The momentum Clemson’s baseball team built at the beginning of the season has come to a screeching halt in large part because of an offense that continued to scuffle Saturday.

The 15th-ranked Tigers dropped their opening series of ACC play with a 4-1 loss to No. 23 Miami at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. It was the fourth straight loss after a 14-0 start for Clemson, which has scored just five runs in the first two games of the series and nine during its skid.

Clemson (14-4, 0-2 ACC) had a season-low four hits Saturday – all singles – doing little to support a valiant effort by right-hander Nick Hoffman and five relievers to keep the Tigers close. Clemson will try to avoid the sweep in Sunday’s 1 p.m. series finale.

“I thought we pitched well,” Clemson coach Monte Lee said. “Defensively, I thought we made some nice plays. We’ve just got to get the bats going. That’s the bottom line.”

Hoffman settled in after giving up Jacob Burke’s solo home run to start the second inning, working around seven other hits to turn in his second-longest outing of the season. The sophomore right-hander tallied six strikeouts, finishing just one shy of a career-high in that department, in 5 ⅔ innings. 

It looked as if it might be a quick sixth inning for Hoffman after he induced consecutive groundouts to start the frame, but a hit batter followed by Dorian Gonzalez Jr.’s single ended his day after 81 pitches.

“I would say my fastball command was all there,” said Hoffman, who didn’t use any walks. “Elevated some and got some swings and misses. My changeup was really good today. Kept it down. Got some rollovers for some outs. … Just tried to compete in the strike zone and limit walks because freebies are what can beat you a lot of the times.”

Said Lee, “I thought it was his best start of the year.”

Freshman righty Jay Dill came on and uncorked a wild pitch on his second offering of the day, allowing Miami (13-5, 4-1) to score a go-ahead second run. Dill got pinch hitter Zach Levenson to ground into a fielder’s choice to limit the Hurricanes’ damage to a single run in the inning, but Clemson wasted a golden opportunity to get at least one run back in the home half of the frame.

A walk to Caden Grice and Dylan Brewer’s bunt single put two on for the Tigers and chased Miami right-hander Karson Ligon after 5 ⅓ innings. Right-hander Gage Ziehl came on and got Blake Wright to pop out for the second out. Nine-hole hitter J.D. Brock worked a full count against Ziehl, fouling off pitch after pitch to stay alive. But Ziehl got Brock swinging on the 10th pitch of the at-bat to maintain Miami’s lead.

Clemson had other chances against Ligon, who began the day having allowed just four earned runs in 21 innings.

The Tigers answered Burke’s solo homer with a run in the fourth. Max Wagner, who singled earlier in the frame and advanced to third on a wild pitch, scored when Brewer stole second and the throw down trickled into the outfield. But Ligon got Wright swinging to strand Brewer in scoring position.

Clemson again put multiple baserunners on with two outs in the fifth when Tyler Corbitt singled and Cooper Ingle reached on an error, but Bryar Hawkins grounded out to second to end the Tigers’ threat.

Clemson had just one hit in 13 at-bats with runners on and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

“A lot of times when you have runners in scoring position, pitchers are going to spin the ball a lot more,” Lee said. “And I think we have to do a better job of laying off the pitches out of the strike zone with runners in scoring position. Sometimes guys can be a little overly aggressive on offspeed pitches. We just have to be able to use the whole field, lay off pitches outside of the strike zone and put ourselves in better counts to hit. I think that’s part of it. I think we’re just pressing a little bit too much right now.”

Clemson got some help from Wright to keep it a one-run run deficit in the fifth when the Tigers’ second baseman made a diving stop up the middle and threw out Dominic Pitelli trying to score from second. But all those missed chances loomed large when Miami eventually padded its lead with Maxwell Romero Jr.’s two-run single in the seventh.

Romero’s knock came after left-hander J.P. Labriola relieved Dill with one on and nobody out in the frame and struck out the first two batters he faced, but Clemson opted to intentionally walk the Hurricanes’ 3-hole hitter, Yohandy Morales. After a wild pitch moved Miami’s baserunners to second and third, Romero lined Labriola’s 2-2 offering into left field to extend the Hurricanes’ lead to 4-1.

Romero began the day with a .250 average, but Lee said Miami’s cleanup hitter was only hitting .176 against left-handers, which is why he wanted Labriola pitching to him rather than Morales in that situation.

“We felt like the matchup was better,” Lee said. “Labriola had him. We had him right where we wanted him. Had him in a (2-2) count with two outs, and he just left a breaking ball up and didn’t bury it. Had he buried it, probably good things would’ve happened.”

Clemson went in order in each of the final two innings to cap another quiet day at the dish, a trend the Tigers would prefer to buck sooner rather than later.

“The kids, they have to understand that we need them to go out there and compete for our program, keep believing in each other and keep fighting. And they will,” Lee said. “It’s going to take one inning. If we can get one inning where we get a couple of guys on base and somebody hammers a baseball in the gap, next thing you know, that offense will get rolling again just like it had up until about a week ago.”

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