Road Kings: Bakich wants his team to lean into the challenge of extended road trip

Bakich said the Tigers are in a tough spot with the last day of class (Friday) and finals, but he wants his team to accept the challenge that lies ahead.

David Hood - Senior Writer - Wednesday, April 23 2025

CLEMSON – Head coach Erik Bakich said Tuesday night’s Doug Kingsmore Stadium crowd reminded him of the postseason, but as the Tigers hit the home stretch of the regular season, they will have to do most of their work on the road.

No. 2 Clemson defeated No. 10 Georgia 3-0 Tuesday in front of nearly 7,000 fans. The game started at 8 p.m., and the atmosphere was rabid, as Bakich noted in his postgame comments.

“Just want to shout out to Tiger Nation and DKS. That crowd was reminiscent of the Gamecock series,” Bakich said. “That looked like a Regional, Super Regional crowd that was just an electric factor. There was buzz, it was noisy, it was rowdy, it was perfect. It's exactly what we were hoping for. And to think that we've got almost 7,000 here with an eight o'clock game with rain in the forecast, and still to show up like that and show out? The crowd and the fans were every bit as instrumental in that win.”

Clemson has 13 games remaining in the regular season, but just three of those are at home. The Tigers travel to Raleigh for a three-game set at NC State starting Thursday and then to Tallahassee for a showdown with Florida State the following weekend.

Clemson then heads to Conway for a rematch with Coastal Carolina on May 6th before returning home for three games against Duke starting May 9th. The Tigers close out the regular season with a three-game series at Pitt starting May 15th.

Florida St. is currently ranked No. 4 nationally, Coastal is ranked No. 21 and the Wolfpack entered the Top 25 this week at No. 25 (D1Baseball).

Bakich said the Tigers are in a tough spot with the last day of class (Friday) and finals, but he wants his team to accept the challenge that lies ahead.

“Just lean into the challenge. You got the X factor of its finals. Their last day of school will be tomorrow (Wednesday),” Bakich said. “We leave tomorrow after class, and then our series is Thursday. But the last day of school is Friday and then finals is next week. So, you have an academic challenge and then you have two ranked teams on the road. That's a big challenge as well during this academically stressful time of the semester. So lean into it and embrace it and know that it's going to be tough.”

Bakich said he wants the Tigers playing tough teams as the season comes to a close.

“The baseball is going to be tough,” he said. “This is where you have to finish strong. We don't want the easiest teams on our schedule leading into the postseason. We want it to be hard leading into the postseason because if we're going to do something special here and truly compete to be the last team standing, then the road is going to be tough. It's going to be hard. And so it's just leaning into that.”