Tensions flared late in a pivotal Super Regional game between Clemson and Florida. Ultimately Tigers coach Erik Bakich and assistant Jack Leggett were tossed from the game in the top of the 13th inning after seemingly defending Alden Mathes after a bat slam.
Mathes had hit a go-ahead home run in the top of the inning, then slammed his bat down forcefully in celebration.
The umpires issued a warning to Mathes, which got Clemson out of its dugout and onto the field. Leggett was quickly booted for arguing with officials, then Bakich was tossed for “inciting the fans.”
“It’s just too bad. It’s unfortunate, because a lot of the really good officiators out there, they’re able to separate their personality and their personal emotion from being able to just officiate,” Erik Bakich said. “I felt like there was some personality and personal emotion that got in there.
“And the best officials really do a good job at diffusing. I just didn’t see that.”
Clemson’s lead in extra innings wouldn’t hold, as Florida ultimately went on to knot the game and walk it off in one swing as Michael Robertson hit a two-RBI double.
After the game, Clemson players and coaches were still seeing red.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the ejections will carry with them consequences going forward into the 2025 season.
“It is what it is. We could try to appeal it, I doubt it would go anywhere,” Bakich said. “I’ll have to serve a two-game suspension to start 2025, and you know, that’s a tough way to end. I hate it for our guys the most. I know everyone’s fired up and pissed off and we are too.”
One of the reasons Bakich was so upset is that this isn’t the first time he’s had an ejection influence things.
“It’s just because it stems from the outcome of the game being influenced from an ejection or something from even a year before,” Erik Bakich said. “Even go back the year before at Louisville, kind of same thing, controversial call when we were at Michigan. So it’s part of the game and it’s part of what happens, it just sucks to always be on the wrong side of it.
“I hate it for our players, I hate it for our fans, I hate it for our program. But it is what it is. And we say it all the time, like, we’re not that bad that we need every call. We’re not. But when you start chucking players, whether it’s Jack Crighton or Cam Cannerella last year or potentially Alden Mathes and the a couple, a coach and a staff member, it’s not what anybody wants. I don’t think that’s what the good officials want, at least.”
That said, Erik Bakich has spoken his piece and he’s ready to move on.
“Just all around unfortunate and I don’t know, I don’t know if there’s any much more to say about it,” he said. “I know a lot of people are talking about it, but probably just need to move on.”
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