Since opening the season with a 22-6 record, which included a series win over ACC leader Louisville and a sweep of North Carolina, Clemson baseball has hit a nosedive like at no other time in the last 34 years of the program.

The Tigers are 6-14 since the midway point of the season with eight games left in the regular season. If they can’t turn things around, they could have the worst second half of a baseball season in the last 34 years of the program.

Right now, that mark is owned by the 2008 team, which posted a 12-15-1 mark in the second half of the regular season.

“It is frustrating for all of us,” Clemson head coach Monte Lee said.

It got more frustrating on Tuesday when the Tigers (28-20) gave up three runs in the top of the seventh inning and ultimately lost to Presbyterian, 8-7, at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson.

The loss to the Blue Hose showed all the same elements that have haunted the Tigers in the second half of the year. Starting pitching did not make it past the third inning. The bullpen gave up late runs and they failed to move runners over in critical situations in the bottom of the seventh and eighth innings when they had a chance to tie the game or take the lead.

“Obviously, we are losing games and it sucks to lose games,” senior Grayson Byrd said after a 3-for-5 night, which included a solo home run in the third inning. “But we have to stick to the process. So, when I come here, I can’t really bring the day before with me when I get here the next day.

“So, really I am trying to stay confident and we just have to compete.”

Clemson will compete tonight (6 p.m.) against The Citadel at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, before heading on the road this weekend at NC State. At 12-12 in ACC play, it is a critical time for the program as it tries to avoid becoming the second Clemson team since 1973 to have a losing record in conference play.

The only time that occurred was in 2008 when Clemson was 11-18-1 against ACC competition. The Tigers conclude the ACC regular season with a home series against Wake Forest on May 16-18.

“All of us in the locker room, we look forward to the chance to compete every single day, whether that is in practice or in games,” Byrd said. “There is always an opportunity for us to compete and get better.

“That’s what’s nice (about baseball). We can go to bed, flush this one and get ready for tomorrow.”

Lee said the players are wearing the losses and struggling very hard right now. It’s been a tough time, but he knows his players are competing as hard as they can.

After last night’s loss to PC, the Tigers have lost six straight one-run games and are 3-8 this year in games decided by one run. Last season, they were 12-5 in one-run ballgames.

“I don’t know. I wish I had that answer,” Lee said when asked why they have not been able to win those close games this year. “You look at over the first three years with our record in one-run games, we were pretty dang good, but this year we have not been able to find a way to win those close games. Early on we were doing a pretty solid job of it.

“I think the hardest part in a lot of these one-run losses is its 8-7, 7-6, it’s 9-8 … we are just giving up a lot of runs. That is the toughest part about it. Offense cannot show up every night, you can’t score seven or eight runs a night, it is just too hard to do.”

Lee says he is not trying to point the finger at anything.

“I think overall, we have to be better situationally, offensively late in the ballgames,” he said. “We have had some opportunities in some of these one-run games, but you have to be able to move runners up or bring runners in and we have not been able to do that. We got to be able to shut the door from the sixth inning on. We have been giving up too many runs.

“We have had some tough luck, too … We have had a lot of tough luck, but we have to do a better job of executing.”