Syracuse finishes with 5 hits in 2-run loss to No. 13 Clemson

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Syracuse’s leadoff hitters, Calista Almer and Angel Jasso, both struck out in the first inning against Clemson’s Valerie Cagle and her opening eight pitches.

Neli Casares-Maher came up to bat, taking a ball on the first pitch. She sized up the second pitch and leveled her sixth home run of the season into the right-center field netting, giving Syracuse a 1-0 lead just 10 pitches into the game. In the third inning, Paris Woods led off and crushed a first-pitch home run 215 feet into the center field netting, tying the game at 2-2.

After Woods’ equalizing bomb, Syracuse’s offense collapsed, only generating two more hits in the game. The Orange struck out six more times as well, struggling with Cagle’s mid-to-high 70-mph fastball.

Syracuse (19-21, 11-18 Atlantic Coast) finished with just five hits in its 4-2 defeat to No. 13 Clemson (38-4, 27-4) on Friday. The Orange’s two home runs allowed them to maintain a close contest with the ACC leaders, but SU’s performance was not something head coach Shannon Doepking said the team should be satisfied with.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to get over the hump where it’s not just being okay with hanging with Clemson,” Doepking said. “It’s going to have to be being able to execute.”

Just a week after facing the nation’s strikeout leader in Virginia Tech’s Keely Rochard, Cagle took the Skytop Stadium mound and gave SU’s batters the same level of difficulty. Cagle consistently reached the plate with enormous power, rarely getting behind the count during the game. This led to confusion for the Orange on how to attack a two-strike count when it was imminent that a fastball would be fired at them on the next pitch.

Cagle’s power caught Almer and Jasso’s first inning at-bats by surprise, especially Jasso’s. As a freshman, Jasso had never faced a pitch with that much speed. Her first missed swing was powerful, as she timed the pitch perfectly. But Jasso was late on the second pitch, as she went down 0-2. She struck out two pitches later.

While Cagle’s speed created issues for the Orange, they were able to get some success off her drop ball. Unlike Syracuse pitcher Alexa Romero and the many other ACC pitchers who thrive off of a rising fastball, Cagle’s main weapon is her drop ball.

Geana Torres made contact on a low pitch from Cagle, leading to a high-bouncing grounder that left Clemson third baseman Casey Bigham hustling inward to grab the slow-moving ball to make the throw to first. Torres was able to use her speed to beat the throw, legging it out for her 13th hit of the season.

Paris Woods hit a home run in the third inning, but that was only one of two runs the Orange scored Friday. Will Fudge | Staff Photographer

“We hit down better than we hit up,” Doepking said. “Our swing paths tend to line up better with a drop ball than they do a rise ball.”

After still failing to score runs off the drop ball, SU’s batters started to move forward in the batter’s box.

Gabby Teran hit into three groundouts and Almer struck out three times and hit to third on the game-ending double play. Almer also tried to rely on her speed, bunting during two of her four at-bats. But she struck out on both.

“We are still not able to pull the trigger in big moments where we need to pull the trigger,” Doepking said. “It’s frustrating because we want to get over the hump. We’re not satisfied with a 4-2 loss to Clemson.”