Clemson Baseball Wins First Conference Series Opener of the Season
After winning back-to-back conference series against Florida State and Notre Dame - Clemson's first two conference series wins of the year - the baseball Tigers have caught some late-season momentum in April. The one obstacle they hadn't conquered yet was actually opening an Atlantic Coast Conference series with a victory.
The idea of another slow start was put to bed early as Bill Amick sent a 3-run bomb deep into the Raleigh night sky in the top of the first inning and the team in orange and white never looked back. Despite giving a run back in the bottom half of the inning the Tigers went on to put up 2 runs in the third and fourth innings, 1 in the sixth and another 2 in the seventh before the Wolfpack were ever able to draw blood again. Amick finished the job just as he started by jacking his 2nd homer of the ball game to cap off a 10-run explosion by the offense on Friday.
Bill Amick hit two home runs in Clemson's 10-2 win over N.C. State Friday. (Clemson Athletics)
Among all the offense was a hidden gem of a start by Ethan Darden who tied a career-high with 6 innings pitched and only gave up 1 run on 8 hits and zero walks. Big performance from Darden considering NC State was coming into the game at 25-11, were at home, and knew Clemson had yet to win the first game of a conference series so far this year.
Coach Erik Bakich told reporters after the game, "Great team win. You know we've struggled on Friday nights in conference play but it was good to get this one tonight."