Bakich says the Tigers have the luxury of depth across the board

Erik Bakich is confident that he will have options for the lineup and pitching rotation this season.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Feb 14 12:45:02 GMT-04:00 2024

CLEMSON – Football is officially over, and familiar sounds greeted visitors to Doug Kingsmore Stadium Tuesday afternoon as Clemson ramped up preparation for Friday’s season opener. Spikes scraped on concrete, balls pinged off of bats, and the sound of the popping leather are all harbingers of the spring to come.

The 127th edition of Clemson Baseball is coming off the program’s 16th ACC title in 2023, but it has bigger aspirations to play deep into June in 2024. Second-year Head Coach Erik Bakich, who led the Tigers to a 44-19 record and 17-game winning streak late in the season, which culminated in an ACC Tournament title, has the Tigers’ sights set on their first College World Series appearance since 2010. Clemson is ranked as high as No. 9 in the nation in the preseason by Baseball America and USA Today.

“I know our team's chomping it a bit and looking forward to getting better today and tomorrow, Thursday, and we'll be ready for Friday,” head coach Erik Bakich said in the first base dugout Tuesday. And it doesn't matter when we play, it doesn't matter where we play, we'll be ready to go. So, I'm excited for our guys. I know they're ready to rock and roll and get after it and play another jersey. So, this will be a lot of fun this weekend.”

The 2024 schedule features 34 home games and 25 games against 2023 NCAA Tournament teams. Clemson plays Presbyterian and USC Upstate at Fluor Field in Greenville and South Carolina three times, including a neutral-site game at Segra Park in Columbia. The season begins this Friday with a three-game home series against Xavier. The ACC Tournament returns to Charlotte, N.C., for the third time overall and the first time since 2022.

Tiger players who accounted for 46 percent of the starts in the 2023 season return in 2024. However, the Tigers must replace players who made every start at first base, second base and shortstop in 2023, including first-team All-American and John Olerud Two-Way Player-of-the-Year Award winner Caden Grice, who was the 64th pick of the MLB draft.

Bakich didn’t want to get into the specifics of lineups and pitching rotations, saying instead that a lot of players will have to play and contribute for the team to have a successful season.

“I think for us, we have a really good idea about who our top 14 hitters are, who our top 12 or 13 pitchers are. I think it's not that we're trying to identify roles in three days, the roles are going to evolve and transform and be fluid throughout the course of the first few weeks, if not the first in a couple of months,” Bakich said. “I think it's just more understanding that we're not in any a rush to say, this is our Friday guy, this is our Saturday guy, this is our shortstop.

“We're going to play a lot of guys. We're going to pitch a lot of guys. We have that luxury, and it is a luxury item, to have the depth that we have both on the mound and positionally. We're going to want to see that. We're going to want to give guys opportunities and see guys in different spots. Much like last year, where it maybe took us a little bit longer to figure out who goes where, I don't think it'll take us quite that time, but I am excited to see us get knocked down and face some adversity.”