CLEMSON- The Tigers head to Durham for the ACC Tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country.
After beginning conference play at just 2-8, Clemson has gone on a magical run that has seen Erik Bakich's team go from postseason afterthoughts to quite likely a Top 8 national seed,
The Tigers won 23 of their final 27 regular season games. They go into pool play of the ACC Tournament winners of 12 consecutive games. And they won their final seven ACC series, with four of those coming by way of sweep.
In other words, everything is working and when everything is working many coaches are hesitant to change things up. However, despite the recent run of success, when asked if he might switch up the order of his starting pitching for ACC Tournament, Bakich wouldn't rule it out.
"I think it would behoove us to keep our rotation as close to full rest as possible," Bakich said. "We’re going to go into the tournament trying to win it."
"We’ll have a couple days to rest. I think our bodies are a little bit tired, so this will be a good opportunity to get our feet underneath us and regroup and get ready for the ACC Tournament."
Clemson will head to Durham as the No. 3 seed and a member of Pool C. On Wednesday Clemson will face No. 6 seed Virginia Tech, a team the Tigers swept on the road just over a week ago. Then on Friday, Clemson will meet No. 11 seed Boston College. The Eagles handed the Tigers their last loss back on April 28, but Clemson still managed to take two of three on the road.
Being the highest seed in its pool gives the Tigers a distinct advantage, but the format in which the ACC uses for the conference tournament tends to lead to some teams playing meaningless games. Something Bakich flat out said he was not a fan of.
Although, at the end of the day, the format just doesn't matter that much. Because Bakich and his Tigers are heading to Durham with one goal in mind and that is to win every game they play and bring that trophy back to Clemson for the first time since 2016.
"I've never done pool play... pod play tournament. I don't even know if you can call it a tournament," he said. "I've never done it this way so people are saying there’s games that don’t matter and that just doesn’t resonate. I have no comprehension of that kind of thinking. So we’re going to go into every game and no matter who we’re playing, where we’re playing, we’re going to try to win."
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