Clemson's Erik Bakich reveals his message amid back-and-forth regional vs. Lipscomb

Clemson is getting all it can handle from Lipscomb in its first game of the NCAA Tournament. The Bisons took a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning thanks to back-to-back homers off of Clemson starter Austin Gordon.

The good news for coach Erik Bakich and his club is that Clemson is comfortable playing these types of games.

The Tigers have had plenty of close contests during their current streak of 16-straight wins.

“Well, that’s just it. I mean we’ve played so many of these types of games. The periphery around the white lines might be different – there’s more people here and it’s louder,” Bakich said. “But between the white lines we are very comfortable with this type of a game. We’ve been here so many times. We’ll have to just respond like we’ve done all year.”

As Bakich predicted, his team responded. Clemson scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to regain the lead at 6-4.

Star first baseman Caden Grice tied the game at 4-4 on a sac fly, before Riley Bertram delivered the big blow, driving in a pair of runs with a two-out double.

Lipscomb responded once again, hitting it’s third home run of the game to cut the lead to 6-5.

“It’s a very good team. Lipscomb is an excellent, athletic, balanced team,” Bakich said. “Their pitcher – [Logan] Van Treeck on the mound has got really good command of two different breaking balls, so he’s given us some trouble. We’ll have to do a better job the third time through the order.”

Clemson slugger Caden Grice rakes 2-run home run for early lead vs. Lipscomb

As for how Clemson got the lead to start with, it’s no surprise that two-way star Caden Grice got the Tigers on the board early.

Grice was one of the hottest hitters in the country entering the NCAA Tournament. It’s safe to say that the junior has picked up where he left off in the postseason.

Grice blasted a two-run home run over the wall in right-center field to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Lipscomb.

The lefty pounded the first pitch he saw over the fence for his team-high 17th home run on the season. Grice also leads the Tigers with 65 RBIs.

Caden Grice has now homered in five of his past eight games, and his average is up to .306 on the year.

The Tigers are the No. 1 seed in the Clemson Regional and the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Bisons are the No. 4 seed in Clemson’s regional.

Other teams joining Clemson at its regional include No. 2 seed Tennessee and No. 3 seed Charlotte. Those two teams will face off on Friday night in their opening game of the NCAA Tournament.

The winner of Clemson-Lipscomb and Tennessee-Charlotte will meet Saturday night, with the two losing teams from their opening game playing an elimination game on Saturday.