CLEMSON — The Clemson Baseball team just can’t seem to get out of its own way here of late.

Since the start of ACC play, Erik Bakich has watched his team have its share of struggles in all three phases at one time or another. However, the one constant has been the fielding issues. It’s been an issue all season long.

After Tuesday night’s 11-9 loss to Coastal Carolina, a game in which Clemson squandered a 9-3 lead, Bakich wasn’t interested in talking about the controversial play where an umpire and first baseman Jack Crighton collided while Crighton was attempting to reel in a pop fly, costing his team multiple runs. He wasn’t interested in using a bad hop to excuse a fielding error.

Bakich was more focused on his team’s mindset over the final three innings that saw a six-run lead turn into a two-run loss, which extended the Tigers’ losing streak to four games. And the fourth-year head coach took full responsibility for that mindset.

“We didn’t lose because of umpire interference or a bad hop or anything like that, we lost because we got out-competed in the seventh, eighth and ninth, and that is ultimately on me,” Bakich said. “That is my fault. I should have found a way to make sure that we kept the pedal down. They outscored us 8-0 in the seventh, eighth and ninth, and that is just not acceptable. That is not ok.”

Having played two midweek games in Charleston last week while on spring break, and then travelling to South Bend for a three-game series against Notre Dame last weekend, has limited the team’s practice time. With another Thursday, Friday, Saturday series at home against Miami on deck, Wednesday will be the only day the team can practice this week.

“Tomorrow will be our first training session in what feels like a while, and it will be an important one to get back to some fundamentals, get back to basics,” Bakich added. “I know — we all know, we are not playing fundamental defense right now and we are going to work on that.”

Through the first 25 games, Clemson has made 33 errors. That comes out to 1.32 per game. First baseman Luke Gaffney and shortstop Tyler Lichtenberger have made six each. Jack Crighton is the only regular to not have made an error this season.

Digging a little deeper, only 96 of the 121 runs allowed this season have been earned.

Not only has Clemson dropped four straight, but the Tigers have also lost seven of the past 10 games. Bakich’s team is just one game out of the cellar in the ACC standings. While the head coach doesn’t believe it’s quite time to hit the panic button, he is fully aware it’s getting close to hitting that point.

“Everybody is disappointed. We deserve any criticism we get,” Bakich said. “The finger should be pointed at myself, but we’ll get it turned around. Right now, we are not playing well in many phases, and if we do play well, it’s maybe in one phase. At the beginning of the year, we were playing well in all phases, or at least two out of the three. We played our way into this and we are going to play our way out of it. It’s going to be fine. It’s not panic mode, but it is sense of urgency mode.”