Clemson baseball: Erik Bakich named Head Coach

Change is difficult as Clemson baseball fans found that out seven years ago and that hasn’t changed.

A new era of Clemson baseball dawned this afternoon as Director of Athletics Graham Neff named Erik Bakich Head Coach.

https://twitter.com/GrahamNeff/status/1537452025855848453

Change is almost always hard, but more so at a program like Clemson that had two head baseball coaches in 57 seasons before Monte Lee’s arrival and the program is going through a transition period.

https://twitter.com/ClemsonBaseball/status/1537456450447912961

Bakich’s run at Michigan included a national runner up finish in 2019, a season in which he was named the national coach of the year.

"Bakich comes to Clemson after ten successful seasons as head coach at Michigan. During his tenure, the Wolverines were 328-216 overall and 140-93 in Big-10 play. In 2015, Michigan snapped a near decade-long NCAA Tournament drought for the program with a Big-10 Tournament title. The Wolverines also won the conference tournament this season.However, Bakich will mostly be remembered by Michigan fans for his memorable run to the College World Series in 2019, when the Wolverines finished one game shy of a national title. It was the program’s first trip to Omaha since 1984, with Bakich being the consensus national coach of the year."

Clemson fans (and whoever else voted) seem to think it’s a good hire with 95% giving it an A or B in our poll.

Don’t be fooled by Bakich’s overall record, he is a program builder

Many have concerns about Bakich’s overall record as we discussed on the Sluggo Podcast last evening with JP Priester of AllClemson.com, but Bakich took over a horrid Maryland program and turned that team into a winner before taking Michigan to Omaha.

At Maryland his teams progressed each season from 17 to 21 to 32 wins and subsequent teams built and powered by the players he recruited went on to win regionals in 2014 and 2015.

I have no concerns about Bakich’s ability to win at Clemson.