Earlier this week at fourth-ranked Georgia, No. 16 Clemson could not buy a hit in clutch situations. The Tigers were 1-for-17 at the plate with runners in scoring position and subsequently lost the game by one run in a school-record 20 innings.

The Tigers also struck out a record 26 times at Georgia, following a game in which they struck out 19 times at Florida State two days before.

Clemson coach Monte Lee vowed to the fix those issues before the Tigers’ series against Duke this weekend. He stayed true to his word. Clemson struck out just six times Friday night in Game 1 against the Blue Devils and were 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

Though the Tigers had just seven hits, they produced eight runs and had a one-run lead heading into the ninth inning. Unfortunately for Clemson, its pitching had one of its worse nights of the year.

Ethan Murray’s two-out single in the ninth inning tied the score, then Michael Rothenberg’s double plated Murray for the go-ahead run in Duke’s 9-8 win over the Tigers at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson.

“That one certainly ranks up there as one of the toughest losses in quite some time,” Lee said after the game. “I feel bad for our players. Our players competed as hard as they could tonight.”

The loss was the Tigers’ fifth straight, a first under Lee at Clemson and the first time any Clemson team has lost five straight games since the 2013 team lost six in a row.

The frustrating part for Lee was that his team did what it needed to do offensively for the first time during the losing streak to break out of its funk. But the story of the game was what Clemson (25-13, 11-8 ACC) did not get done on the mound.

“I’m very proud of our guys in how we competed on the offensive side of things. We needed to be good offensively,” Lee said. “We had not been very good for five consecutive games offensively. So, we needed to be good offensively. But it just happens that tonight was the night we did not pitch as well as we needed to.”

Duke (22-16, 9-10 ACC) hit 5-for-13 (.385) with two outs Friday night. It was 9-for-20 (.450) with runners on and 5-for-12 (.417) with runners in scoring position. The Blue Devils finished the game with 11 hits overall, seven coming off starter Davis Sharpe.

Georgia had just nine hits in 20 innings on Tuesday against Clemson pitching.

“I can tell you this when we put those two together, when we are pitching to our capability and we swing the bat to our capability and put together good at-bats, we are a good club,” Lee said. “We are going to figure this thing out. We are going to keep fighting through it.

“Nobody in this building is going to come out here with their head down. It certainly hurts right now, but I have to keep trying to find a way to get our guys to just stay positive, keep competing and we will be fine. But we have to turn it around (today). We have to play a good game (today). Win the game (today) and find a way to win the series on Sunday.”

Clemson will play the Blue Devils in Game 2 today at 3 p.m.