Caden Grice, Billy Amick say Clemson baseball is bought into Erik Bakich’s system

Clemson baseball outlasted Lipscomb in a wild ride of a regional opener to move on to the winner’s game on Saturday. While the Tigers wound up winning by a pretty comfortable score, the early going featured some massive swings for both sides, with each team exploding for runs at various points. Of course, it was Clemson who kept their bats hot all day and got into double digits before eventually winning, and after the game, both players and coaches credited the atmosphere in practice for having them ready.

“I think it all comes back to our training and what we’ve been preparing for since day one of the fall when this new coaching staff came in,” said junior Caden Grice after the Lipscomb victory. “And just really buying into the idea of, you know, never out of the fight, regardless if there’s one out, two out, no outs. We just keep pushing, just keep doing us. I said earlier, I mean, we have a one through nine punch. We’re squared away from all sides. So I mean, it’s really really freeing to hit and line up like that. So I think that’s a really big key for us.”

Those sentiments were echoed by fellow Tiger Billy Amick, who smashed a grand slam into the roof of a building past the center field fence to put Clemson in command later in yesterday afternoon’s game.

“Yeah, like Caden said, the atmosphere today was awesome and especially in the ninth inning there,” he said. “But really, everything was great and it was really fun to play in front of. But we’re all going up there with the same mindset in mind: just be really tough and get our job done, whatever it is.”

All year, the Tigers intentionally prepared for chaotic moments and games like these, especially in such high-pressure situations. Head coach Erik Bakich explained during his postgame thoughts that he’s tried to make practice a thunder dome compared to regular games. The idea is that practice is so wild and unpredictable and challenging that the team won’t be thrown off by any pandemonium during the actual games. It’s like playing Mario Kart with aggressive items.

Well, on Friday, when all else was going sideways, Clemson kept their heads on straight and churned out a terrific offensive performance to secure the win.