Clemson baseball 2026 season is in a freefall. What’s ailing the Tigers?
As the worst season of his Clemson baseball coaching tenure hits the stretch run, Erik Bakich has a two-part message for frustrated fans.
A self-described “forward-thinking” person, he’s well aware a year this far off Clemson’s standard will require deep thought and offseason tweaks.
But until the Tigers are completely out of it, he’s not pulling the plug.
“I’m not giving up on this team,” Bakich said Tuesday in a radio interview on 105.5 The Roar. “While I always have an eye on the future and ‘What do we need?’ and a needs assessment for building championship baseball at Clemson, we are still alive.”
Heading into this weekend’s home series vs. No. 20 Boston College, Clemson baseball is trending toward its worst year under Bakich — and a historically bad ACC finish.
Clemson enters Friday at 29-16 overall and 6-15 in the ACC, the fewest wins and worst winning percentage among 16 league teams. The preseason No. 20 Tigers have lost six of seven ACC series, and they’re 11-18 in their last 29 games after a 15-1 start.
A sweep at Louisville last weekend all but confirmed that, barring an epic finish to the regular season, Clemson will need to win five games in six days at next month’s ACC baseball tournament to avoid missing its first NCAA Tournament since 2022.
That’s a major departure from Bakich’s first three seasons at Clemson. From 2023-25, the Tigers were one of just two teams nationally to win 44 or more games and host a NCAA regional each year. Clemson also reached the super regionals in 2024.
Bakich said the 2026 season has been “unique and different.” How so?
“Because I believe in our players, and I think we’re underperforming our talent level,” Bakich said in the radio interview. “And that’s on me. That’s coaching.”
Clemson baseball’s missed opportunities
Citing an in-house “win expectancy” statistic often used in Major League Baseball, Bakich said Clemson’s 2026 baseball team is “about six wins short of what the numbers would actually say” a team of its talent level should be at record-wise.
That’s backed up by some recent results.
In a big home series against No. 2 UNC earlier this month, Clemson won Game 1 handily on Friday and held a late lead in Game 2. But the Tigers missed multiple opportunities to close out the Tar Heels, lost in 14 innings and got blown out in Sunday’s rubber match. The Tigers also dropped rubber matches against Miami and Virginia that could’ve resulted in momentum-changing series wins.
Whether it’s the pitchers losing control of the game, a cold stretch of batting or a costly mistake in the outfield (Clemson has a league-worst 30 errors in ACC play and 57 overall in 45 games), the Tigers have struggled to play complementary baseball.
“It’s not that we have players that don’t care,” Bakich said on the radio. “We have players that are on the other side — that probably care too much.”
It’s worth noting that Clemson’s dealt with untimely injuries to starting second baseman Jarren Purify and infielder/outfielder Tryston McCladdie.
Bakich: ‘I’m gonna empty the tank’
Still, the situation is a little Clemson football-esque.
Bakich sounded a lot like Clemson coach Dabo Swinney in Tuesday’s radio interview: Admitting a lot of his team’s struggles are stemming from a “lack of confidence that comes from not having success” during what was supposed to be a better season and pointing the finger at himself for not maximizing talent.
“Last year, I thought we overperformed our stats, and this year I think we’re underperforming our stats, in terms of the win-loss record,” Bakich said.
Bakich added of his staff: “We as coaches, and myself especially, just need to be who we are. … We didn’t forget how to coach all of a sudden this season. Believe it or not, we know what we’re doing, and we have a plan this week. And if the plan doesn’t work and it’s not good enough, then you know what? The plan didn’t work and it’s not good enough. But I’m gonna continue to believe in the players.”
Clemson has 11 regular-season games remaining and is about to play seven straight games against ranked opponents: A home series against No. 20 Boston College, a road game at No. 9 Coastal Carolina and a home series against No. 14 Florida State.
The Tigers will also play a series at Virginia Tech before the ACC Tournament, set for May 19-24 in Charlotte. A silver lining: Under a new format that started last year, every ACC baseball team gets a spot in the single-elimination tournament, so Clemson can’t miss it (which likely would’ve happened under the previous format).
“Everyone in college baseball is still alive as of today, and so are we,” Bakich said on the radio. “... I’m gonna empty the tank and find every possible solution — and so are our coaches — to put our team in a great spot to start playing better baseball.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 2:04 PM with the headline "Clemson baseball 2026 season is in a freefall. What’s ailing the Tigers?."
