Clemson’s Garrett Boulware comes up empty on his tag of Chuck Stubbs in the 14th

The baseball gods weren’t very kind to Clemson at the ACC Tournament Friday. First the Tigers were eliminated hours before they played their second game when NC State beat Miami. When the finally took the field for a game that a meaningless game for purposes of this tournament, but essential in terms of postseason hosting, the Tigers blew a five run lead in the 9th and lost 12-7 in 14 innings to top seed North Carolina.

That’s a rough day at the office.

After falling behind 1-0 early, Clemson took control of the game in the middle innings; scoring a run in 4th and two runs in both the 5th and 6th innings. They added two more in the 8th and led 7-2 in heading into the final frame. Even after the Tar Heels scored two runs to cut the lead to 7-4 it still looked like Clemson would get out with the win. But with two outs and two on Brian Holberton, the number seven hitter in the Heels lineup crushed a three-run homer to right field of closer Scott Firth to tie the game.

Clemson had runners in scoring position in the bottom of the 9th, 11th, 12th and 13th innings but failed to bring in the winning run. North Carolina finally got to Firth again in the top of the 14th with a five spot to secure the winning margin.

Clemson will play Miami at 3:00 Saturday to close out the tournament. North Carolina will play NC State tomorrow night with the winner moving on to play Virginia Tech for the title Sunday.

Listen to the Tigers postgame press conference below featuring Jack Leggett, Steven Duggar, Mike Triller and Zack Erwin.

AUDIO: Clemson postgame presser [5:44]

Box Score

Jack Leggett’s team is 0-1 in the tournament.

–Durham, NC

 Because of the pool play format the Clemson didn’t play a game today here in Durham. The day of rest is considered one of the perks of this format. One of the negatives is the fact Clemson could be eliminated from title contention by the time they take the field for their second game of the tournament against  North Carolina Friday night. If NC State beats Miami in the 11:00 AM game Friday Clemson’s 2013 ACC Tournament title hopes are extinct. To get to Sunday’s title game they need win out and have NC State to lose to Miami and North Carolina. Not impossible, but not likely either.

Even though the Tigers aren’t sure how much longer they will be in contention here, they do know they have two more games no matter what. Even if they don’t make it to the championship they can still enhance their resume for a top 16 seed and a home slot in next weekend’s regional.

Jack Leggett put his team through a 90 minute workout at Duke today. He acknowledged he’s not the biggest fan of this pool play format, but didn’t spend a ton of time dwelling on it because  A: There’s nothing he can do about it, B: No need to gripe because they are changing it to a 10 team double elimination tournament next year, and C: his team has lost three straight and needs to get something positive going before they open NCAA tournament play next week.

You can listen to all of Leggett’s comments below: