Clemson Tigers head coach Erik Bakich credited outfielder Cam Canarella for his commitment to the program.
This comes as Canarella has been very open about how he wants to stay at Clemson and continue to play for Bakich, despite potential other options and NIL opportunities being open to him in the Transfer Portal.
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“It speaks to the integrity of he and his family,” Erik Bakich said. “And we’ll do our part too to make sure that we take care of them financially. We’ll need the help of our community and or donors to continue to work on this.”
A major concern of many college coaches, across all sports, is losing their star players to the Transfer Portal. There’s a lot of reasons that could happen, including those NIL opportunities being better at a new school. However, another issue has become tampering, which coaches are very concerned about moving forward.
“This is something that we’ve been outspoken about and, really, it’s just so prevalent now in college athletics. If you want to eliminate tampering, then do whatever you have to do to retain your best players,” Bakich said. “So, we’ll certainly do that and he’s earned it. He deserves it. We’re at a time where we need to play with the big boys if we want to win national championships and compete for trips to Omaha. The landscape has changed and we need to adjust, and we are and we will.”
Cam Cannarella came to Clemson for the 2023 season and immediately made his impact felt as a Freshman All-American. He was also named the ACC Freshman of the Year and was a First-Team All-ACC selection.
In 2024, he once again put up massive numbers for the Clemson Tigers and finished the season with a career batting average of .363, an on-base percentage of .440, and a slugging percentage of .560. He also has 18 home runs and 107 RBIs. That’s come in 117 total games.
“But, having him come out proactively and say, ‘This is where I am. This is the place where I’m going to be,’ is a huge reflection of just the quality character that Cam Cannarella and his family represent,” Bakich concluded.
Clemson’s season ended in the Super Regional. There, the Tigers fell to the Florida Gators in two games, including a 13-inning thriller that had a bit of controversy and a walk-off to eliminate Clemson.
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