DURHAM, N.C. — When Clemson traveled to Raleigh for a three-game set against NC State in late April, the Tigers were riding high.

Erik Bakich’s team had won 10 of its previous 12 games and was fresh off a win over a top-five Georgia squad. However, what transpired in Raleigh sent Clemson into a tailspin.

Not only were the Tigers swept, but NC State took all three games in rather dominating fashion. Clemson would go on to lose its next two ACC series at Florida State and at home against Duke, as well as dropping a midweek game at Coastal Carolina. In all, Bakich’s team lost nine of 12 and looked like they might even have to go on the road for regional play.

Through it all, Bakich maintained the skid was just a bump in the road, and he was confident his team would come out of it.

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

“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.”

The Tigers did not let Bakich down. Clemson has won four straight since then, including a 6-1 win over Virginia Tech in the second round of the ACC Tournament on Wednesday, setting up a rematch with none other than NC State.

“The game of baseball has its ebbs and flows, ups and downs, and peaks and valleys,” Bakich said after the win over the Hokies. “We hit a three-week rough patch there, but we were a pitch here or a play there from winning the Florida State series. Whatever the reason was, we were down on the mat, but I knew with this group and the kids that we’ve got, when they got back up, they were going to get back up stronger than they have ever been before.”

Bakich will send sophomore Drew Titsworth to the mound against the Wolfpack. In his start in Raleigh, Titsworth pitched into the fifth, allowing four runs on eight hits, while striking out four and walking one in an 8-3 loss.

The bats were also quiet that weekend against the Wolfpack, with the team managing just eight runs total in the three-game series. The Tigers particularly struggled with runners in scoring position that weekend.

However, Thursday is a new day and a new opportunity, and advancing to the semifinal round by knocking off the ‘Pack would go a long way towards rectifying would happened to the Tigers during that forgettable trip to Raleigh.

“It just feels like we needed to go through that rough patch,” Bakich added. “We had won seven conference weekends in a row. We had won every weekend in a row the whole season. So going through that ended up making us stronger, and there is a lot of confidence in this group right now.”