Koerner was on, to put it mildly

Clemson pitcher Brody Koerner gets ready to throw
a pitch in the ninth inning against South Carolina. (Rudy Jones photo)

The Tigers share congratulatory handshakes after the game. (Rudy Jones photo)

Brody Koerner gets hugged by teammate Clay Bates
in the postgame team huddle (Rudy Jones photo).

It may go down as one of the all-time pitching performances in the long Clemson-South Carolina rivalry.

Tigers senior Brody Koerner pitched a four-hit shutout in his first-ever appearance in the rivalry as Clemson rolled to a 7-0 victory at Carolina Stadium on Monday, winning the regular-season series over the Gamecocks for the first time since 2010.

Koerner allowed only one runner to reach third base in becoming the first pitcher to shut out the Gamecocks at home since 1998.

"It's definitely big," said Koerner, who won the Bob Bradley Award as Clemson's most valuable player in the series. "We were confident coming in. They're a good team, but we came out on top tonight."

Koerner said some adjustments have helped him with the command of his fast ball. That certainly was the case Monday.

"I'm just really excited about how we played tonight," said Clemson coach Jack Leggett. "We played really well. Brody was outstanding on the mound. I don't think I've ever seen seen anybody go from start to finish as in command as he was. he had a great pace to his game.

"Clemson obviously deserved to win the game today and, over the course three games, they deserved to win the series," said USC coach Chad Holbrook. "They played better than we did. Koerner was extremely impressive today.

Their pitchers, over the course of three games, pitched extremely well and their position players, their better players, stepped up and drove the ball and hit the ball," Holbrook said. "Their good hitters made plays and our good hitters couldn't do much and you have to credit their pitching staff for that. They outplayed us today and we'll go back to the drawing board and try to get better.
Reed Rohlman had three of Clemson's 10 hits. Tyler Krieger and Steven Duggar added two apiece.

"I thought we played really well offensively," Leggett said. "We put together some innings, got some situational hits when we needed them. We ran the bases well, we played really good defense and put together what I consider a complete game against a good team.

"It was a good series. We're both good teams. We just happened to play a little bit better tonight."

Things were considerably less upbeat on the USC side.

"We didn't come out with energy at all," said Gamecocks first baseman Kyle Martin. "(Korner) came right out of the gate throwing strikes and we didn't seem prepared for it. We didn't swing the bats at all like we'd hoped."

Holbrook didn't like  hearing his players saying they had trouble finding a sense of urgency.

"That's he joke," Holbrook said, testily, then pausing to gsather his thoughts. "If you can't get up to play Clemson in our own ballpark in 70-degree weather, I've got the wrong players in the locker room if that was the case. That's an excuse."

Holbrook indicated lincup changes may be in the offing.

"I've got to try to find the right combinations because offensively we just haven't been good enough the last couple days. I've got good hitters in our dugout. I've just got to figure out the ones to put in there.

"Other than that, congratulations to Clemson. They played better. They've got a good, solid team. They pitched extremely well. They played defense. They deserved to win."

The Gamecocks committed four errors.

Jack Wynkoop, the winning pitcher on Saturday, earned the Tom Price Award as USC's most valuable player.