CLEMSON — When Kyle Parker started the baseball season, he knocked in a couple of runs and had two hits in his first two at-bats.

The early results were exactly what everyone expected from the sophomore, who earned All-ACC first team honors last spring. But what happened over his next 17 at-bats puzzled everyone – he didn’t get a hit.

“The last couple of days I have hit the ball hard and I don’t have a whole lot to show for it, but what is this, the seventh game of 60? You really can’t get too down,” he said.

Parker is right, but the Tigers sure would like to see his bat come back to life this weekend as No. 19 Clemson begins a three-game series against fourth-ranked North Carolina today in Chapel Hill, N.C.

It’s the ACC opener for both schools and it doesn’t help the Tar Heels (8-1) have one of the nation’s best pitching rotations. Last year, UNC swept the Tigers at Clemson, while outscoring them 20-9 in the three games.

To make matters worse, Clemson (5-2) is just one game removed from a hitting slump that saw it combine for just eight hits in a 23-inning span in back-to-back losses to South Carolina and Furman.

Luckily for the Tigers, they and Parker broke out of their slump with a 15-hit outing during their 17-2 victory over UNC Ashville on Tuesday. Parker had a hit and drove in a couple of runs in the victory.

“Hopefully it will carry over into this weekend,” Parker said.

Hopefully it will carry over for Parker. Thanks to that hitless streak, the right fielder is hitting just .130 for the season, though he does have a team-high 7 RBIs.

“You can’t think about that,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing about playing baseball. You know I will go home and think I should have had a couple of hits today, but the good thing is you get up and you get to play tomorrow.”

Starting Monday, Parker will also get to play football. In fact, Tuesday he will play in Clemson’s home game against Michigan State and when the game is over, he will change his gear and head to football practice where he is competing for the starting quarterback job.

He will do basically the same thing on Wednesday too, except he will do football first then the baseball game. In fact, Parker will miss just two baseball games this year due to football practice – Game 1 and 2 of the Boston College series in Boston on March 27 and 28th. He will fly to Boston for Game 3 following the football scrimmage on that Saturday.

“There will be some days where he will be Deion (Sanders),” Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney said.

But hopefully he isn’t too much like Sanders was at the end of his baseball career. When football started becoming too much, Sanders struggled behind the plate and ultimately had to make a choice on which sport he wanted to play.

Parker does not see that kind of decision in his future just yet. Though he did miss some valuable batting practice time in the fall and early winter because he was with the football team.

“There are no real excuses, but these guys have been probably playing all fall long and I’m just really coming out here,” he said. “I’m not really too worried about it as long as I get my at-bats and reps and start putting up better numbers to improve.”

Clemson baseball coach Jack Leggett isn’t worried just yet with Parker’s production, though he knows the sophomore’s plate is full with football and baseball going on at the same time.

Besides playing baseball, Parker has also spent the last couple of weeks in football meetings in preparation for spring practice.

“I’m sure his mind is where it needs to be,” Leggett said. “He concentrates when he has to and wherever he has to be. He just has to get his rhythm going.

“Hopefully, it will start to come around for him.”

And hopefully that starts this weekend, because the Tigers are going to need him.