With a chance to win their second ACC Tournament title in three years and the third in the past decade, Clemson baseball's usual struggles persisted on Sunday: pitching.
Up 4-0 through four innings, it felt like Clemson needed an offensive surge in the fifth to have a chance against the red-hot Tar Heels of North Carolina, but the exact opposite happened. The Tar Heels blanked Clemson in the top of the frame before putting up eight runs of their own in the bottom half to take a 12-0 lead before adding two more runs in the sixth to make it 14-0.
Obviously, the game was over at that point and Erik Bakich was already looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament. Clemson did score four unanswered in the final three innings to lose 14-4, but the pitching woes continued, much to fans' dismay.
The constant weakness over the past few seasons struck again and it frustrated every Tiger fan who tuned into the title game. It was infuriating to see the same shortcoming continue to haunt the team.
Fortunately, the slate gets wiped clean moving forward as the tournament will take place next week with the Tigers heading to the postseason for the third straight season and they'll be looking to make their first College World Series since 2010.
While this was a tough loss for the Tigers, it was a chance to get that last loss out of the system before the postseason. Getting that sour taste is sometimes a good thing for teams before they go on deep runs.
Bakich has some work to do, however.