Tigers set for a one-game season against Miami
Erik Bakich and his Tigers.
Second-seeded Clemson faces Miami today at 11 am at Truist Field in Charlotte as part of the ACC Baseball Championship (ACCN). At stake is a spot in the ACC Baseball Championship semifinals after Miami defeated Louisville 8-5 Tuesday as part of pool play.
Louisville, which plays Clemson on Friday in Charlotte, can’t advance past that game. If Miami defeats Clemson, the Hurricanes will advance to the semifinals on the back of a 2-0 pool play record. If Clemson defeats Miami, the Louisville game doesn’t matter because the worst the Tigers would finish is 1-1, and Clemson would advance because it’s the higher seed.
Bakich, the Tigers’ second-year head coach, says it’s more about how Clemson plays. Bakich said the team doesn’t worry itself with trophies.
“We don’t really talk like that, so it’s more just like, ‘No finish line.’ If you’re talking about earning things and accolades, we had a chance to clinch the Atlantic, and we did. We had a chance to get to 20 ACC wins in the regular season and we did and 40 (wins) overall,” Bakich told Roddy Jones on SiriusXM earlier this week. “And now we go into tournament mode. The trophy is great, but that’s the thing that you get by putting the target more on how we play and the mindset that we’ll have going into the tournament and playing the tournament.
“We’ll talk more about how we play the tournament more than the outcome of the tournament. I just learned that over the years you can’t fast forward to four games from now. You just have to sell out to do whatever you have to do to win game one and then take that approach the next day and the next day and the next day.”
Bakich won the ACC Tournament last season, and two years ago led Michigan to a Big 10 Tournament title. What is the reason for his success?
“You can’t go in thinking about the tournament as a whole. You have to shrink it, and you just have to make it about baseball, and you just can’t play some kind of a matchup thing or strategize about who’s pitching tomorrow,” he said. “You have to throw everybody today and just get today. It’s just a one-game series, and then you’re just doing that on repeat. There is really no secret sauce other than just selling out to win each individual game and treat each individual game like it’s the only game you’re playing that whole week.”
Bakich was asked if he likes pool play.
“I liked it last year. I thought last year was fine,” he said with a laugh. “No, I don’t like pool play. I like tournaments. I like what resembles Omaha and what we’re going to play in regionals and it’s a double elimination tournament. It’s not pool play. I understand why we do it and it sets up for TV and whatever. But no, I like the competitiveness of a double elimination tournament, but we’ll play in whatever. I mean we’ll play round robin, we’ll play pool, we’ll play double elimination, we’ll play single elimination, we’ll play whatever. We don’t really care what it is, but I like replicating what the real postseason looks like.”
