CLEMSON — Clemson notched a 19th-straight inning without scoring a run, and the failures of a three-game losing streak seemed to be stacking like bricks in a burgeoning mental wall.
It started midweek as USC Upstate walloped then-No. 2 Clemson with the long ball. Then, the Tigers kicked it around in the field and failed to score in the final four innings of an 11-8 loss to N.C. State. Then, they were shut out, 4-0, wasting a nine-inning gem from sophomore pitcher Ethan Darden.
They went six innings into Aidan Knaak's scoreless effort on April 14 and it was still tied 0-0. It was hard not to tense up.
"Even the fans," Clemson coach Erik Bakich said. "We can hear the moans, even in our dugout. Everybody’s pressing."
There was a mental barrier in front of Clemson, unlike any the Tigers confronted this season, having won 28 of their first 31 games. If they were resilient in numerous comeback wins, they had to push through something of a different sort as their loss total doubled in a span of five days.
They had to get creative in Sunday's seventh inning, squeeze-bunting to not only score Jacob Hinderleider from third but also Jarren Purify from second. The freshman sped around the corner and dove into a freshly kicked up cloud of white chalk at home plate.
"You could tell in the dugout that the whole morale just lifted," Purify said after a 7-0 win over N.C. State, which included a five-run seventh, "and we felt like we had a breakthrough."
All told, now-No. 6 Clemson (29-6, 11-4 ACC) didn't have a great week at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. A streak of 15 straight series wins was broken, and a string of 132 consecutive games with a run scored snapped. But a three-game skid was also left behind with a Sunday win, which relieved some pressure.
Bakich hoped, all along, his team would find some good in the bad. He called the loss to USC Upstate a piece of "humble pie" for a hot team, especially after Clemson succumbed to a late-inning rally in the final game of a series sweep at Notre Dame but still won 13-12 in extra innings.
When they suffered a second loss in a row, Bakich reasoned it was a perfect simulation of suddenly getting bounced from the NCAA tournament. That is what a streaking Tiger squad experienced last season when they crashed like test dummies in a first-round exit in their own regional.
It's better to experience these lows in the middle of a season than the end, but Clemson's third straight loss was exceedingly difficult. Darden went nine innings and only one of his four runs allowed was earned.
Purify, who had a couple of errors in the field Saturday, was 0-of-9 from the plate during a three-game skid.
It felt like more.
"I was 0 for my last, it felt like, 35," Purify said.
That mental wall seemed thick, and Purify was pressing to slam through it. Everyone was, because the Tigers were smacking baseballs with 100-mile-per-hour exit velocities Sunday, and they were hit right at people or into the wind.
"That almost makes it worse," Bakich said, "because you’re doing everything right and not getting the result."
Small ball offered a way to sneak through the cracks of that wall.
But even that was challenging.
With runners on first and second and nobody out in the seventh, Hinderleider couldn't get a bunt down. He fell behind 1-2 in the count and had to swing away. Luckily for him, he shot a single to right-center to score a run.
Bakich was debating a squeeze bunt with Purify, but he figured the Wolfpack would see it coming. Luckily, the freshman legged out a double on a short fly to right field to bring home another run.
The squeeze was coming, regardless, when another freshman, Tryston McCladdie, came to the plate. Bakich wanted to bust it open, and Purify came racing in behind Hinderleider.
One bunt, two runs, and five tallies in the inning — after zero in the previous 19.
These are the results Clemson needed, complementing 10 strikeouts from Knaak in eight shutout innings. If anything, the Tigers came out of the weekend feeling good about Darden and Knaak in their rotation with sophomore Tristan Smith nearing a return from an ankle injury.
Smith, who threw a bullpen Friday, was a "little bit pissed" he wasn't starting that same day, Bakich said.
"But he’s ready," the coach added. "He feels good, looks good."
If the defense behind Clemson's pitchers can improve, there is reason to believe the Tigers can recover. They had no errors in the field Sunday after a combined seven in the first two games versus N.C. State.
Some discontinuity in the infield was inevitable after Andrew Ciufo's knee injury, but Bakich thinks Hinderleider has settled in at shortstop. Purify, who busted out of his hitting slump, also flashed the leather at second base multiple times.
As an anxious run of scoreless innings ceased, audible groans from the home stands turned to cheers.
Clemson toppled over its mental wall, hoping the way has been cleared for another streak of the winning kind.
"Our response was incredible," Purify said. "I think it’s going to be very good for us going forward."
