Erik Bakich breaks silence, addresses controversial ejection, suspension in loss to Florida

Amid the fallout of a truly bizarre end of the second Clemson vs. Florida super regional game, which the Gators won to advance to Omaha, Tiger coach Erik Bakich finally revealed his side of this crazy story.

Bakich sat down with the The Mickey Plyler Show on Tuesday to discuss the end of Clemson’s season, and of course, the drama from Sunday evening involving Bakich himself, along with coach Jack Leggett and player Jack Crighton all being tossed from the game and earning suspensions.

Going chronologically, he first addressed Crighton’s ejection early on.

Jack Crighton’s ejection

Crighton was a base runner when Florida’s pitcher and Clemson’s batter collided on the first base path following a bunt, which sparked an altercation. Crighton apparently abandoned his position during the altercation and involved himself at what was happening near home plate, and was subsequently ejected.

Bakich’s interpretation of the call:

“The way it was explained to me, what they’re looking at is who is off the bench or who left their position — and somehow Jack Crighton was on second base and the check-swinging bunt happened and Jack Crighton is rounding third and on his way home — the tag happens, the inning is over is the way I look at it. Jack Crighton continued to run, then there’s a push and an altercation and then Jack Crighton takes a left turn and joins his teammates.

“The interpretation was he left his position on the bases to get into the altercation and he was the one solely picked out to be ejected, which that was a tough pill to swallow there.”

Alden Mathes’ bat spike

The 13th inning was where all pandemonium broke loose as Clemson’s Alden Mathes blasted a solo home run to break the tie and the slammed his bat in the direction of the Tiger dugout. That was a key detail Bakich wanted to emphasize to the umpires when he saw them in discussion following the Mathes homer.

“Alden spikes his bat — and this just had happened (an ejection) with Jimmy Obertop and having to sit out the next game, so we all thought that was what they were huddling up about, to determine if Alden was going to be ejected for spiking his bat, which means he was not only ejected from that game but the next game,” explained Bakich.

“So, I immediately ran out and said he threw it at our dugout,” the Clemson coach continued. “He spiked it at our dugout, which is, by rule, you’re allowed to do it to your own dugout. You’re not allowed to do it to the other team’s dugout.”

Jack Leggett gets tossed

Bakich trying to share that message was stepping over the lines in the umpires’ eyes, causing them to take up a short temper with Coach Leggett when he started chirping too.

“They shooed me off a few times and I kind of backed up. Look, the crowd was going nuts. You couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t hear anything from our dugout because the crowd noise was so high. One of the umpires turned and saw Coach Leggett animated, and he tossed him.”

Leggett didn’t help his cause by continuing to plead his case outside of the dugout.

“Then, of course, Coach Leggett comes out, and the crowd goes even more nuts,” says Bakich, who admits that he did prompt some cheers for the freshly-ejected Leggett.

“I kind of gave Leggett a low-five and then turned to the crowd and waved my arms to the crowd to incite the crowd — and the crowd being as awesome as they are, they are going nuts.”

Umpires explain Leggett ejection, then eject Bakich

He wasn’t kicked out right away, but that antagonistic act by Bakich was the final straw for him with the umpires as they eventually brought him over to explain that he’d been ejected as well as Leggett.

“The umpires continued to meet, and then finally they call me over to the line, and he says that Jack Leggett is ejected and he can’t be yelling at the umpires from the dugout, and he’s also suspended for coming out onto the field.

“I say, ‘Are we really going to suspend Jack Leggett?’ He said, ‘Yep, we’re going to do that, and because you incited the crowd and waved to the crowd when he was out there as well, you’re ejected too.’

“He tossed me and just walked away. Of course, I lost my stuff and got an additional two games for wanting to get a man-to-man, face-to-face explanation of that, but I couldn’t get that.”

Bakich continued, saying that the ejection was abnormal for how umpires typically handle such situations.

“It was just matter-of-factly, cavalierly just, ‘and you’re tossed too.’ Get thrown out and just turn around and walked away. Most umpires, when you get tossed, they’ll give you that opportunity, and then one of the umpires will come in and tell you that’s enough. And the guy did, but it was almost too late.”

Bakich, Leggett could appeal

The coaches could appeal the decisions and their suspensions, which do transfer to next season. However, Erik Bakich says he’s not sure one way or another on that idea yet.

“Uh maybe, I just don’t know if it will do anything. We can certainly try,” Bakich said of an appeal. “There doesn’t seem to be any type of a oversight or overturn or anything, but we can certainly give it a shot. As it stands right now, I’ll have to sit out the first two games of 2025, and so will my wingman, Jack Leggett.”