Georgia Tech and Clemson entered the weekend leading their respective ACC divisions and then stretched each other out and played nearly even Friday and Saturday.
On Sunday, there was much greater separation as Tech’s Jeff Rowland, Tony Plagman and Jacob Esch had four hits each in beating Clemson 11-3.
The ACC's top home run-hitting team had just one in the series-ending game, and it came off the bat of Esch, who had collected just one homer in the fifth-ranked Yellow Jackets’ first 35 games.
When things are going well – and given Tech’s 31-5 record and 15-3 mark atop the Coastal division, they are – this is what happens: Esch, who entered the series 6-for-59 in ACC action, was 7-for-12 against Clemson. His slicing, eighth-inning homer to right field ensured Tech of scoring in every inning and improved the Jackets’ streak of hitting at least one home run to 15 consecutive games.
"That's what I’m supposed to do,” Esch said of his opposite-field hitting style. “[Other] guys hit the long ball and I hit the ball on the ground and in the holes, and if one finds its way up in the jet stream, great.”
Clemson (23-14, 10-8) has lost six of seven, including two to last-place Duke and a midweek game to Western Carolina. The Tigers won’t be ranked No. 16 any longer.
Kyle Parker hit his 14th home run for Clemson to tie the game 1-1 in the second inning. That shot -- the only home run Tech pitcher Jed Bradley (5-2) had allowed in 51.2 innings -- were the extent of Clemson's Sunday highlights at Russ Chandler Stadium.
Rowland’s bases-loaded triple and Plagman’s RBI single gave the Jackets a 5-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Rowland’s two-run double in the seventh pushed the score to 10-3 and launched a small parade of students carrying brooms behind home plate.
Sunday's game hardly resembled Friday's, when Tech won 8-6 on a 10th-inning home run by Chase Burnette, or Saturday's, when the Jackets won 4-3 on three consecutive two-out singles in the seventh.
“We had two really good ball games with them, two that could have gone either way,” Clemson coach Jack Leggett said. “There’s so little margin for error. They’re a strong club playing very well right now. Hopefully we’ll see them later.”
Bradley was roughed up in Tech’s 9-1 loss a week earlier at Virginia. On Sunday, he spread eight hits over seven innings, striking out eight and walking none.
“It was just being more aggressive, getting ahead of hitters and finishing them when you have two strikes,” he said. “That was my biggest focus this week, and coach [Tom Kinkelaar] kept reminding me to stay aggressive and stay after guys.”
Conversely, Plagman said the Jackets were too aggressive offensively in dropping two of three at Virginia. “We didn’t have good approaches up in Virginia,” he said. “We worked on our approach at the plate Tuesday, and again Thursday, [at] not swinging at balls out of the strike zone.”
The result: Tech had 17 hits and walked six times.
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