A week after debating whether it deserved a top eight seed in the NCAA baseball tournament, Clemson baseball's season fizzled out with a 16-4 thumping against Kentucky.
The Tigers were up 2-0 in the first inning before giving up seven straight runs and then scoring two to Kentucky's 16 for the remainder of the afternoon. The Wildcats will now have a chance to make the Super Regional but it'll need to beat West Virginia twice over the next day and a half.
Clemson heads "home" which is weird to say considering the Tigers were already there.
Now, there are question marks everywhere, especially in the rotation as pitching was the weakness for this year's Tigers. They just couldn't seem to consistently get outs which led to games like Sunday's that just got out of control way too fast. The Tigers played from behind for most of the weekend.
It has now been 15 years since the Tigers last made it to Omaha past the Super Regional which head coach Erik Bakich is well aware of.
Bakich made a vow after the Kentucky loss that he'd do everything in his power to get back.
Erik Bakich expressing some annoyance with a lingering stat, which he's presumably heard many, many times.
— Jon Blau (@Jon_Blau) June 1, 2025
"Clemson baseball hasn't been to Omaha since 2010. We got it. We know. And we're going to do everything in our power to get there."
That's encouraging to hear, but words are different than actions. The Tigers have a lot of questions to answer this offseason and some weaknesses to turn into strengths. Bakich knows that and he's going to have to address that this offseason.
Unfortunately, the Tigers will have to wait a whole year to get back to this point, and that Omaha drought looms large over Bakich and the program.