CLEMSON — After falling to Duke on Sunday, the Clemson baseball team has now dropped three consecutive ACC series. The Tigers have lost nine of 12 and have gone from being ranked second in the nation to No. 15 in the latest D1 Baseball rankings.

While those first two series losses came on the road, the latest came at Doug Kingsmore. Before the weekend, Clemson was 25-5 at home and had not lost a series on its home field.

Now, Erik Bakich’s team goes back out on the road, with one final chance to right the ship before next weekend’s ACC Tournament. The Tigers have a three-game set against Pitt, a team that is currently near the bottom of the league standings.

“We are in a unique spot, a spot we have been in before,” the head coach said. “Just in terms of how we’ve played the last three weeks, it kind of feels like we are up against the ropes. Backs against the wall, and it is a good spot to be in. Because there is only one thing to do when you’re backed up, and that is to fight.”

The current tailspin has no doubt had an impact on the locker room. A team known for its grittiness over the first half of the season is currently struggling to find its way, and Bakich is anxious to see how they will respond now that their backs are firmly against the wall.

“I think when you are fighting it and you are losing games, it’s easy to focus on the negatives and it is easy to be negative,” he said. “That is kind of everybody’s default. But the identity of this team is going to be revealed in how we respond to this adversity. The identity of this team is to be determined, and it is all about what happens next.”

Three weeks ago, the Tigers were riding high. Sitting inside the Top 5 of the RPI, Clemson was on track to lock up a Top 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament. After the series loss to Duke, the team has fallen to 14th in the RPI and is in serious danger of not even hosting a regional.

Clemson has also fallen all the way down to seventh in the ACC standings. While a double-bye in next week’s conference tournament is still officially on the table, the Tigers will need to do something they’ve failed to do in each of the past three weeks. Win a series. In fact, they will need to sweep and still get some help.

However, Bakich still believes. He is unequivocally doubling down on his earlier proclamation that his team is fixing to get hot.

“We have felt this side of it the last three weeks, and this feeling sucks,” Bakich said.

“I think this is going to be an awesome week for Clemson baseball. We are going to be swinging. Take our deal on the road and be ready to let all this frustration out. Again, you have heard me say this before, but I 100% believe this team is going on a run. It’s going to be explosive. It’s going to be epic.”