Tigers overcome Cowboys to take regional title

CLEMSON — It ended with sour- smelling billows of "rally smoke" pouring from a jubilant Cajun Café beyond the right-field bleachers.

It ended with Clemson players tossing gloves to the sky with primal heaves, following the final out of the Tigers' 6-5 win in the championship game. The win secured a trip to the Tempe Super Regional, a best-of-3 series against Arizona State that begins 9 p.m. Saturday.

The Clemson Regional ended with the unlikeliest heroes, Kyle Parker and Matt Vaughn, being mobbed between home plate and first base, a pulsating mass of orange and purple that had managed to walk the regional tight rope, winning three straight elimination games.

Parker's two-out, two-run single off Randy McCurry in the eighth gave Clemson (44-20) its margin of victory, and it was Vaughn who secured a trip to Tempe in the ninth.

"I'm so proud … tonight was about battling,'' Leggett said. "It was a measure of toughness.''

It was a measure of toughness, of resilience, of vindication to keep Clemson perfect in home postseason situations — 9 for 9 — since the NCAA Tournament expanded in 1999

Despite facing a left-handed starting pitcher, the right-handed slumping Parker did not enter the game until he subbed for Addison Johnson in the seventh.

Parker was just 14 of his last 79.

Clemson trailed until Parker stepped in the batter's box with men on second and third with two outs in the eighth, smashing a curve into the right-field line.

Parker, benched the previous two games, reached first and smashed his hands together, giving Clemson a 6-5 lead.

"Not getting clutch hits was just tearing me apart,'' Parker said.

Vaughn entered the regional trying to work back to his former self, ceding the closer's role for a time at midseason.

The senior captain pitched the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing two unearned runs and four baserunners. He worked through three seventh-inning errors, limiting damage, getting swings and misses with his breaking pitch.

He worked around a one-out single in the ninth — and an intentional walk to the hot-hitting Tom Belza — to strike out Mark Ginther to end the game.

"The past month I've started to feel like myself again,'' Vaughn said. "If we got to into that situation, I wanted to be the guy out there.''

Tomas Cruz's work was important but may be lost in the late-inning happenings. He had bridged the gap from Ryan Hinson's shaky start to Vaughn, allowing just one run over four innings.

Hinson lasted just one-plus innings, allowing three hits, two runs — both earned — and a walk. Hinson failed to record an out in the second. When Githner homered off Cruz in the fourth, the Tigers trailed 3-0.

The lead looked durable with the lefty Tyler Lyons pitching well on two-days' rest.

After throwing 108 pitches in a victory over Alabama on Friday night, he returned due to seven left-handed bats in the Clemson lineup.

The second-guessers will ponder whether Lyons should have been pulled earlier, allowing just one run through six innings.

Lyons threw 111 pitches over 7 2/3 innings, allowing six runs — three earned. He threw 219 pitches in the regional.

Clemson errors in the fifth led to two unearned runs off Vaughn and a 5-1 Cowboys lead. Lyons remained in the game for the seventh.

But the Tigers were resilient. Chris Epps, the regional MVP, smashed a two-run homer in the seventh to make it 5-3, and Mike Freeman doubled and scored on a Jeff Schaus RBI single to make it 5-4, setting up Parker for the spotlight in the eighth.

"It seems like we always like to make it a little tough on us,'' Clemson's Ben Paulsen said. "(The regional) was a big challenge, we battled …. The biggest thing is we made it through.''

Note

Clemson will face Arizona State at 9 p.m. (ESPNU), Saturday, 10 p.m. (ESPN2) Sunday and 7 p.m. Monday (ESPN2, if necessary)