Erik Bakich inheriting 'elite' roster with Clemson baseball

CLEMSON — There are times when a coaching change occurs and the new coach inherits a roster that needs some serious work. That is not the case for the Clemson baseball program.

New Tigers baseball coach Erik Bakich was incredibly complimentary of the roster he is taking over when speaking with On3 earlier this month.

Bakich, who previously served as the head coach at Michigan, was hired as the head coach at Clemson in June.

“There are a lot of really good players on this roster. I can’t say that enough,” Bakich said. “The talent on this roster that coach [Monte] Lee and his staff put together, it’s elite, and we’re excited about working with them.”

ACC Player of the Year Max Wagner is a candidate to turn pro after putting together an exceptional sophomore season.

But even if he does, plenty of talent will be back.

Cooper Ingle returns after finishing second on the team with a .351 average. So does Blake Wright, who hit .349 last year. Caden Grice has a chance to be one of the best hitters in the ACC in 2023 if he can get back on track after a down year in 2022.

“The three guys in the Cape Cod League – Cooper Ingle, Caden Grice and Blake Wright, those guys are proven players in the ACC and at Clemson,” Bakich said. “Yea, a guy has a year that maybe wasn’t statistically what he wanted or maybe wasn’t up to his potential, that doesn’t mean anything. He can have a breakout year again next year and we’ll certainly look to help all those guys do that.”

Bakich isn’t just excited about the current talent on Clemson’s roster. He also feels good about the incoming recruiting class and players who will join the program down the road.

Clemson has nearly 20 commits for the class of 2022 and 11 for the class of 2023. There are also multiple players already committed for 2024 and 2025.

“Monte Lee, Bradley LeCroy and Andrew See did an incredible job assembling some very high-end talent on these rosters. Not only our current roster with all the guys we have returning, but the guys that are committed — not only that are matriculating this year with the 2022 class, but the 2023 commits, 2024 commits and 2025 commits,” Bakich said. “I mean it is very impressive. So certainly want to recognize that there are a lot of great players, not only currently at Clemson baseball but committed to Clemson in the future. So that’s awesome.”