Van Horn said if people just looked at Friday night's box score, one might think the 11-10 Clemson victory over Nebraska was a well-played game. One error, one team with 11 hits, the other with 10. Aside from a combined 21 walks, the game looked clean.
``You had to be here to see it was a real strange ball game,'' Van Horn said. ``There were a lot of mistakes that didn't show up as errors."
He pointed to the walks, four hit batters, a wild pitch, a few misjudged fly balls and a pair of missed double-play opportunities that proved costly.
``One of those double-plays was followed by a three-run homer,'' Van Horn said. ``That hurt a lot.''
Nebraska players were equally frustrated by the game. Starting pitcher Shane Komine had a career-high eight walks in 5 1/3 innings. At one point he had a 7-2 lead, but could not hold off the charging Tigers.
``I kind of lost it there in the fifth inning,'' Komine said. ``They made us pay for those walks.''
``It was very frustrating,'' said NU catcher Jed Morris. He said he talked with home plate umpire John Magnusson about some calls Morris thought he had missed. But Morris said Magnusson was consistent, both when he was catching and when he was hitting.
``You work with different umpires,'' Komine said. ``You can't complain about the strike zone. It was the same for both teams.''
Van Horn agreed.
``It wasn't the walks that beat us,'' he said.
Komine and his teammates learned first hand why Clemson All-American shortstop Khalil Greene has been just about every organization's player of the year this season.
Greene entered the game hitting .480. He improved on that with a three-hit night, doubling and hitting a three-run homer. The home run gave Clemson it's first lead of the night in the seventh inning.
``They were great,'' Komine said. ``Khalil is a real tough out. We've faced some great hitters this year but they were among the best. You've got to pitch them well or they're going to hurt you.''
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/6/193513