GREENVILLE – Clemson’s baseball team repeated its midweek result Tuesday, giving the Tigers another chance to try to build some much-needed momentum.

Clemson put up a crooked number early to propel itself to an 11-2 win over USC Upstate at Fluor Field. The win was the Tigers’ first since notching a victory over a top-25 Georgia team exactly one week earlier, but that didn’t carry over to the weekend as Clemson got swept at Notre Dame by a combined score of 21-5.

After scoring their most runs since plating 14 against North Carolina State on April 1, the Tigers  (20-12 overall) desperately need to keep the good vibes going when they travel to No. 23 Wake Forest on Friday if they realistically hope to make a run at a postseason berth. Clemson, which has yet to win an ACC series, is approaching the midway point of the conference slate with the worst league record (2-9).

“I’m not focused too much on the series as I am Friday night,” Clemson coach Monte Lee said. “We just need to take care of the next game of the schedule. I think one of our biggest issues is just that. We’re focusing too much on series. We’re focusing too much on a tough game, a bad game, where we don’t play well. We let that kind of drag into the next day. Right now, let’s just focus on the next day.”

For one night at least, Upstate (18-15) provided a remedy for Clemson’s ailments. 

The Tigers used a five-run second inning to put them on their way to a season sweep of the Trojans, who’ve lost six straight. Ben Blackwell, Cooper Ingle and Tyler Corbitt each drove in runs in the frame while Max Wagner provided the highlight of the inning with an RBI triple to the 420-foot notch in center.

Clemson finished with 14 hits against seven Upstate pitchers. Blackwell went 3-for-3 and scored four runs from the leadoff spot while Wagner finished a homer shy of the cycle as part of a four-hit, two-RBI night. The top four in the Tigers’ lineup combined to go 11-for-19 and drove in all but three of Clemson’s runs.

“Offensively we haven’t been horrible this year,” Wagner said. “I think we’ve actually been pretty good throughout the season, but this past weekend was definitely rough scoring only five runs in three games. It was kind of Monte and coaches saying, hey, let’s go back to where we started when we started out (the season) really well and just pretty much go back to square one — being on time for the fastball and then reacting to any offspeed stuff and see the offspeed up.

“Hitting, I thought one through nine went through their approach. We had 14 or 15 hits and 11 runs. That’s what you want out of an offensive day.”

It was more than enough support for freshman right-hander Billy Barlow, who worked around some trouble in the third inning. Upstate cut into Clemson’s 6-0 lead in the third by plating a pair of two-out runs using the help of a double, a hit batter and an infield single, but catcher Cooper Ingle picked off Jace Rinehart at first to limit the Trojans’ damage in the frame.

It was the final inning for Barlow, who allowed one earned run on four hits while striking out four. But the work for the Tigers’ young arms was just getting started.

Three more freshmen – Casey Tallent, Austin Gordon and lefty Rocco Reid – threw innings in relief. Talent (1-0) faced just one over the minimum in two innings with three punchouts to earn his first win of the season. Gordon and Reid followed with an inning of relief apiece, combining to yield just one hit.

“Seven innings of just outstanding pitching by freshmen,” Lee said.

Lee then made his most interesting call to the bullpen. Right-hander Nick Hoffman, who’s been in the weekend rotation all season, came on to work the eighth on just two days’ rest. Hoffman plunked the first batter he faced before retiring the next three, throwing 18 pitches in his only inning of work.

Caden Grice then closed it out with just his fifth appearance of the season and induced a double play to help himself face the minimum in the ninth.

“We talked about it for the last couple of days that we wanted to throw Hoffman out of the ‘pen and wanted to get Caden into the ballgame,” Lee said. “We wanted Barlow and Tallent to give us, if they could, five to six innings together so that we could have both of those guys ready for the weekend. We were pretty much able to follow the plan we wanted to follow and pitch all the guys we wanted to pitch.”

Upstate starter Nate Payne (0-1) was pegged with the loss after allowing one run on three hits in just one inning.

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