DURHAM, N.C. — Losing is never fun and for third-ranked Clemson, it is definitely not something it is used to doing.

However, the Tigers did fall Saturday in the 2018 ACC Baseball Championship Semifinals, losing a heartbreaker, 5-4, to No. 10 Florida State at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, N.C. The Seminoles got a two-out single in the top of the ninth inning from Rhett Aplin to score Mike Salvatore with the game-winning run.

The win advanced FSU to Sunday’s conference championship game against Louisville, while Clemson heads home and gets set for next week’s NCAA Regional at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson.

“I think that it was great for our guys and for our team to play in this type of game and this type of atmosphere going into next week,” Clemson head coach Monte Lee said afterward.

It was a difficult loss for the Tigers, who have now played in three one-run games with FSU this season. Florida State showed the Tigers just enough from pitchers Cole Sand and C.J. Van Eyk, while getting big hits from Aplin, Jackson Lueck and Drew Mendoza to give them a glimpse of what life will be like in next week’s regional round.

“To be put in those pressure situations that they were put in tonight. I don’t know if anything could prepare our guys for next weekend more than tonight’s game,” Lee said. “Florida State, give them credit. They were a little bit better than us tonight. They’ve got a great club, but we’ve got a great club, too. We’ll get better from this. I’m proud of the way that our guys fought, but Florida State was a little bit better.”

FSU (42-17) snapped the Tigers’ eight-game winning streak overall and sixth-game win streak at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. It was just their third loss in the last 22 games.

“Failure is something that you learn and grow from,” Lee said. “Our guys will tell you we embrace it. I mean, we embrace failing because that’s the only way you’re going to get better.”

Clemson (45-14) had its moments Saturday. Chris Williams had a three-run home run in the bottom of the fourth inning as well as a double later in the game. Seth Beer drew three walks, including an RBI drawn walk in the seventh inning and scored once.

Pitcher Jake Higginbotham had a gutsy performance on the mound as he went 6 1/3 innings, allowing just three runs on four hits while striking out five batters.

“My messages to the team are pretty simple when you win 19 out of 21 (games),” Lee said. “Just think about that run. I think that’s right. I don’t keep up with it, but we won 19 of our 21 games. It’s hard to send a lot of messages, ‘just keep doing what you’re doing.’

“We’ll learn from this, and we’ll be better from it, but again, I don’t know if we could compete any harder. We didn’t execute as good as we would have liked to in some critical situations, and in the postseasons when you’re facing high-quality arms and opponents, when you get those opportunities, you’ve got to capitalize, and that’s the big thing that we can take from tonight. We didn’t do a good enough job there.”