The Clemson Tigers will start their 2025 college baseball season on Friday without head coach Erik Bakich as he serves his two-game suspension stemming from last year’s Super Regional loss to Florida. But on Tuesday, Bakich revealed how he plans to use his suspension as an opportunity to try his hand as a radio broadcaster.
Bakich’s ejection during Game 2 last season’s Super Regional matchup occurred when umpires reviewed a potential ejection of Clemson outfielder Alden Mathes for a bat flip after a go-ahead home run, which led the Clemson coach to voice his frustrations from the dugout.
Here is a video of the incident, which most at the time saw as incredibly controversial.
Followed by a lengthy delay due to an ejection. It was assumed to be for Mathes bat-flipping the HR; in the end, it was 2 Clemson coaches ejected.
“We gotta clean this up. Hopefully the NCAA is listening… If our game wants to be better, we gotta clean this up. Communication.” https://t.co/nmAaVOc6TL pic.twitter.com/VhDg52NQDn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 9, 2024
The NCAA then caught flack for not allowing Bakich to speak with the media after the game due to his ejection and subsequent two-game suspension that extends into this season.
Due to his suspension, Bakich will not even be allowed in the stadium when Clemson takes the field for their first two games of the 2025 Shriners Children’s College Showdown on Friday and Saturday against Oklahoma State and Arizona.
Instead, Bakich outlined in a conversation with media members on Tuesday that he will be calling the game from his hotel room across the street on Clemson’s flagship station 105.5 The Roar.
“I can’t get ejected on the radio,” said Bakich in a video posted on X by Clemson beat reporter Chapel Fowler. “So I will be commentating to the best of my ability with our folks on Clemson Athletic Network. I’ll be on the radio doing my very best from there. Yeah, weird kind of dumb rule. Can’t even step foot in the stadium. But whatever, we’ll make the best of it.”
Clemson baseball coach Erik Bakich, who is suspended from coaching team’s first two games of 2025 after he was ejected in the Super Regional, says he’ll be on the @1055TheROAR radio broadcast instead: “Can’t get ejected from my hotel room” pic.twitter.com/bbz7QeJR1K
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) February 11, 2025
In his absence, Clemson assistant coach Nick Schanbel will serve as acting head coach. Bakich later outlined how he believes that his team will be in “good hands” with Schanbel as their lead man.
“Nick Schanbel is our assistant head coach,” Bakich said via Nick Kosko of On3 Sports. “And, you know, he and I played together at East Carolina. We’ve been together for, this is our 13th season together, you know? The team’s in very good hands … And you know, it’s part of what we talk about as a group, is as coaches, you know, our job is to eliminate our job.”
While it will obviously be irritating for Bakich to miss out on these two games over the weekend based on an incident that happened over eight months ago, at least he will get to try something new in the meantime.
Bakich’s first chance to return back to the dugout for Clemson will be for their final matchup of the Shriners Children’s College Showdown on Sunday against Ole Miss.
