Clemson baseball coach takes shot at rival South Carolina

Shots fired. Clemson baseball coach Erik Bakich had something on his mind about rival South Carolina following Saturday's win over the Gamecocks.

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Clemson baseball coach takes shot at rival South Carolina

Steve Holley, Clemson Wire

Sun, March 1, 2026 at 6:34 PM UTC·
3 min read

Clemson baseball coach Erik Bakich wasn't a fan of Friday night's Palmetto Series opener against rival South Carolina at Founders Park in Columbia.

Not only did the Tigers suffer their first loss of 2026 in a 7-0 shutout at the hands of South Carolina right-hander Josh Gunther, who held Clemson to three hits and struck out 10 batters over seven dominant innings, it was what happened on the field after the game that didn't sit well with the fourth-year Clemson coach.

Clemson evened the series with a 4-1 win over the Gamecocks on Saturday at Segra Park behind a complete-game performance by left-hander Michael Sharman, and afterwards Bakich made his displeasure about one particular aspect of Friday's game known.

Answering a reporter's question about the resolve the Tigers showed following their bounce-back win and Sharman's performance, Bakich said:

"We've got another big one tomorrow, which is why we don't celebrate out of control like we just won the World Series after one win. We've still got a lot to play for and it's a big one (Sunday)."

Bakich's comments came after the coach clearly had something on his mind following Friday's loss when he spoke to reporters. After mentioning takeaways from the Tigers' 7-0 loss, he later said::

"Let me phrase this in a way that... Let me just... I'll answer it this way: we'll just keep it about our mistakes, and we'll take those and correct those. But that's not what I'm talking about, and that's not what I told them. But we'll be ready to play (Saturday)."

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The Clemson-South Carolina rivalry is one of the biggest and best in college baseball, and both Bakich and Gamecocks coach Paul Mainieri have taken mostly harmless digs at the other side.

When Mainieri, the former LSU Tigers skipper who guided the Bayou Bengals to a national championship in 2009, was introduced as South Carolina's coach following the 2024 season, he singled out Clemson in his first press conference.

"Being in the midlands is a lot better than being in the Upstate, I can promise you that," Mainieri quipped in June 2024.

As for the rest of Bakich's remarks following Saturday's game, he praised Sharman for his dominance against South Carolina. The former Tennessee Vols pitcher allowed just four hits in a 78-pitch outing that including 67 strikes.

Bakich said:

"It's just one game. Nothing's been clinched. mean, as great as (Sharman) pitched, we've still got a lot to play for We've still got a big day (Sunday). But it was the exact response that we were hoping for. Even in the box, our competitiveness at the plate was much better. We played very good defense. Had a little uh-oh there in the ninth, but we needed an outlier performance and Michael Sharman delivered that exactly today. Nobody was expecting a 78-pitch, complete game, 67 strikes, zero three-ball counts, 86 percent strikes. Just incredible. We weren't expecting that but we're certainly happy that he delivered."

Clemson (9-1) looks to clinch its third straight series victory over South Carolina (7-4) when the two teams meet for Game 3 Sunday. First pitch is 3 p.m. ET. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.

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