The Clemson Tigers baseball team entered this past weekend as the No. 2-ranked team in the nation, tied for first in the ACC and failing to lose consecutive games all season.
Heading up to Raleigh for a three game weekend set against the then-No. 25-ranked NC State Wolfpack, the Tigers had all the momentum in the world on their side.
That took a serious hit, though, as NC State shockingly handed Clemson their first sweep of the year, and they did so in dominant fashion.
The Wolfpack outscored the Tigers, 26-8, which included a lopsided, 14-4, victory in Game 1.
This shocking outcome rocketed NC State into first place in the ACC standings, while knocking Clemson down to fourth place and two games back.
Given the difficult stretch the Tigers are facing to end their regular season, this was about the worst possible outcome they could of had last weekend.
Despite this setback, though, the folks over at D1Baseball don't seem to be to worried, as they only bumped Clemson down to No. 3 in their most recent Top 25 rankings.
Of the several ranking services out their for college baseball, D1 is the defacto standard used across the sport. Much like the AP Poll and College Football Payoff rankings in college football, the D1Baseball poll is the benchmark teams are measured by.
It's clear that in their eyes, the Tigers are still very much in the national title conversation.
Some of this is likely due to the fact that Clemson knocked off another elite program in the Georgia Bulldogs last Tuesday.
Beating such a quality opponent mid-week definitely took some of the sting out of the subsequent three-game sweep against NC State.
That being said, there are still some pretty significant consequences from the team's rough weekend, namely the fact that they now have a lot more work to do if they want to repeat as ACC regular season champions.
The Tigers have also now made their upcoming matchup against the No. 5-ranked Florida State Seminoles their most important series of the year to date.
The Seminoles currently sit just ahead of them in the ACC standings, which means that a series loss would all but eliminate Clemson from regular season title contention.
This would make it much more difficult for the Tigers to win the ACC crown come tournament time, and could also result in the team being unable to secure a coveted home Super Regional.
Clemson may still have a top three ranking right now, but now they'll have to play like it in order to give themselves the best possible shot at reaching Omaha for the first time in over a decade.
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