GREENVILLE – Clemson had plenty of chances to get back in the win column Tuesday. Instead, the Tigers are limping into this weekend’s rivalry series.

Clemson racked up 12 hits, but the timely one often eluded the Tigers in a 6-3 loss to USC Upstate at Fluor Field. It was Clemson’s fourth straight loss after getting swept by Central Florida last weekend with South Carolina on tap.

The series against the unbeaten Gamecocks will start Friday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, where Clemson (4-4) will need a much cleaner performance in order to give itself a realistic chance to end the skid.

“We’ve just got to be tougher, and we’ve got to get to playing to a certain standard,” Clemson coach Erik Bakich said. “Because this team is better than this.”

Clemson stranded 11 baserunners after putting runners in scoring position in four innings. The Tigers loaded the bases in the second and sixth but produced just one run in each of those frames.

“When it’s time to grit your teeth, put your nose in the dirt and get that runner in in any shape or form, you’ve got to do it,” Bakich said. “You’e got to find a way to cash in and score those runs.”

Clemson went with a committee approach on the mound starting with freshman left-hander Tristan Smith. After making the first two appearances of his college career out of the bullpen, Smith got his first start of the season, retiring the Spartans in order in the first. He’s allowed just two hits in 2 ⅓ scoreless innings this season with four strikeouts.

The Tigers then used five relievers to hang around after Upstate (7-2) did the majority of its damage against Nick Hoffman in the fourth. The Spartans chased Hoffman after the right-hander yielded four runs on three hits and issued two walks without recording an out.

Bakich said figuring out roles among the pitching staff is still “very much a process.”

“It would be inaccurate for us as a staff to say everything is solidified,” he added. “I think for us as a staff, we have feel like we have some very talented players, and it’s our job as coaches — and we’ll do this tomorrow and Thursday — of putting guys in the right spots. And that may include mixing some things up in order to put guys in roles where they’re going to have a lot of success.”

That gave Upstate a two-run lead going to the fifth, but Ethan Darden, Reed Garris and Jackson Lindley combined to limit the Spartans to just two runs the rest of the way. Will Taylor hit his first home run of the season with a solo shot in the second, but manufacturing runs was Clemson’s biggest issue.

Baserunning blunders didn’t help as freshman Jacob Jarrell was thrown out trying to advance to third on Chad Fairey’s grounder to the left side for the first out in the sixth. Caden Grice was later doubled off first on Blake Wright’s lineout to end that threat.

“Adversity is a good thing, but you also have to make adjustments and learn from that adversity,” Bakich said. “You can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over, and we made some baserunning errors tonight that are just the opposite of what we’re teaching. Just critical mistakes in a close game. You can’t have those types of errors.”

Clemson’s last real threat came in the seventh with the Tigers trailing by just one run at the time. Clemson put runners at second and third with just one out, but Noah Sullivan got back-to-back strikeouts of Fairey and Jarrell to keep the Spartans’ lead intact. Upstate added a pair of insurance runs in the home half of the frame, punctuating its first win over the Tigers since 2021.

“We’ve just got to learn from it,” Taylor said. “Just errors that we’re making.

“We’ve got a lot of baseball ahead of us. The biggest thing is just move on from it. Next pitch. Next game. That’s what we’re going to do.”