Erik Bakich shares what Spencer Strider said to Clemson ahead of NCAA Tournament

Spencer Strider didn’t go on a deep NCAA Tournament run during his playing days at Clemson, but the current Braves star is trying to help the Tigers do just that in 2024.

Strider spoke with the Clemson team ahead of the NCAA Tournament and shared some words of wisdom. Tigers coach Erik Bakich recently revealed what Strider’s message was and how impactful he has been.

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“It’s huge, because Strider actually shared a little bit about the mentality of the Braves and Phillies in the divisional championship and just shed some light on things that he thought they maybe could’ve done a little bit better and things that could help us,” Bakich said. “He just has such a unique perspective because he’s like a Jedi master of the mental game. So we’ve had him speak to the team.”

Spencer Strider took Major League Baseball by storm last season, leading the MLB in wins and strikeouts.

However, Strider and the Braves came up short against the Phillies in the playoffs last year, falling 3-1 in the best-of-five series.

According to Bakich, Strider didn’t feel like Atlanta had the right mindset heading into the series.

“Just listening to him talk about the playoffs for them last week gave us some pretty good ideas of maybe how we would approach it,” Bakich explained. “Instead of trying to shrink the moment we were going to embrace the moment and I thought that really helped us.

That mindset worked as Clemson swept its way through its regional. Up next, the Tigers will face Florida in the super regionals this weekend.

Bakich loves that Strider is so involved with the program, including being willing to offer advice to his club.

“He’s got good relationships with the team. He’s invested in our program. He helped us get the technology for the pitching lab we put in there,” Bakich said. “He’s just such an awesome dude, but the way that he thinks about baseball, any time that he can share some of that perspective, I know our guys soak up every word.”

Erik Bakich reveals Clemson’s pitching plans for super regional

Clemson is sticking with the same pitching plan that it used last weekend as the Tigers welcome Florida to town for the super regionals.

The Tigers will start Tristan Smith in Game 1 and Aidan Knaak in Game 2 against the Gators, according to head coach Erik Bakich.

“We’re going to go with Tristan tomorrow and then with Aidan [Knaak] in Game 2. So same 1-2,” Bakich told reporters on Friday.

Tristan Smith is 2-0 with a 3.88 ERA on the year. The lefty missed some time earlier this season with an injury but has pitched well lately, including allowing only one earned run over 5 1/3 innings last weekend against High Point.

As for Aidan Knaak, he has been the best Clemson pitcher this season. The freshman is 5-1 with a 2.96 ERA. He has 103 strikeouts in 79 innings pitched.