CLEMSON — A 2-7 start to ACC play is not what anyone envisioned for the Clemson Baseball team in 2026.

However, after dropping two out of three at home to Miami over the weekend, that is exactly where the Tigers find themselves.

Saturday’s 8-6 loss to the Hurricanes was Clemson’s sixth defeat over the past seven games. The Tigers tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth, getting a solo homer from Bryce Clavon and a three-run shot from Jacob Jarrell, but would ultimately come up a little short in the comeback attempt.

“We lost the game today, but we took a step forward with that ninth inning and the belief system that we have and how we were making that comeback. We’ve seen that in the past,” head coach Erik Bakich said. “But this losing crap is going to stop.”

While Bakich readily admits his team is going through it at the moment, the head coach says he still sees confidence in the dugout.

“It’s going to start with a belief system, and we showed a little bit of that,” Bakich said. “Unfortunately, it was not enough. It’s close, but we are not over the hump, but it is close. I am proud of the way we fought in the ninth even though we fell short.”

At the same time, with his team currently sitting at 19-10 overall and off to the slow start in ACC play, Bakich also knows that more is expected from his team, and at some point, he expects the worm to turn.

But with a midweek game against Wake Forest in Charlotte on deck, before a west coast trip to Stanford to follow, time is starting to run out, seeing as his team is now past the halfway point in the season. Bakich also knows it’s more about how you finish and not how you start.

“We need to get better, and we all know it,” Bakich said. “We know what our deficiencies are. We’ve been working hard on defense. Our defense got a little bit better each of the last two games. Just going to put our heads down and go to work. We’ll get there. Obviously, this is not the start to ACC play that anybody wanted. But it’s not how you start, as we all know, it’s how you finish. And we ain’t exactly finished well the last few years. So, we will see how this plays out. But I can tell you the belief system among the team, which is all that matters, is good. Because if they didn’t believe, we’d be screwed, and there is belief on that team.”