Postseason play can be emotionally charged, especially with your season on the line. And that is exactly what the case was for the Clemson Tigers and head coach Erik Bakich in their super regional showdown against the Florida Gators.
In Game 2 of the epic series, Bakich and assistant coach Jack Leggett were tossed from the game in the top of the 13th inning. Both will have to serve a suspension to start the 2025 season. But does Bakich plan on protesting the suspension? According to the Clemson head coach, he wasn’t aware he could do that.
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“We haven’t. I don’t know about that request; I’ve never heard of that,” Bakich said. “As far as I know, there is no oversight or anything like that. We’re not talking about all umpires; we’re talking about it just happens to be in back-to-back years we’ve had injections. And maybe that’s just a very weird coincidence.”
“If there is an appeal process, I’ve been in contact with the ACC — we’re looking at maybe getting some video and just making sure that the reports and the video evidence lined up and see if there to appeal. What would we be appealing? Maybe the suspension of two games? But I deserve to get a two-game suspension based on staying out there and arguing for so long. Like that’s very black and white. I got a warning for two games, and I ignored it, and I would do that again, too… yeah, sorry; I don’t apologize for being competitive there.”
Both Tigers coaches were tossed out of the thrilling 13-inning battle at the top of what would be the final inning. The coaches are attempting to defend Alden Mathes, who was issued a warning after slamming his back and ultimately tossed from the game as well. Mathes’s solo shot home run was enough to give Clemson the 10-9 lead heading into the bottom of the inning. Unfortunately, Florida Word doubled up Clemson’s run production to win the game in walk-off fashion 11-10.
While it did sting and hard to see the Gators celebrating a birth in this year’s College World Series on the Tigers’ home field, in this instance, Bakich appears to not have any quarrel and wants to move past it altogether. Now, as for his issues with the umpires as a whole, that might be a different story.
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