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Clemsonbasketball’s early-season momentum is long gone, and ACC play has quickly turned into a grind.
The Tigers dropped another series on Saturday, falling to Miami and slipping to 19-10 overall. More concerning is the 2-7 mark in conference play, which has Clemson sitting near the bottom of the standings, ahead of only Cal and trailing fellow newcomer Stanford.
What started as a promising 15-2 run has unraveled over the past few weeks. Clemson has now dropped eight of its last 12 games, a stretch that includes a midweek loss to Georgia Southern, a series defeat against Georgia Tech, a sweep at Notre Dame, and a tight home loss to Coastal Carolina before this latest series setback.
Saturday’s game followed a familiar script. Clemson dug itself into a massive early hole, falling behind 8-0, before showing life late. The Tigers rallied in the final innings and nearly pulled off a dramatic comeback, but ultimately came up short in an 8-6 loss.
Head coach Erik Bakich didn’t hide his frustration afterward, but he also pointed to the ninth inning as something his team can build on.
“I hate losing; everybody hates losing. But I’m gonna tell you this right now, we lost the game today, but we took a step forward with that ninth inning and the belief system of how we were making that comeback,” Bakich said. “We’ve seen that in the past, and this losing crap is gonna stop. And it’s gonna start with a belief system. And we showed a little bit of that. Unfortunately, it was not enough.
“Obviously, the two-out grand slam was huge and got behind early, but there was zero doubt by anyone in that dugout that we weren’t gonna come back and win it 9-8. And we’ve done it before, and we just need to start showing it. It’s close, we’re not over the hump, but it’s close. But I’m proud of the way we fought in the ninth, even though we fell short.”
That late push, according to Bakich, reflects a team that still believes it can turn things around.
“There was zero doubt in the ninth inning that we were gonna win, that it was happening, it was on, the comeback was on. And it’s not even because Bryce (Bryce Clavon) led it off with a solo homer, it’s just the talk, the feeling,” Bakich said. “We need to bottle that up and be able to utilize it more often, sooner, however. But the confidence was high, it was good, it was what we needed. And it wasn’t enough, but it was something to build off of.”
While the record hasn’t reflected it, Bakich noted some progress in key areas, especially defensively, where Clemson has struggled during this stretch.
“It’s not good enough right now, and we need to get better, and we all know it, and we know what our deficiencies are. We’ve been working extra on defense. Our defense got a little bit better each of the last two games,” he said. “We’re just gonna put our heads down and go to work, and we’ll get there. It’s just, obviously, this isn’t the start of the ACC play that anybody wanted. But it’s not how you start, as we all know, it’s how you finish. We’ll see how this plays out. We’ll see, but I can tell you right now the belief system among the team, which is all that matters, is good. Because if they didn’t believe, we’d be screwed. And there’s belief in that team.”
Clemson won’t get much of a break moving forward.
The Tigers hit the road for five straight games, beginning with a midweek matchup against Wake Forest on Wednesday night in Charlotte. From there, they travel west for a weekend series at Stanford, followed by a stop at Santa Clara next Monday. The team returns home April 10 to open a series against North Carolina.
Contact us @Clemson_Wire on X (formerly known as Twitter), and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Clemson Tigers news and notes, plus opinions.
This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Clemson baseball head coach Erik Bakich on being over losing
Continue reading...
The Tigers dropped another series on Saturday, falling to Miami and slipping to 19-10 overall. More concerning is the 2-7 mark in conference play, which has Clemson sitting near the bottom of the standings, ahead of only Cal and trailing fellow newcomer Stanford.
What started as a promising 15-2 run has unraveled over the past few weeks. Clemson has now dropped eight of its last 12 games, a stretch that includes a midweek loss to Georgia Southern, a series defeat against Georgia Tech, a sweep at Notre Dame, and a tight home loss to Coastal Carolina before this latest series setback.
Saturday’s game followed a familiar script. Clemson dug itself into a massive early hole, falling behind 8-0, before showing life late. The Tigers rallied in the final innings and nearly pulled off a dramatic comeback, but ultimately came up short in an 8-6 loss.
Head coach Erik Bakich didn’t hide his frustration afterward, but he also pointed to the ninth inning as something his team can build on.
“I hate losing; everybody hates losing. But I’m gonna tell you this right now, we lost the game today, but we took a step forward with that ninth inning and the belief system of how we were making that comeback,” Bakich said. “We’ve seen that in the past, and this losing crap is gonna stop. And it’s gonna start with a belief system. And we showed a little bit of that. Unfortunately, it was not enough.
“Obviously, the two-out grand slam was huge and got behind early, but there was zero doubt by anyone in that dugout that we weren’t gonna come back and win it 9-8. And we’ve done it before, and we just need to start showing it. It’s close, we’re not over the hump, but it’s close. But I’m proud of the way we fought in the ninth, even though we fell short.”
That late push, according to Bakich, reflects a team that still believes it can turn things around.
“There was zero doubt in the ninth inning that we were gonna win, that it was happening, it was on, the comeback was on. And it’s not even because Bryce (Bryce Clavon) led it off with a solo homer, it’s just the talk, the feeling,” Bakich said. “We need to bottle that up and be able to utilize it more often, sooner, however. But the confidence was high, it was good, it was what we needed. And it wasn’t enough, but it was something to build off of.”
While the record hasn’t reflected it, Bakich noted some progress in key areas, especially defensively, where Clemson has struggled during this stretch.
“It’s not good enough right now, and we need to get better, and we all know it, and we know what our deficiencies are. We’ve been working extra on defense. Our defense got a little bit better each of the last two games,” he said. “We’re just gonna put our heads down and go to work, and we’ll get there. It’s just, obviously, this isn’t the start of the ACC play that anybody wanted. But it’s not how you start, as we all know, it’s how you finish. We’ll see how this plays out. We’ll see, but I can tell you right now the belief system among the team, which is all that matters, is good. Because if they didn’t believe, we’d be screwed. And there’s belief in that team.”
Clemson won’t get much of a break moving forward.
The Tigers hit the road for five straight games, beginning with a midweek matchup against Wake Forest on Wednesday night in Charlotte. From there, they travel west for a weekend series at Stanford, followed by a stop at Santa Clara next Monday. The team returns home April 10 to open a series against North Carolina.
Contact us @Clemson_Wire on X (formerly known as Twitter), and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Clemson Tigers news and notes, plus opinions.
This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Clemson baseball head coach Erik Bakich on being over losing
Continue reading...
