Defending Big East champions open season at Clemson, visits Louisville today
By Spencer Tracy, Staff Writer
Baseball is back. As the 2024 College Baseball season premiered last Friday night including the Xavier Musketeers opening the season on the road against No. 9 ranked Clemson. The Tigers were the clear favorites coming into this weekend and left the three-game series undefeated holding off the Muskies.
Being the underdog was a familiar feeling for the Xavier baseball team coming off one of the most historic runs in program history, falling just one game short of a trip to their first ever NCAA College World Series. The momentum shifted over, just as Head Coach Billy O’Connor had hoped, after a Clemson error and two straight hits set up Senior infielder Matt McCormick to race home on a wild pitch. Two batters later, sophomore infielder Connor Misch, skied a towering fly ball deep enough to put Xavier ahead 2-0, scoring senior catcher Matt DePrey.
Junior pitcher Luke Hoskins took the ball for the Musketeers, but had a tall task ahead of him facing a dominant Clemson lineup. The Tigers presence was felt with three straight singles, followed by a grand slam by Graduate student Alden Mathes in his first at-bat with the Tigers after transferring from the University of Richmond.
Dropping the season opener 14-3 is not an easy loss to shake, but Saturday was a new day with a new face in the Xavier pinstripes, junior southpaw Nolan Hughes. Hughes started off strong with two statement shutout innings. Then, with both offenses in a stalemate, Junior infielder Luke Hammond smoked a high and tight fastball over the left field wall for the first Musketeer homerun of the season.
Nolan Hughes finished his day going 3.1 innings pitched and striking out six while only allowing three earned runs. A four run fourth inning allowed some Tiger baseball fans to exhale as their offense began to heat up. Just before fans could grab a second hot dog, Hammond sent an echo throughout the stadium crushing his second homer of the game. Hammond played in 25 games last year and had 31 at-bats, none of which resulted in a homerun. Clemson added two more runs in the next two innings extending their lead to 8-2. Xavier fell to Clemson 8-3.
To avoid the three-game sweep, graduate student Jared Cushing, collected his first hit of the new season with an RBI single to score leadoff man and graduate student Garrett Schultz. Trailing 3-1 going into the third inning, the top of the lineup found a rhythm with Schultz earning his second hit of the afternoon and DePrey drawing another walk. A promising bat for the Muskies this season in Senior outfielder, Tyler DeMartino, came through with an RBI single collecting a hit in each game this series.
Even at three a piece in the fourth inning, the Muskies were threatening after junior Aedan Anderson and sophomore Donovan Canterberry pulled off an impressive double steal. In need of a clutch hit, McCormick lined a 2-1 fastball to left center field scoring two and giving Xavier life. A fielding error paired by a throwing error revived a late Clemson rally taking an 8-5 lead. However, coming off the game of his life, Hammond roped a line drive down the right field line to bring Cushing home and the Muskies back within one run.
Despite trailing by just one, walks plagued the Xavier pitching staff allowing 11 free passes throughout the game. The Tigers added 3 more in the seventh completing the series sweep in a 11-7 victory. The Muskies will travel to the University of Louisville in a one game series today at 3 p.m. in hopes of capturing their first win of the new season.