Erik Bakich's message to Clemson for quick turnaround after Tennessee loss: 'We're still alive'

Erik Bakich is liking what he’s seeing from his Clemson Tigers against the Charlotte 49ers at the moment.

The Tigers currently lead the 49ers by a score of 2-1, and they’re looking to advance to a rematch with the Tennessee Volunteers tonight.

With his team fighting for another shot at the Volunteers, Bakich joined the ESPN broadcast during the bottom of the fifth inning, where he touched on what he told his team ahead of such a quick turnaround for today’s game after falling to Tennessee in extras last night.

“It’s more of you get knocked down, and you’ve got to get back up, dust off and you’ve just got to re-engage,” Bakich told ESPN. “Can’t do anything about yesterday. So that’s all it was.

“Yesterday’s over. We’ve got an opportunity today. We’re still alive. We want to keep this team together as long as we can.”

If Erik Bakich’s team can find victory over Charlotte, Clemson will have another shot at Tennessee. Time will tell, but things are looking up for the Tigers at the moment.

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

In other news, Clemson baseball outlasted Lipscomb in a wild ride of a regional opener earlier this week. 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 Friday 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.”