ARLINGTON, Texas — After watching his pitching staff turn in fairly solid performances over the first two days of the Shriners Children’s College Showdown, Clemson head coach Erik Bakich saw his hurlers take a beating on the final day.

Ole Miss touched up eight Clemson pitchers to the tune of 13 hits, with four of those being long balls. And they did it in just seven innings, as the Tigers were run-ruled 15-5.

“We didn’t have it going on,” Bakich said. “We got quite a few guys out right now and we wanted to get some of the young guys their opportunity to get their feet wet. It just didn’t work out for us.”

For the most part, the pitching was on point over the first two games. Aiden Knaak and Ethan Darden appear to have the top two spots in the rotation locked down. The bullpen was about as good as it could be in the wins over Oklahoma State and Arizona.

It was not until Sunday that issues arose. With freshman Dane Moehler out with an injury, Justin Leguernic made just the second start of his career and the Rebels were able to do damage early, knocking him out in the second inning. The lefty allowed seven runs on six hits, including giving up two home runs. He also walked two batters, one after going up 0-2, and both homers came right after the walks.

“He’s got great stuff, and it was a tight zone, and that’s fine. This type of environment, you usually get something like that,” Bakich said. “And he walked a couple, had guys in two-strike counts and they got the two-strike hit. Then, obviously the two home runs for him were the killers, but both of those home runs had a walk before too.”

After Leguernic was done, the Tigers turned to Jacob McGovern, who had just thrown two innings in Friday’s comeback win over Arizona. McGovern was able to stop the bleeding temporarily, throwing 1.1 scoreless innings.

After that, the Tigers were forced to go to some guys with little to no experience at the college level due to some of the injuries the staff is currently dealing with early in the season.

Luke Brown, who threw just one inning last season as a freshman, got roughed up, allowing two hits, a walk and a hit batsman, to the four batters he faced. Three of those came around to score.

After missing all of last season, BJ Bailey went two innings, allowing a run on three hits. Redshirt freshman Jackson Cole faced three batters in his collegiate debut, with all three reaching. Freshman Dion Brown went 0.1 innings, allowing one run on one hit and a walk. Freshman Chayce Kieck came on and got the final two outs, retiring both batters he faced.

One of the bright spots out of the bullpen on Sunday other than McGovern, was Nathan Dvorsky, who pitched his second scoreless inning of the weekend, striking out two of the three hitters he faced.

However, several pitchers were not seen over the weekend. One of those was Moehler, who was expected to be a key piece of the staff before suffering an injury about a week before the start of the season. No official word yet on how long Moehler might be out.

Another was transfer Michael Gillen, who has been dealing with back soreness. The hard-throwing right-hander is another pitcher expected to play a major role this season. Over his two seasons at Seton Hall, Gillen posted a 1.51 ERA across 65.2 innings of work. All coming in relief.

Freshman Talan Bell is still working his way back from injury too. The left-handed hurler was considered by Perfect Game to be the 33rd-best player in the country coming out of high school.

Noah Samol and Wake Forest transfer Hudson Lee were two more pitchers who did not throw over the weekend.

“A lot of these guys today either were making their 2025 season debut or their collegiate debut so you can expect some nerves,” Bakich said. “With a lot of these guys, it’s totally going to be up from here. It’s only going to get better from here.”

With Wednesday’s home opener against Presbyterian being postponed, the Tigers aren’t back in action until the weekend when the team will host the Clemson Invitational.

After opening the invitational on Friday against VCU, Clemson will play two on Saturday. North Carolina A&T is up first, then the Tigers will face off with VCU again. On Sunday, it’s a rematch with A&T to close out the weekend.

Playing four games in three days could prove to be another challenge for a pitching staff that is currently fairly limited due to the injury bug.