OXFORD, Miss. — For a fourth straight season, the Clemson baseball team started an NCAA Tournament with a lot of hope following an impressive first win in a regional. However, those hopes were dashed by a disappointing defeat in the second game.

This time it was Mississippi pitcher Doug Nikhazy that got the best of the Tigers, as the true freshman limited the them to a season-low four hits in eight innings of work as the Rebels walked out of Swayze Field with a 6-1 victory in Game 4 of the Oxford (Miss.) Regional.

“He did a really good job of hitting his spots,” Clemson first baseman Grayson Byrd said after the game. “He was throwing that big breaking ball, kinda the same tunnel as his fast ball, so it’s tough for us to adjust to that.

“I feel like everything he was throwing was tough to hit. He was hitting in and out of his zone. He was just on, so you tip your cap.”

Nikhazy follows in line with a lot of great pitching performances against the Tigers in an NCAA Regional the last four years. In 2016 Tyler Buffet went seven innings and allowed just one run in a 12-2 victory for Oklahoma State. In 2017, Vanderbilt’s Kyle Wright pitched seven strong innings against Clemson in a 9-4 win. Last year, the Commodores used a committee of pitchers to hold the Tigers scoreless over the final six innings of the game, while limiting them to six total hits in a 4-3 win.

On Saturday, Nikhazy had the best performance of anyone during what is now a four-year stretch of futility in a second game of an NCAA Regional. His eight innings of work marked the longest day of work by an opposing pitcher all year against Clemson. The four hits he allowed were a season-low for the Tigers, while the one run tied for the worst mark.

Nikhazy struck out nine batters, the second-best effort by an opposing pitcher.

“I thought Doug Nikhazy was outstanding. He was phenomenal,” Clemson head coach Monte Lee said. “He pitched extremely well and the closer at the end of the ball game did a nice job of just filling up the strike zone. We hit some balls hard there at the end, but they made the plays. The story of the game was their starting pitcher.”

And it’s the same story that has been told before when it comes to Clemson trying to get past that second game in an NCAA Regional. The only difference about this story is that it played out at Swayze Field in Oxford, Mississippi as opposed to Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson.

“We made a little bit of a run there at the end, but overall Nikhazy was very good,” Lee said. “I thought their offense was very good. They got into our bullpen early. We had to use a number of guys. I thought we competed and gave ourselves a chance out of the bullpen. But offensively we just could not find the answer against their starter tonight. He was outstanding.”

Clemson will play Jacksonville State in an elimination game this afternoon at 3 p.m. The winner will play Ole Miss in the championship round of the regional at 9 p.m.