Bakich says Tigers have to “keep playing like we’ve got house money”

Erik Bakich has found the winning formula and he's aiming to ride that to a first Super Regional berth at Clemson since 2010.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Tue May 30 07:00:15 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON - Who would have thought at the beginning of April that Clemson baseball would be hosting an NCAA Regional game? Things certainly have taken quite a turn since then as the Tigers have not lost a game since April 28.

Now, they're hosting ASUN conference champion Lipscomb to start the home, four-team double-elimination round on June 2 (1 p.m./ESPN+) at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

“We’re not going to add any expectations to this. We’re going to keep playing like we’ve got house money because we do,” Tigers head coach Erik Bakich said following Clemson’s ACC Championship victory against Miami. “Our season was over after 31 games. We were going nowhere fast. We know what the other side feels like and so, for us, it’s like we’ve got nothing to lose and we’re going to keep that mindset and keep having fun playing ball as long as we can.”

Clemson’s season is a tale of two parts - the first 31 games Coach Bakich referenced and the rest of the year. They were sitting at a 17-14 record and had lost eight of their first 10 conference games. After that point, the Tigers only lost three games - two of them in ACC play - and are on a 16-game winning streak. Part of what the first-year Clemson coach attributes this turnaround to is the team started to have more fun with the game.

“The first 31 games, we were 17-14, 2-8 in conference, (and) just made a decision, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this by pulling out all the stops. There’s nothing that we won’t do,” Bakich said. “I mean, in the championship game, if you guys noticed, we ran a first and third half-steal in the first inning. Who does that? But, we do. We started playing better once we started doing hidden ball tricks and gadget plays and having a little more fun and playing baseball.”

While other coaches and teams would be looking at the seeding, looking forward hasn’t been the strategy for the Tigers. They focus on one game at a time, starting with Lipscomb.

“As soon as we saw that’s who we’re playing, I immediately looked (Lipscomb) up,” Bakich said. “I’ve known coach (Jeff) Forehand for a long time and he does a great job and has always done a great job so his team will be ready. There’s no doubt. So, we’re locked in on Lipscomb right now.”

The Bisons finished their season with a 36-24 record, but they seemed to perform better at home. In fact, they had a losing record on the road at 14-15. This is Lipscomb’s first appearance in the NCAA Regionals since 2015 and the third time in the school’s history.

“This is a Lipscomb tournament; this is a Lipscomb regional. We’re not overlooking them. They’re an excellent team,” Bakich said. “They run an awesome program. It’ll be a huge challenge. They got the ASUN Pitcher of the Year (junior left-hander Logan Van Treeck). They’ve got over 100 home runs, 100 stolen bases. It’s an excellent team, so we’ll have all of our energy locked in on this and not overlook anything.”

This is the first time since 2018 that Clemson has hosted an NCAA Regional game, making this a very important occasion for the program. That is especially true given the Tigers finished the 2021 season with a losing record and the 2022 season with a mediocre record, as well as a losing record within the conference. Nonetheless, Bakich and the Tigers are viewing this game as just another tournament and are trying not to overthink the significance of this event.

“It will be just another Friday and, we’ll just try to do our best to shrink the moment and just make it about baseball between the white lines and there'll be a lot more people here,” Bakich said. “It’ll be a lot louder. It’ll be a bigger stage and brighter lights, but we’ve just been doing so good about not letting that really factor in and just keep it about each other and just keep playing good baseball.”

Clemson is one of three South Carolina teams hosting games for the NCAA Tournament, the other two being South Carolina and Coastal Carolina. The NCAA Regional starts on June 2 and will be followed by the Tigers facing either Tennessee or Charlotte on Saturday, June 3.