CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In need of a win to keep its postseason hopes alive, Clemson dropped its first matchup of the ACC Tournament.

With Tuesday night’s 9-2 loss to North Carolina, Clemson has been eliminated from playing in the conference tournament semifinals. Thursday’s matchup against Virginia Tech will ultimately decide Clemson’s postseason fate, which is now on life support after the loss.

“Just give a lot of credit to North Carolina, they played a great baseball game tonight,” Clemson coach Montee Lee said postgame. “I thought their starter, Max Carlson, was outstanding. He filled up the strike zone and executed pitches. We struggled early in the game, quite honestly. We got hit some and didn’t make a play early in the game that could’ve helped Mack there, but those things happen from time to time.”

“The bottom line is they swung the bats really well tonight, they hit with runners on base,” Lee continued. We had some opportunities early, we just couldn’t come up with a big hit with runners on base, but a lot of that had to do with how effective Carlson was…All in all they were the better team tonight. Certainly disappointing on our side. I need to do a better job of getting our guys ready and we just didn’t play a good baseball game tonight.”

UNC never trailed in Tuesday’s game, as the Tar Heels jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the home half of the first. From there, they scored in five straight innings and pounded out 11 hits.

Max Carlson held Clemson at bay, as the Tigers managed just one run on six hits against UNC’s sophomore right-hander. Clemson would finish Tuesday’s game with two runs on seven hits.

“Their guy was better,” Lee said. “That’s the bottom line and they were the better team.”

The Tigers had just seven at-bats with runners in scoring position. Those runs came on a Bryar Hawkins second-inning sac-fly and a Will Taylor RBI single with two outs in the ninth.

Mack Anglin, who pitched seven scoreless innings against Boston College last Thursday, was back on the bump Tuesday. Clemson’s ace surrendered seven runs (five earned) on seven hits with four hits and four strikeouts in four innings pitched.

“I think he competed as hard as he could,” Lee said. “He just kind of made some mistakes and offense is contagious, quite honestly and they got their offense going early in the game and swung the bat well…I don’t fault Mack, they hit him…and we didn’t help him either.”

Pitching on short rest, Anglin labored through four innings. He didn’t have his best stuff Tuesday and perhaps the outing might have gone differently, if not for a crucial error made by Tyler Corbitt.

Nothing came easy for Corbitt out in left field Tuesday.

With two out in the bottom of the second, the redshirt junior outfielder was tracking a flyball on the warning track and misjudged it. Corbitt dropped the ball, allowing two runs to score. The West Columbia native was charged with an error and a crucial one at that.

North Carolina infielder Mikey Madej took Anglin deep in the bottom of the third inning, extending UNC’s lead to 4-1.

Returning out to the bump in the bottom half of the fourth inning, Anglin ran out of gas. He issued a bases-loaded walk with one out and later gave up a two-run single. Even though Anglin’s velocity was down, Jay Dill wasn’t warming in the bullpen until the Tigers had recorded their second out in the fourth inning.

Anglin was able to get out of the inning without surrendering any more runs, but the damage was done.

Clemson had a chance to tack on some runs and claw its way back into the game in the top of the fifth inning. Caden Grice laced a one-out double into the right-field corner, followed up by a Benjamin Blackwell single through the hole.

Taylor came up with runners on the corners and two outs, but Clemson’s two-sport athlete was unable to come through.

That was a relative theme for Clemson’s offense Tuesday, as the Tigers struggled to string together hits. The Tigers took a lot of fly balls for a ride, but most of them died at the warning track, staying within the confines of Truist Field.

The Tigers would load the bases on three straight walks in the top of the eighth inning, but Camden Troyer flew out to center field to end the threat.

Dill relieved Anglin in the home half of the fifth inning and gave up a run on two hits, as the Tar Heels extended their lead to 8-1. Ty Olenchuk and Jackson Lindley combined to throw two scoreless innings with four strikeouts out of the pen.

Austin Gordon later gave up a run on two hits and was relieved by Ryan Ammons with two outs in the bottom of the eight.

Clemson will look to keep its postseason hopes alive against Virginia Tech on Thursday at 7 p.m.

“Our season’s on the line, quite honestly,” Lee said. “We have to take care of business on Thursday. We’re trying to put our resume in a position to get into the postseason and if we come out and do what we’re capable of doing against a really good club in Virginia Tech and we can find a way to win that game, that’s certainly going to help us. The season’s on the line. We have to come out ready to go and play our best baseball game against arguably one of the best teams in our league.”

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