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With two runners on base, Clemson’s Julia Knowler laced the ball into right field towards the glove of Taylor Posner her third at bat of the day. But almost as though there was a hole in the leather, the ball went right through Posner’s glove and dropped to the ground. The error extended the Tigers’ lead to 11 runs.

In its series-opener against No. 17 Clemson (25-11, 9-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), Syracuse (16-15, 4-9 ACC) lost 13-2 in part due to its poor defense. With four errors on the day, SU tied its season-high from Feb. 16 against Southeastern Louisiana.

The Tigers had the Orange back on their heels early. Maddie Moore slammed the second pitch of her leadoff at bat over the center field wall for a homer. McKenzie Clark then slammed a ball directly toward shortstop Kelly Breen for what should’ve been an easy throw for an out at first. But Breen couldn’t corral the ball to make the throw in time and Clark slid into first on the Orange’s first error of the game. Though the Tigers didn’t capitalize on the mistake from SU, as Valerie Cagle and Knowler were retired consecutively.

Madelyn Lopez opened the scoring for Syracuse with a no-doubter home run to deep right field in the bottom half of the inning, tying the score 1-1. Yet, that would be the closest Syracuse came to grabbing the lead over the Tigers all afternoon.

In the second inning, with Alia Logoleo on first for Clemson, Aby Vieira popped the ball up for what should have been an easy catch for SU catcher Laila Morales-Alves. But the ball went right through her arms and Vieira reached base. Arielle Oda followed this up with a base hit that glanced off the outstretched glove of Breen.

In an attempt to recover, she flipped the ball towards third base to Rebecca Clyde, but it went right past her into foul territory. Logoleo took advantage and ran home, giving Clemson a 2-1 lead. By the final out of the frame, the Tigers finished the inning with a commanding 7-1 lead. They tallied six runs off of just three hits, making Syracuse pay for its two pivotal errors in the inning.

After a silent third inning from both sides, the Orange put a small dent in Clemson’s lead in the fourth. Clyde slammed a single into the right field gap, which sent Gabby Lantier home to make it 7-2. But Syracuse’s batters were held scoreless for the remainder of the contest and additional defensive errors in the fifth continued to help the Tigers balloon their lead.

With the Orange trailing 9-2, Lindsey Hendrix needed to find a way to stop the bleeding for the Orange. She threw a heater but lost control. Morales-Alves scrambled for the ball, but by the time she turned around, Oda had already stolen third.

Moore then laced a single into deep left field that would normally have been a routine grab for Posner. But she couldn’t come down with the catch and Oda scored to grow the deficit to eight. The sequence marked the fourth error of the day for the Orange. After the Tigers tacked on a few more runs, the game was called after five innings. For the first time this season, Syracuse was on the losing side of a mercy rule.

Published on April 6, 2024 at 8:22 pm

Contact Matthew: mgray06@syr.edu