At one point this season, the Clemson Tigers’ baseball program sported an overall record of 16-14 and sat six games below .500 in ACC play.

But after a series win over Florida State, things quickly turned around for Clemson. After an opening win over Virginia Tech to open their ACC Tournament run, the Tigers have won 13 consecutive games, 24 of their last 28 games and skyrocketed to No. 6 in the national polls.

“I don’t know if I can pinpoint one specific moment where all of a sudden we just started playing well,” head coach Erik Bakich said. “I think we were playing well a lot and we were just coming up short. We had a few guys out, but everybody has a few guys out all the time.”

Bakich, who is in his first year at Clemson, credits his team’s mental toughness for allowing them to turn their otherwise lackluster season around.

“The players should get all the credit, because they are the ones that stayed positive,” Bakich said. “It would have been very easy for them to become discouraged when we were 16-14 and 2-8 in the league. Wondering if all this training that they’ve been doing and these classroom sessions and everything are really worth it, but they stuck with it. They stayed positive, the coaches stayed positive and we started to catch a few breaks.”

Caden Grice, who has become one of the best hitters and pitchers on the team, is one of the driving forces behind the Tigers’ spectacular midseason turnaround.

“I think it comes down to toughness,” Grice said. “We’re a really tough team and we believe that we’re never out of the fight. We just keep on grinding, pitch after pitch, and we don’t look ahead, we don’t look behind us, we just keep going.”

The Tigers will look to continue their hot streak at 11 a.m. Friday when they take on the sixth-seeded Boston College Eagles for a spot in the ACC Tournament semifinals.