Clemson's Koerner Tosses Shutout at South Carolina

By John Whittle

Special to CollegeBaseballInsider.com

 

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Clemson starting pitcher Brody Koerner shut out South Carolina for the first time on the road in the rivalry series since 1972, leading his team to a 7-0 victory on Monday night at Carolina Stadium. The win over the Gamecocks gave the Tigers their first season series win between the teams since 2010.

 

Koerner pitched a masterpiece in his complete-game shutout, allowing four hits and three walks. He struck out seven in his 116-pitch performance to move his record to 2-1 on the season.

 

“We played really well tonight,” Clemson head coach Jack Leggett said. “Brody Koerner was outstanding on the mound. I’ve been coming down here a long period of time and I don’t think we’ve seen anyone go start to finish.”

 

The Gamecocks (7-3) put multiple runners on base in only one inning, which came in the bottom of the sixth inning trailing 2-0. With the heart of the order up after giving up a leadoff walk and a single, Koerner pitched his way out of trouble.

 

Junior Max Schrock, who was 2 for 11 in the rivalry series, grounded into a double play, killing the chances for a big inning. Cleanup hitter Kyle Martin, who could have tied the game with one swing of the bat, struck out to end the inning.

 

The Gamecocks would only put two more runners on base the rest of the game.

 

“You have to tip your cap to Koerner,” Martin said. “He came out of the gate and he was pounding it in and out. He was doing everything he could.”

 

Clemson, now winners of six out of its last seven games after dropping the season-opening series, got plenty of offense from its hitters. The Tigers pounded out 11 hits off of five South Carolina pitchers.

 

Eight of the nine Tigers in the batting order reached base with sophomore Reed Rohlman pacing the visitors with a 3-for-5 performance with two runs and an RBI.

 

Sophomore catcher Chris Okey was 1 for 4 with a sacrifice fly and a pair of RBI for the Tigers. He drove in a series-best six runs over the course of the three-game series.

 

The Tigers opened their scoring in the second inning with an unearned run off of South Carolina starting pitcher Josh Reagan. With no one on and two outs, shortstop Marcus Mooney’s throw to first base sailed allowing Clemson freshman Chase Pinder to reach base. Two hits later, the Tigers had their first run of the game on a two-strike single by freshman Eli White.

 

Clemson added a run in the third on Okey’s sacrifice fly but the real damage was done immediately following Koerner stonewalling South Carolina in the sixth.

 

The Tigers scored three earned runs in the top of the seventh inning to give Koerner plenty of room to breathe over his final three innings. All-American outfielder Steven Duggar drove an RBI double to the left field wall to score the first run while a ground out by Okey scored another. Duggar later came home on a wild pitch.

 

Just for good measure, Clemson tacked on two more runs in the ninth inning on an RBI double by Rohlman, who would later score on a throwing error by South Carolina catcher Hunter Taylor.

 

The Gamecocks had four errors in the game committed by four different players.

 

“Clemson obviously deserved to win the game today,” South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook said. “Over the course of three games, they deserved to win the series. They played better than we did. They outplayed us today.”

 

Reagan picked up the loss for the Gamecocks, dropping his record to 0-1 on the season. He lasted just three innings and allowed two runs, only one earned, on five hits. Freshman Clarke Schmidt was charged with three earned runs on five hits in 1.2 innings while classmate Brandon Murray gave up two runs on one hit in 1.2 innings.

 

Monday marked the first time that South Carolina has been shut out during Carolina Stadium’s seven-year history. The last time the Gamecocks were shut out at home was May 1, 1998, a 16-0 loss to Mississippi State.

 

And the credit for the quiet bats in the Gamecocks dugout was a credit to Koerner.

 

“He deserved a chance to finish that thing off,” Leggett said. “He started in such great fashion, had a great middle and he didn’t show any signs of weakness at all.”

 

(photo by Katie Dugan)