Celebrate the good times, says Clemson baseball coach Erik Bakich, who has no worries about his team refocusing for the super regionals after partying hard following their regional victory.
The No. 6 overall seeded Tigers made quick and stress-less work of their own regional, downing High Point and then Coastal Carolina twice to advance on the back of a breezy 3-0 weekend. After that win, the celebration was on, with Clemson players even trying to hop the right field wall to go hang out with the fans in the cheapest seats.
Take a look:
But that is deserved fun, according to Erik Bakich, who deflected any concern when asked if he’s confident his guys will be able to get back on track after letting loose after the big win.
“Well, these guys will. They’ll do that. I mean, they’ve been able to center themselves so many times,” said Bakich after the third win. “It’s the reason why we’ve been able to come back from so many deficits. They understand mental toughnesses, being able to get back to the middle, and being able to stay centered and get back to neutral.”
With no worry his team can lock back in, a regional victory means at least one night of enjoying the rewards of this great season.
“So we’re certainly going to enjoy this one tonight, but come tomorrow, you know, we’re going to figure out what’s next, who we’re playing, and start our preparation for that. So we know that.”
However, sometimes you’ve got to let your inner Ferris Bueller out and stop and look around for a second before moving on to the next game.
“But when you do accomplish something and you have these checkpoint moments that are these awesome memory-making things along the way, you got to go all in and celebrate that. So it would have been an opportunity missed if we didn’t jump into the Clemson Cafe and hang out with everyone in the cheap seats throwing beer on us.”
The beer shower is what it’s all about.
“I mean, that was the best beer shower you could ever ask for, but that’s what we want. We want we want our players to experience that, we want our fans to experience that, and we want to just do that over and over and over again as many times as possible. So I’m glad we did it.”
Make no mistake about it, though. Bakich assures folks that all eyes are on making it to Omaha once next weekend arrives.
“We didn’t come this far only to come this far,” he added. “And there’s there’s much more to be done. We are very aware that there’s more to be done. But we’re are going to celebrate it tonight for sure.”
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