It's hard for me to recall the events of Friday's ACC series opener without thinking about Tyler Slaton's night. Now, things started off fine for the Clemson center fielder - his sacrifice moved runners up to second and third in the second inning and the Tigers would eventually score their first run, and he also singled to open the fifth.
Nothing really went right for Slaton after that.
Glenn Baston followed that fifth inning single with a double to deep center field and Georgia Tech executed a beautiful relay: Daniel Spingola (CF) to Connor Justus (SS) to catcher A.J. Murray and Slaton was gunned down at the plate. Clemson would go up 2-0 and still led 2-1 when Slaton was hit by a Jonathan King pitch to start the seventh. After a pair of outs in the air moved Slaton to second and ended King's night, reliever Matt Phillips served up a single to Eli White. Again Slaton came charging for the plate and this time Spingola took care of it himself, throwing a strike to the plate to nip Slaton and end the inning.
To cap a truly bizarre night for Slaton, he struck out swinging for the final out of a 4-2 Tech win.
* The Yellow Jackets picked up that win, thanks in large part to closer Zac Ryan, who came in with no one out and a man at first in the eighth and recorded six consecutive outs for the well-earned victory. They also won because of a three-run, eighth-inning rally that began with a throwing error by Batson at third base.
That ended Matthew Crownover's night, but the junior left-hander pitched well once again. He came into the night leading the ACC in ERA (1.21) and wins with seven, then he tossed seven innings and allowed two runs (one earned) while fanning nine. Taylor Vetzel relieved and allowed a single to Murray and later threw a wild pitch to send the runners to second and third with one out. First baseman Andrew Cox gambled on Thomas Smith's chopper in what looked like an attempt to get Matt Gonzalez streaking for home, but Cox never got close to catching the ball and Gonzalez and Murray scored the go-ahead runs. Later, Ryan Peurifoy blooped a single down the right-field line to make it a 4-2 game. A truly miserable inning/finish for Clemson, which was six outs away from a win with its ace on the mound and instead fell to 11-10 in league play.
Our first ejection!
A 300 Game Season first as Tech coach Danny Hall was ejected following a stolen base call that went Clemson's way in the fifth. Cox beat the throw to second and was rewarded with the steal, but Hall didn't agree. The Tech skipper also was violent in pointing at second base several times and eventually was thrown out by third base umpire John Haggerty.
Haggerty out on the outfield grass where it's safer
The 300 Game Season All Star Team
We added our second member on the team Friday in Atlanta.
(* all of the names and statistical and biographical information is a work of fiction and should be taken fictionally).
Tyler Clayton
#16 - Dwayne County Astros
Clayton, a nine-year old outfielder, is his team's leader in fouled bunts (8) and number of times forgetting his hat for both practices (3) and games (2).
* As an eight-year old in 2014, accidentally swallowed over four ounces of infield dirt after diving for various practice ground balls.
