DURHAM, N.C. – Despite falling behind early, the Clemson Tigers pounced on Georgia Tech starter Brady Jones in the third, capitalizing on a second chance granted by video review to score five runs and then cruising behind spectacular relief pitching from Jacob McGovern into Sunday’s ACC championship game with a 9-4 victory.
Clemson will face the winner of today’s game between Florida State and North Carolina in Sunday’s championship game at noon, which will be televised on ESPN2.
“We had great relief pitching by McGovern and what he did to hold down a very dangerous offense, Georgia Tech is a great offense, they can score in bunches and score in a hurry,” said Clemson head coach Erik Bakich.
Georgia Tech, the ACC regular season champion, wasted no time, getting on the board when cleanup hitter Alex Hernandez hit into a fielder’s choice that allowed Kent Schmidt to score from second when Clemson shortstop Andrew Ciufo made a poor throw trying to turn the double play at second. Hernandez scored to make it 2-0 when the next batter, Vahn Lackey, singled to right field, and Hernandez hustled home from second, beating the throw to the plate.
A solo homer by Drew Rogers in the second extended the Yellow Jackets’ lead to 3-0.
In the top of the third, the Tigers struck back, batting around and putting five runs on the board. After Andrew Ciufo led off the inning with a double, and he came in to score on Jarren Purify’s one-out single. Purify attempted to steal second, and was initially called out by second base umpire Brian Miller, but the call was overturned after a video review, giving Clemson a runner on second with one out.
After Collin Priest struck out — a ‘K’ that would’ve ended the inning had the out call on Purify not been overturned — a walk to Josh Paino and a fastball that hit Dominic Listi loaded the bases for Jacob Jarrell, who put the second pitch he saw from Brady Jones over the left field wall for a grand slam and a 5-3 Clemson lead.
“On the steal, if we get that out… Jarrell, who has killed us all year, he doesn’t have a chance to hit a grand slam,” said Georgia Tech head coach Danny Hall following the game. “I mean, if we tag the guy out at second, none of that, they don’t get a five run inning there, they get one run. And it’s probably a totally different ballgame moving forward. But we didn’t, and to their credit, they took advantage of the mistake.
Georgia Tech added another in the fourth on an RBI single from Will Baker that scored Caleb Daniel to make it 5-4, but that was the last run they’d muster, with the Tigers bullpen getting 1 1/3 innings from Joe Allen and a stellar four-inning performance from Jacob McGovern, who allowed one hit and walked none, striking out three over four shutout innings to close out the win for Clemson.