RALEIGH, N.C. — The Clemson baseball team has experienced a couple of firsts during its road trip to Raleigh. A couple of firsts Erik Bakich’s squad was hoping to avoid.

After dropping the first two games against NC State, the second-ranked Tigers have not only lost back-to-back games for the first time all season, but it’s also the first time they’ve dropped a weekend series.

Coming into the three-game set, the Wolfpack had won nine of 10, and last Monday, they entered the D1 Baseball rankings at No. 25.

The Tigers came in pretty hot themselves, having won nine of their last 11, but what was expected to be one of the better series in ACC play this weekend has been fairly one-sided to this point.

“NC State is hot,” Bakich said after the Wolfpack’s series-clinching win on Friday. “It is all about when you catch teams, and we’re catching them on a heater.”

“We are in a stretch where we are playing really good teams. We know we get everybody’s best. There is no question about that. Just with the season we have put together up to this point, we are getting everybody’s A-game, and that is what we want. We are leaning into the challenging schedule. You got to take the lumps with that when they come, and they came these last two games for sure.”

While NC State did run away with the series opener on Thursday, winning 14-4 in eight innings, Clemson had more than its share of chances to knot the series up on Friday. After taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the second on Collin Priest’s 10th home run of the season, the Tigers had ample opportunity to extend that lead over the next couple of innings.

Instead, the Tigers were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position during that stretch, including three strikeouts. Clemson went on to finish the game 0-for-8 with five strikeouts.

Coming up with the clutch hits is something that has plagued the Tigers recently. Over the past five games, Clemson hitters have just six hits in their last 50 plate appearances with runners in scoring position. Twice in that span, the Tigers have gone hitless in a game with runners in scoring position, including Friday’s 8-3 loss to the Wolfpack. In the game three loss to Louisville last Saturday, Clemson was 3-for-22 in those situations and left the bases loaded three different times.

It’s to the point now that Bakich believes in some cases, players may be starting to press a little. At the same time, the third-year head coach isn’t interested in making any excuses.

“Could be. You have to look at the execution with two outs lately, or in those situations where we have opportunities to cash in and we haven’t done it,” he said. “That would be an easy thing to say, and certainly not going to make excuses. We just got to be better. We have been so good in that area most of the year, but it seems like, as of late, it hasn’t clicked. It hasn’t worked.”

There is no magic fix here. The only thing Bakich can do is keep running his players out there and let them hit their way out of it.

“We will stick with it, we have the right kids,” Bakich added. “At the end of the day, you put your trust in that. You’ve got good leaders on this team. Good players, good kids. They are trying hard. If anything, it is a result of overtrying, not a lack of effort. Sometimes you just got to loosen the grip a little bit, take a deep breath, and get back to playing with that smile on your face.”

NC State also won its series against the Tigers last season. It was just one of two series losses all season for Clemson. And while his team has already lost this series, Bakich is anxious to see if the Tigers can bounce back and avoid another first this season: a three-game sweep.

“We will have to regroup, come back, and be 1-0 (Saturday),” Bakich said. “And play a little bit better brand of baseball, like we are capable of playing. I think we can compete a little bit harder. Too many mental errors out there (Friday).”