Clemson 2B Jay Dillard helped off the field after scary collision vs. Florida State

The Clemson Tigers are down another infielder following a scary collision in the second inning of their Sunday game against the Florida State Seminoles. It left second baseman Jay Dillard shaken up, with trainers taking him out of the game.

With runners on the corners, Florida State looked to drag bunt. It got past pitcher BJ Bailey, who was focused on the ball, trying to track it down. Similarly, Jay Dillard was focused on the ball too when they collided and appeared to hit heads with one another. Both would be slow to get up.

At the time, the bunt made the game 3-0 in the second inning with Clemson getting into trouble early. This is the rubber match of a three-game series held in Tallahassee.

Luckily, Bailey was able to get up under his own power and make his way to the mound. There, he took several warmup pitches before being able to stay in the game. However, trainers attended to Dillard, who walked off, unsteadily, with them and was removed from the game. It’s unclear the exact injury that he suffered.

The injuries are starting to add up now for the Clemson Tigers. Dillard himself has had limited playing time this season but was stepping in to try and fill in for some of those injuries.

In 13 games this season, Jay Dillard has a .091 batting average and a .375 OBP. That’s come in just 11 at-bats. He’s walked four times and struck out four times. Defensively, he has a 0.867 fielding percentage with eight assists, five putouts, and two errors.

Coming out of high school, Dillard was the 202nd-ranked shortstop in the nation by Perfect Game. A multi-sport athlete from the state of South Carolina, he was also an all-state and all-region selection as well as being the region MVP.

Clemson and Florida State have been two of the best teams in the country this season. The Tigers came into the rubber match on Sunday 37-11 overall and 14-9 in ACC play. That included splitting the first two games of the series with the Seminoles, the second game of which finished less than an hour before Sunday’s game began due to a weather delay from the night before.

At 13-6 in conference play, Florida State is in first place in the ACC. However, it’s tightly contested at the top of the conference. The Tigers are widely seen as some of the biggest competition in the conference, even with Clemson sitting at sixth in the current conference standings.

One thing is certain, Clemson is looking to get healthy as quickly as possible from here. To go along with a midweek game against Coastal Carolina, Clemson still has to take on Duke and Pitt in ACC play.