By Will Vandervort.

DURHAM, N.C. — Jack Leggett just flipped his hat in the air and shrugged his shoulders. He knew at that point his Tigers blew a great opportunity to score some runs in a game they still needed to help their case for a berth in next week’s NCAA Tournament.

That’s the kind of morning it was for Clemson in its 4-1 loss to fourth seeded Florida State in its first ACC Tournament game on Wednesday at Durham Bulls Park in Durham, N.C.

Down three runs with one out in the top of the seventh inning, the Tigers loaded the bases on FSU starter Boomer Biegalski, who to that point had owned them through six innings. But Robert Jolly got a one-out single to left field and then Weston Wilson drew a walk.

Tyler Slaton followed with a fielder’s choice that forced FSU second baseman John Sansone to have to make a difficult play. He instead threw the ball off Wilson’s back on his way to second and the ball rolled into the outfield. But for some reason Jolly stopped at third and before he realized what happened it was too late to go home.

“My mind was going and I was trying to tug him along,” Leggett said. “He was thinking a little bit different than I was. He was a little bit more conservative at that time. I saw something different than he did because he was coming into third base and I was watching the whole play. We still had some opportunities, but it is one of those things where we have been getting those big hits.”

The Seminoles (38-19) then brought in Dylan Silva for Biegalski, who induced pitch-hitter Glenn Baton into a double play ball to first base which Quincy Nieporte turned into a 3-6-3 double play to end threat.

“It was good ballgame and it was a tough one to lose,” Leggett said.

It wasn’t a good day for Jolly. After Chris Okey hit into a groundout with one out in the top of the eighth inning which allowed Clemson’s lone run to come home, the Tigers designated hitter struck out looking to leave runners at second and third to end the inning.

Duggar, who singled to centerfield with one out in the eighth inning, scored on Okey’s RBI-grounder to first.

Florida State took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of third inning when D.J. Stewart took Matthew Crownover’s 3-2 pitch off the left field wall which Reed Rohlman missed played and could not get from hitting the wall. Stewart’s two-out triple allowed Taylor Walls to score from third and John Sansone from first.

Quincy Nieporte followed Steward’s triple with a single to right field to plate Steward for a 3-0 advantage.

Crownover (10-2) gave up nothing after that, despite suffering his second loss of the season. The ACC’s Pitcher of the Year gave up just three hits but two of them were crucial in FSU’s victory, it’s first on the Tigers in four tries this year.

Clemson (31-26) swept the Seminoles on Tallahassee, Fla., last weekend.

Crownover went seven innings and struck eight batters. FSU’s Biegalski earned the victory, his sixth of the season, after pitching 6.1 scoreless innings. He gave up just four hits, had seven strikeouts and issued one walk.

The Tigers left seven runners on base in the last three innings and five of those were in scoring position. Billy Stode picked up his 13th save of the season by striking out Duggar with two outs in the ninth and runners on first and second base.

“We had some opportunities offensively,” Leggett said. “We left twelve men on base and we did have some chances against a pitcher who was pitching very well. He was ahead all day long. He pitched very well and he has a really good out pitch. His changeup is a really good out pitch. When he gets ahead in the count like that it, makes him very effective.

“But we still had some opportunities and we just did not come up with big hit when we had to.”

Clemson will play third-ranked Louisville at 3 p.m. on Thursday.