Bakich proud of the fight his team has shown into late-season run

Andrew Ciufo scored on one of several impactful plays on the infield on the night.

Grayson Mann · Staff Writer · Friday, May 23 2025

DURHAM - Clemson has been on the wrong side of some postseason classics.

In Thursday night's thriller in the ACC quarterfinal, that script was flipped.

The Tigers held on to avenge a regular-season sweep over North Carolina State, clinching a semifinal berth with a 7-6 victory.

Inside the Durham Bulls' ballpark, the crowd was painted in a sea of red, with orange blips hard to spot at first glance. The stress on both sides was magnified with each lead change and swing of the bat.

In the end, the small pockets of orange roared a thunderous sigh of relief as the Tigers' dance in Durham continued.

If you ask Erik Bakich, it is that kind of game that has resembled some of the heartbreak teams of the past had endured. The environment on a cool, summer night was the postseason environment his team needed to see.

"NC State's an Omaha team," Bakich said. "Last year, we were a super regional team, and it kind of felt like tonight was a super regional or an Omaha-type game. Just two evenly matched clubs, just trading blows going back and forth. A bunch of lead changes. Like JJ (Jacob Jarrell) mentioned, we had to turn four double plays. Got fortunate with some of those, but the defense really picked us up in those. But you could just tell each team, the margin in these games is razor thin. It's one swing, it's one play, it's one pitch because this feels like a deep in June type of ball game.

Not only did it replicate the postseason baseball this group hopes to be playing late in June, but it was also emblematic of Bakich's belief that this group's fight was going to be the reason a slump turned into a surge.

His steadfast belief in his team's resolve was backed up by a sweep over Pittsburgh and a second-round victory over Virginia Tech. Still, it would be fair to want to see more of that success, especially when the competition jumps to another level.

Over three hours of adversity and a back-and-forth fight mirrored some of Clemson's flaws that plagued them to close the regular season, but the will to push to victory ended up being the defining trait that shone through.

In Bakich's eyes, maybe that type of slump was necessary to know how to overcome challenging stretches.

Certainly, this group has turned the corner, with Clemson's leading man believing his ballclub is peaking at the right time.

"It doesn't have to be perfect, but it certainly feels right, looks right, and this looks like an even more confident bunch," Bakich said. "So it's just an unbelievable group of kids that have great leadership and great character players that just refused to quit. And we saw that tonight many times with the back-and-forth trading punches type of game, but I'm very proud of how they fought through the three weeks of losing three series in a row to get back up and be the best we've been all season right now."

Playing your best baseball means the Tigers' stay in Durham has extended into the weekend. It also will be Clemson's second ACC semifinal in three years, with two more games standing in the way of an ACC crown.

At one point, Clemson was sinking, with the consensus being its postseason path would start on the road. Five wins later, the Tigers are soaring, and are riding a season-high confidence into the ACC's final four.