Schaus drives in five as Tigers complete sweep of Wright St.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Sun Feb 28 17:01:09 GMT-04:00 2010

CLEMSON – Jeff Schaus drove in five runs and Kyle Parker hit two runs as the 15th-ranked Clemson baseball team completed a series sweep of the Wright St. Raiders with a 12-6 victory at Doug Kingsmore Stadium Sunday afternoon.

Schaus had three hits, including his first home run of the season, and Parker hit home runs two and three of the season as the Tigers improved to 6-0, with a date against Dayton coming up on Wednesday, with a weekend series against South Carolina this weekend.

Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said getting an early lead always helps.

“We were able to get two in the first, three in second and three more in the fifth and got it to 8-1,” Leggett said. “When they grabbed three, we grabbed three and felt like we had the game where we wanted to. Then we got some guys out there pitching and took a look at a lot of guys.”

The Tigers sent Will Lamb to the mound to start the game, and he went four innings, giving up just one run, in picking up the win. Lamb was the first of seven Tiger pitchers as Leggett took a look at some of his younger pitchers.

The Tigers jumped on Wright St. starter Max Friedman, scoring a run in the bottom of the first. Second baseman Mike Freeman singled to right center with one out, and took second when centerfielder Ryan Ashe bobbled the ball. Schaus promptly singled off the glove of the first baseman to score Freeman and Clemson led 1-0. An error and hit batter then loaded the bases for John Nester, who drew a four-pitch walk that scored Freeman for a 2-0 lead at the end of the first.

The Raiders scratched a run off of Lamb in the top of the second that cut the Tiger lead in half, but the Tigers answered with three more in the bottom of the inning. Jason Stolz led off the bottom of the frame with a single, and he scored on Brad Miller’s double into the left-center field gap. Miller went to third on a ground out, and Schaus’ sacrifice fly to center scored him for the fourth run. One batter later, Parker turned on a Friedman fastball and hit it 11 rows into the left-center field bleachers, his second homer of the season, and Clemson led 5-1 at the end of the second.

The Tigers continued their power surge in the bottom of the fifth. Freeman led off the inning with a single to right, and Schaus followed that with a two-run shot to right, his first of the season. Parker came up next and smacked his second homer of the day, the ball going just under the scoreboard in left-center for an 8-1 Clemson lead at the end of five.

The Raiders got to three Clemson pitchers for three runs in the top of the fifth, but Clemson answered with three of their in the bottom of the inning, Johnson walked and stole second and scored on an RBI double by Stolz. Stolz scored on Freeman’s single, and Freeman took second on the throw. Schaus drove in his fifth run of the day with a single to right, and Clemson led 11-4.

Clemson added a single run in the bottom of the seventh and Wright St. added single runs in the eighth and ninth to close out the scoring.

Schaus has started out slowly the past two seasons, but now leads the Tigers with 11 runs driven in during the first six games.

“The last two years, I was just trying to find my timing,” Schaus said. “Today, I was getting some pitches to hit and was putting the barrel on the ball. They are falling right now, but it’s still early and I still have some work to do. Today was just a good hitting day, the wind was blowing out, and I got some pitches to hit.”

Clemson returns to action with a 4 p.m. game Wednesday at 4 p.m. against Dayton, then have the weekend series against the Gamecocks, who lost two of three at East Carolina this past weekend. The Gamecocks play at Doug Kingsmore Friday night at 6:30 p.m., and then the teams meet at Greenville’s Fluor Field at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The teams close out the series at 2 p.m. Sunday in Columbia.