Clate Schmidt Matches Brother’s Strong Outing

GREENVILLE, S.C.—Clate Schmidt checked his phone Saturday morning and found a text message from his younger brother, Clarke, that read, “Good luck.” Nothing more needed to be said. Even that might’ve been too much.

This is that time of the year when Clate and Clarke don’t speak to each other; it’s against their very nature. It’s one thing to be brothers on opposing teams, but it’s another thing entirely to be brothers on opposing sides of the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry. And these brothers are tough. They revel in the competition. They’re fighters—sons of a Marine colonel. Through two games this year, the Reedy River Rivalry has revolved almost entirely around them.

Clarke dealt the first blow Friday night—throwing eight scoreless innings to lead the Gamecocks to an 8-1 victory in Columbia. Clate, admittedly “salty,” begrudgingly congratulated Clarke after the game.

The next day, he read Clarke’s text, took the mound at Fluor Field and punched right back.

The senior righthander stymied the Gamecocks the way his sophomore brother shut down the Tigers the night before. Clate carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning and left yielding just one hit and four walks while striking out six in 5 1/3.

Behind him, the Tigers won, 5-0, to even the series.

“It all started with Clate Schmidt,” Clemson head coach Monte Lee said after the game. “When we needed a big start from a veteran pitcher, we got one from Clate today. He did an unbelievable job.”

This was the game Schmidt wanted, the moment he wanted—and not just for revenge against his brother. Clate’s competitiveness extends far beyond sibling rivalries, baseball rivalries, even baseball itself.

Last May, after months of testing, Schmidt was diagnosed with nodular sclerosis, a treatable form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and he began chemotherapy shortly thereafter. With the support of his brother and family, Schmidt attacked the cancer with the same sort of zeal he shows on the pitcher’s mound. On July 30, 2015, he announced on Twitter that he was cancer free.

Though Schmidt had made two starts already this season, none were bigger than Saturday’s start against the Gamecocks. He said he looked forward to it with “tunnel vision.” In a way, Saturday represented his full comeback from last year’s health scare.

“Selfishly, it was huge,” said Schmidt, before quickly deflecting attention away from himself. “But more so it made it even sweeter that our team came out and performed extremely well today after handling adversity last night, being able to show that we are an extremely competitive team and a force to be reckoned with.”

Sitting 86-87 mph and touching 89 mph, Clate didn’t have quite as much zip on his fastball as his younger brother did, but his 78-80 mph changeup was a difference maker Saturday. A day after the Gamecocks exploded for eight runs, Schmidt used the pitch to keep their bats silent. Particularly striking was Schmidt’s handling of South Carolina first baseman Alex Destino. The sophomore struck out twice against Schmidt after going 5-for-5 with four RBIs the night before.

“It was just tough to pick (the changeup) up,” South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook said. “We didn’t make very good adjustments on it, and we felt like we were looking for it, but when you’ve got a good changeup with fastball arm speed, it’s difficult on a hitter, and he could locate it. He located his fastball, and that made his changeup that much more effective for him. He pitched a heck of a game.

“He’s pitched against us before, but that was an impressive performance. I haven’t seen him be that efficient and clean.”

On the other side, South Carolina freshman Braden Webb struggled with efficiency, striking out seven but also walking five in 4 1/3 innings. He gave the Tigers an early 1-0 lead with a bases-loaded walk in the first, but the big blow came in the fifth, when junior catcher Chris Okey hit a booming two-run triple to right-center.

The hit knocked Webb out of the contest, and, as it would turn out, Schmidt wasn’t far behind him. After cruising through his first five frames, Schmidt began to labor in the sixth, allowing his first and only hit of the game—a double—to Jonah Bride with one out and one on in the inning. After a walk of John Jones loaded the bases, Clemson turned to lefthander Pat Krall, whose crucial strikeouts of Destino and Chris Cullen neutralized the threat.

Crisis averted, Schmidt soon became a winner—just as his brother was on Friday night. After the game, it was Clarke’s turn to give a begrudging congrats, hugging Clate down the first-base line. The Schmidts’ father, Dwight, tweeted a picture of the embrace later in the night, telling Tiger and Gamecock nation, “You uplift us more than you know!”

Clate said afterward that he was overwhelmed with emotion, being able to share Saturday’s moment with his family. The weekend has been nothing but positive for the Schmidt family, and it should only get better from here. With the rivalry series ending Sunday, so will the competitive silence between Clate and Clarke.

“We know not to talk to each other until we’re done,” Schmidt said. “So tomorrow we’ll get to say, ‘what’s up?’”

Even more:

“I’m thinking we’ll get to grab a bite to eat afterwards.”