Clemson offense explodes as Tigers pound Miami in series finale

Clemson baseball coach Monte Lee said following Saturday’s loss to Miami that all it would take was one big inning to get the Tigers offense going.

Luckily for Clemson, that inning came in Sunday’s series finale.

A day after scoring only one run, Clemson’s bats exploded for 20 in a 20-5 beatdown of the Hurricanes.

Clemson finished with 20 hits and had five home runs. The Tigers had only four hits total the previous day — all singles.

“A great day of baseball for our guys. We really needed it. We’ve had a tough week. Everybody knows that,” Lee said. “It was great to come out and swing the bats the way that we swung the bats today, I thought we pitched really well. … Just hit on all cylinders today.”

Benjamin Blackwell got Clemson off to a great start, sending the first pitch a Clemson batter saw over the left field fence for a homer as the Tigers quickly matched their run total from the previous day.

Clemson pushed its lead to 2-0 in the second inning, before busting the game open with six runs in the bottom of the third.

The Tigers stayed in control throughout as Miami pulled to within 12-5 in the seventh, before Clemson put up eight runs in the bottom of the eighth for the winning margin.

Blackwell led the way at the plate, going 4-for-6 with two runs scored and five RBIs.

“Give a lot of credit to Ben Blackwell,” Lee said. “Ben set the tone, first pitch of the game, he hit it out of the ballpark and we were off and running after that.”

Jackson Lindley earned the win for the Tigers, pitching 1 1/3 scoreless inning and retiring every batter he faced. Nick Clayton got the Tigers off to a good start on the mound, allowing one earned run in 4 2/3 innings.

Clemson returns to action on Tuesday, hosting Coastal Carolina at 6 p.m.