CLEMSON — Sunday’s win over NC State was big for Clemson. However, it was not because the Tigers stopped a three-game losing streak.
Sixth-ranked Clemson needed the victory for more than just wins and losses. During the Tigers’ April 7 game at Notre Dame, head coach Erik Bakich was forced to change his infield somewhat after shortstop Andrew Ciufo suffered a lower leg injury the day before.
With Ciufo out, Bakich moved graduate senior Jacob Hinderleider to shortstop from first base, a position he has played most of his career. However, he has mostly played first base this year.
With Hinderleider at shortstop, the Tigers are trying several players at first base, especially when Jimmy Obertop is catching. In essence, it has affected the infield’s continuity.
The end result, Clemson (29-6, 11-4 ACC) committed nine errors in a four-game stretch, including a combined seven in back-to-back losses to the Wolfpack on Friday and Saturday.
The Tigers wasted a complete game performance by Ethan Darden in a 4-0 loss on Saturday. They booted the ball around four times in the first three innings, which led to three unearned runs. This was after giving up six unearned runs on Friday in an 11-8 loss.
“This is a significant win,” second baseman Jarren Purify said after Game 3’s win. “When you get a start by Ethan Darden like the one he had yesterday, and you don’t capitalize, especially on the defensive end, we just pretty much threw the game away. And unfortunately, threw the series away.
“So, coming in here today, we just wanted to lay it all out, especially with Aidan (Knaak) throwing eight shutout innings.”
They did lay it all out on the line, especially Purify and Hinderleider in the middle infield, which allowed Knaak to dominate NC State’s batters. The freshman struck out 10 and gave up just two hits and no runs in eight innings.
He threw just 97 pitches and for the second week in a row was named the ACC’s Pitcher of the Week.
“The defense was a lot better today,” said Knaak, who has given up just one earned run and seven hits in his last 22 innings on the mound. “I just went out there and tried to let the defense work.”
The defense was not working at all in the previous four games. Besides the nine errors, opponents scored 11 unearned runs.
But as Bakich explained after Clemson’s 7-0 win on Sunday, the defense is a work in progress again, as it gets adjusted to not having Ciufo for the rest of the year, while working on its communication.
“Think back to when Andrew Ciufo was settling into the shortstop role, he made like five errors in four games and then went twenty-two games without an error,” the Clemson coach said. “I am not saying that is going to be (Hinderleider) but you could just tell there was re-accumulation to a new position, even though he has played it his whole life.
“They are still just kind of getting settled in out there, so today looked much more like the Jacob Hinderleider we saw all fall when he and Ciufo were both playing shortstop.”
Clemson looked a lot more confident in the field on Sunday than it has at any point in the last week. And that showed on the scoreboard. No errors and the Wolfpack finished the game with just two hits.
“I think we are still going to have some moving parts, especially with our catching situation with Jimmy and Jacob Jarrell both catching, someone will have to play first when Jimmy Obertop catches.
“So, we gave Tryston McCladdie a shot there today. He was a shortstop coming out of high school, so we wanted another athlete over there. We have Cooper Blauser, Jack Crighton, guys who have done it. So, we may keep tinkering there and just try to keep giving guys opportunities. We are going to need them all because you never know when somebody is going to have their number called.”
And that could be Tuesday when Clemson hosts Charlotte at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.
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