We started 15-1, Omaha on our minds, sitting pretty at No. 9 in the country. Now? The talking heads are calling this season a bust. At 26-16 and a tough 6-12 in the ACC, Baseball America has us clinging to the "First Four Out." D1 Baseball calls us a "team to watch." On3? They act like we don’t even exist.
But don’t tell Erik Bakich this season is over. He’s seen his squad drop heartbreakers to Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, and North Carolina—games decided by a single bounce or a late-inning slip. Most recently, the Tigers stood toe-to-toe with No. 9 Virginia, only to fall by a combined three runs in their two losses.
“It was just another weekend where we were right there and so close and a pitch away,” Bakich said. “(A) lot of opportunities that we just weren’t able to cash in on. So, I actually like the mentality we’ve got right now. Hopefully, we can be on the better side of that one pitch moving forward.”
Hitting the Reset
We’ve been snakebit—Jarren Purify’s out with a busted finger, Tryston McCladdie’s dealing with facial fractures, and our ace Aidan Knaak (2-4, 5.09) is still trying to find his groove. So what does Bakich do? He brings the whole squad to his house, hits the reset button, and tells them it’s time to kill the negative vibes.
“It is just something we did as a team,” Bakich said. “We are just moving forward. That is all you can do. We can’t do anything about all the games that we let slip away, or we had the lead late, or we were one hit away — there is nothing we can do about that now. All we can do is control our mindset and how we attack each day and each game and each training session.”
The new mantra? The season starts now. We’re 1-0 after taking care of USC Upstate 7-2, and Luke Gaffney is absolutely raking, leading the charge like a man on a mission.
“We restarted the season, so we are treating it 1-0 and just looking to build off that,” Gaffney said. “Just playing Clemson baseball. I think we did that today and just looking to continue it.”
The Road to June
The path isn’t easy, but it’s there. To get an at-large bid, the Tigers probably need to go 9-3 in these last 12 ACC games and claw back to .500. That gauntlet starts Friday at Louisville, then it’s Boston College and Florida State—both Top-25, both hungry. So are we.
Bakich isn’t looking at the RPI or the brackets. He’s looking at the man next to him.
“Playing with the right mindset moving forward is really important,” Bakich explained. “Sometimes in this game you can really dwell on your past mistakes, and it serves no purpose because you’re dwelling on the wouldas, couldas, shouldas, and the what-ifs. It’s just a negative thought cycle that nobody wants to be in. So, it’s just more about forward thinking and just what we can control. So, I like that mindset a lot better, and I like that they’re using that mindset in a very positive way.”
For Gaffney, the noise doesn't matter. “We are not really focused on that right now,” he said of the postseason projections. “Just focused on what is ahead and that is Friday night at Louisville. Just going to bring everything that we’ve got and try stack days, as many as we can.”
A Season Defined by Grit
Maybe Michael Sharman gives us eight gutsy innings. Maybe we get that spark from Jarren Purify coming back. Either way, these Tigers are leaning into the underdog role, and Bakich is preaching resilience to every Clemson fan who’ll listen.
“We may not be in a good spot in terms of looking at the conference standings, but, you know, it’s just where we are, and all we can do is move forward,” Bakich said. “Each day is a new opportunity, and we can make the most out of it. So, that’s where we’re at, and that’s where we’re going. We’ll just put our head down and get to work and just try to play our butts off. You know, we’ll look up, maybe in a month, and see where everything settles.”
When asked if we'll see Purify back in the lineup to spark that run? Bakich was blunt: “I sure hope so.”
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