Clemson's season ended with a quick slam of the brakes

Clemson had to use seven pitchers in the season finale.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Jun 05 07:00:15 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Clemson’s baseball season came to a screeching halt Sunday afternoon when the Tigers’ incredible run ended with a quick step on the brakes.

Charlotte came from behind to defeat the Tigers 3-2 in the loser’s bracket game of the Clemson Regional, and Tennessee later beat Charlotte to win the regional and advance to a Super Regional next week. The Tigers entered the week with a 16-game winning streak that included an ACC Championship, and that streak was extended to 17 games with a Friday win over Lipscomb.

But a loss to Tennessee in heartbreaking fashion Saturday night and the quick turnaround loss to Charlotte put the brakes on the season.

“It’s an incredible run,” head coach Erik Bakich said following Sunday’s loss. “Feels like driving a hundred miles an hour, and then all of a sudden we just slammed on the brakes. But as I told the team after the game, we set out to add as much value to an already storied program, and we accomplished that. We added value to the history and the tradition of this great program.”

Clemson’s incredible run followed a 17-14 start that included a 2-8 beginning to league play.

“Page 126 in the Clemson baseball history book will be one that will be referenced for all time,” Bakich said, regarding the 126th team in school history. “I told them that forever and ever, their legacy is that they achieved one of the greatest turnarounds in the history of Clemson baseball. To see the tale of two seasons, and their legacy is that forever and ever, every time a Clemson baseball team hits a rough patch, has some adversity, goes through a skid, they’re going to hear about Team 126.”

Bakich added that most people had to wait and see for themselves if the baseball team had turned the corner.

“They wouldn’t have turned it around without a belief system,” Bakich said. “And for most people, they had to wait to see it, to believe that Clemson baseball was back. But these guys believed it first, and then we saw it. So, I’ll be forever grateful to them and very proud to know that they will be champions for the rest of their life.”

Bakich said the 6-5 loss to Vols in 14 innings – in a game that saw the Tigers one strike away from a win twice – and the loss of leadoff man Cam Cannarella to a suspension for an ejection Saturday, took an emotional toll on his team.

“I’m really excited to know, as much as this stings today – obviously it probably looked exactly like it was – it looked like we were emotionally drained, and I would say that would be accurate,” Bakich said. “It wasn’t a lack of effort, it was just not much in the tank, and I thought we digged down and digged deep. So as much as that stings not knowing we played well today, big picture knowing that this team will be coming back, be celebrated, get their rings – they’ll always be ACC Champions. They will always have that.”

The goal? Still Omaha, the site of the College World Series.

“Even though it sucks right now, there’s so many positive things that these guys did to just return Clemson baseball to a level that was competitive that we feel like we should be at,” Bakich said of the 2023 season. “Did we reach our ultimate goal? No. Omaha is still the standard of this program. Always has been, always will be, so we fell short. We ended up ACC Champions in the process. We’re not satisfied with bowing out in a regional. I get it. It’s been too long. And we will, once we finish our exit meetings tomorrow, our staff will quickly turn all of our energy to Team 127 and making sure that we can get this program back to Omaha and not fall short.”