotte later took a 12-10 lead into the ninth inning. In the top of the ninth, Tristan Bissetta hit a sacrifice fly, then Jack Crighton hit his first career triple with two outs to score the tying run from first base. Jarrell followed with a high flyball off the wall in left field for a two-run double. Coming from behind is what the Tigers do. Clemson now has 21 come-from-behind wins among its 37 overall victories in 2024. Clemson has scored first in only 24 of its 47 games and is 21-3 in those contests. Clemson has trailed at the start of the fourth inning 14 times and is 10-4 in those 14 games. Clemson has trailed ten times at the start of the eighth inning and has won five of those ten games. The Tigers are also 30-2 when scoring seven or more runs. Head coach Erik Bakich said it was a Clemson type of game. “This is our type of game, I guess. How we like to play it. Not really,” Bakich said with a smile late Tuesday. “But proud of the way we fought and came back and actually liked the way we jumped out. I thought we swung the bats really well early, and you know what? I know we gave up 12 runs, but they earned all those runs with the exception of an error that led to some unearned runs. They swung the bats, they hit their way on, they hit the homers, it's an offensive park. “The wind's blowing out, and you know what? We'd much rather have the opposing team earn it and us be on the wrong side of some crooked innings because they hit their way and got their extra base hits and all the things instead of walks and hit by pitches and errors and things like that. So that's a good offensive team. Charlotte can hit their way through any tournament and they certainly brought their bats tonight, and so it's a good big team win.” Clemson’s biggest come-from-behind wins were in the Florida State series in late March. The Tigers ended the games on runs of 15-1, 8-0 and 12-1, respectively, against the Seminoles, who entered the series with a 19-0 record and rank as high as the Top 5 now (No. 5; Baseball America). Therefore, in those three games, Florida State combined for leads of 23-3, but Clemson finished the games on a combined run of 35-2. In the first game, Florida State scored four runs in the first inning, but the Tigers scored in five of the seven innings to win 15-5. In the second game, Florida State led 8-1 entering the ninth inning, but 11 of the 12 Tigers reached base, and Clemson won 9-8. Hinderleider, who hit a three-run homer earlier in the ninth, hit a walk-off single after Wright hit a game-tying grand slam. In the third game, Florida State led 11-2 until the Tigers scored five runs in the sixth and six in the seventh to take the lead. Wright hit another grand slam in the seventh inning to give Clemson the lead for good. The Tigers travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to play a three-game series at No. 12 Wake Forest, beginning Friday at 6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra.
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