Bakich thankful Cannarella stayed despite tampering from other programs

Cannarella is staying at Clemson despite tampering and money offers.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Fri Jul 21 12:11:07 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Erik Bakich knows that loyalty can be in short supply in these days of tampering, the transfer portal, and NIL cash floating around college campuses. That’s why he appreciates two of his biggest stars.

Bakich and the Clemson program ended the season with a loss in its home regional – Bakich said he replays the loss to Tennessee over and over in his mind every day – and then dealt with the loss of slugger Billy Amick to those same Vols.

As Amick’s saga unfolded, rumors swirled that star centerfielder Cam Cannarella was also leaving, but when the transfer portal window closed, Cannarella was still a Tiger. Cannarella fashioned one of the better seasons for a freshman in Clemson history – he was named a first-team freshman All-American by Baseball America, D1Baseball and Perfect Game, a freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball, was named the ACC Freshman-of-the-Year and a First-Team All-ACC selection.

Cannarella hit .388 with 72 runs, 16 doubles, three triples, seven homers, 47 RBIs, a .560 slugging percentage, .462 on-base percentage, 33 walks, four hit-by-pitches and 24 steals in 59 games (59 starts in center field). He tied for eighth in Tiger history in singles (71) and tied for 15th in the nation in hits (97) and 17th in hits per game (1.64); first in the nation in hits among freshmen. He was also third in the nation in batting average among freshmen and first among Power 5 Conference freshmen.

Bakich spoke to the media Thursday at Doug Kingsmore and admitted that other programs tampered with his star.

“I love Cam, I love his family and I appreciate the loyalty. There was tampering going on with him,” Bakich said. “Third parties and that’s how it’s done. It’s never done from direct coach to player, it’s the third party stuff. He held his ground and stuck his feet in and their family realized that he’s not only grown as a baseball player but as a person and his friends are here and he’s thriving here. You don’t want to mess with success and he’s successful here.”

Bakich said the sky is the limit for his young centerfielder.

“It’s really exciting to think about his trajectory and about the career that he can build for himself on that trajectory and being able to play this great game for a long, long time and I love his fire and I love his competitiveness and I don’t want to lose that for one second because it’s what makes him great. He’s awesome and we love having him, I’m glad he’s on our team and staying on our team,” Bakich said.

Another player who made offseason news is outfielder Will Taylor, who gave up a full scholarship in football to concentrate on baseball. The loss of the football scholarship means that Taylor and his family will now have to pay a substantial portion of his tuition.

Bakich said the decision came as a surprise.

“I didn’t know that was coming and didn’t expect it quite honestly and Will was very thought out,” Bakich said. “He had the most unique opportunity of all the student athletes at Clemson and get to do two sports well, be champion in two sports,” Bakich said. “He has the potiential to play this game for a long time and make a career out of it. I just appreciate the way he and his family thought through it. It was a long process to come to that decision. I appreciate he and his dad. I had breakfast with he and his dad up at the cape and you want to talk about solid, salt of the earth people. That’s an incredibly family, the Taylor family, and it was awesome to get to spend some time with them up there.”

Bakich is hopeful that NIL money will help take some of the strain off the family but also mentioned that the Taylors are looking at the decision as a long-term investment in his baseball future.

“They’re looking at it more long-term where the real money is on the back end,” Bakich said. “It’s him being a professional player and having a long major league career. He wasn’t looking at the money as a short-term thing, and I really appreciate the way they went about that thought process. We’re going to try to help him out for sure.”