Tigers respond to weekend adversity ahead of upcoming rivalry series with Gamecocks

Clemson responded to Friday's 18-1 defeat by putting up 15 runs over the next two games and finishing out with a series win.

by Ariana Pensy - Correspondent - Mon Feb 26 07:00:03 GMT-04:00 2024

CLEMSON - In a series that featured, in all likelihood, one of the worst losses in head coach Erik Bakich’s career, as well as the program’s 3,000th victory, there is plenty that can be taken away from the No. 8-ranked Tigers’ series win over Kennesaw State, which was bookended by an 18-1 defeat and a 7-2 win. Despite the “embarrassing” performance Friday, as Bakich put it, he maintains this series will be a good victory for this group.

“This will end up being a nice series win for us, and that’s a good club and just really proud of the way we played (Sunday), especially the bounce-back start that (freshman right-handed pitcher) Aidan (Knaak) had after last weekend didn’t really go his way and then today, he showed what he’s capable of,” Bakich said.

During the preseason, Bakich said that this team needed to face some adversity, and no question is what occurred on Friday. Facing such adversity shows the true colors of a team and its veteran leaders, such as senior infielder Blake Wright.

“We’ve made an emphasis (to) see how we respond (to adversity), and that was pretty much the plan (after Friday’s loss),” Wright said. “We talked (it) out as a group, we took a deep breath, we relaxed and trusted the plan and all of our training and came out and played really well, and it’s pretty easy to play when you got a guy like Knaak throwing on the mound.”

After having an ERA of 15 in his first collegiate game against Xavier when he allowed six hits and five runs, Knaak shut down the Owls with six shutout innings, allowing only three hits. Pitching all around, until the ninth inning, was strong on Sunday.

“We did come out complacent on Friday. That’s my fault. But, they won ugly (Saturday), and then we played well (Sunday),” Bakich said. “Really until the ninth inning, throwing the bunt away, that was a very clean pitching and defensive game. Just exactly what we wanted to see.”

There are still several things that Clemson needs to improve, particularly on the defensive side. Bakich specifically talked about walks and hit-by-pitches. The Tigers have given up 32 walks and hit five batters with the pitch this season.

“We’ve given up too many opportunities to the other team in terms of walks, hit by pitches, errors, extra 90s,” Bakich said. “When we’ve had walks, errors, extra 90s, those have been the high-scoring (games).”

Clemson plays next against USC Upstate (4 p.m./ACCNX). Then, the Tigers will play their series against South Carolina starting Friday, March 1 (7 p.m./SECN+) at Founders Park.

This series will be the toughest thus far for the Tigers, not just because it is the Gamecocks and this is a rivalry series, but because South Carolina is ranked No. 21 in the country per D1Baseball.com. Clemson is ranked No. 10 using that ranking system; no other team the Tigers have faced thus far is ranked.