When it came time for Erik Bakich to hire his first pitching coach at Clemson, he didn’t have to think too hard because the thought was already on his mind.

Bakich was Michigan’s baseball coach before being hired as the Tigers’ coach in June. As Big Ten foes, Bakich remembered the Wolverines’ annual meetings with Maryland years ago for one notable reason: Jimmy Belanger’s pitching staff made life difficult on Bakich’s batters.

“It was smothering,” Bakich said. “It just was always uncomfortable because their staff would just pound the strike zone, and now I’ve gotten to see that firsthand this year.”

That’s because Belanger is now on Bakich’s staff after spending the previous three seasons as Florida State’s pitching coach. Between his time at Maryland and FSU, Belanger also had a three-year stint as an assistant at Kentucky, which faced Bakich’s 2019 College World Series team during that regular season.

In addition to Belanger’s reputation as one of college baseball’s top pitching coaches – FSU had two pitchers compete on the Team USA collegiate national team last year – Bakich wanted Belanger to implement his simple yet effective approach with a Clemson pitching staff that’s found consistent success hard to come by recently.

Former Michigan reliever Willie Weiss is one of the newest additions to the staff after following Bakich to Clemson as a graduate transfer. It’s one of the first things Weiss said he noticed about Belanger once he started working with him. 

“He’s really implemented just competing on the mound,” Weiss said. “A lot of pitching coaches are about all the analytics and all of that, but he’s prioritized throwing strikes, being in control and just competing on the mound. Then we’ll get to the analytics type of stuff later on.”

The analytical part of the game is something even Bakich admitted he made too much of a focal point during his time at Michigan. With the 2022 version of the Wolverines struggling on the mound – Michigan finished with a team earned run average of 7 last year – Bakich said he had his pitchers start attacking more and thinking less toward the end of the season, which ended with Michigan falling to Louisville in a regional final.

“Coach Belanger has been such a breath of fresh air because he harps on it daily about command and throwing strikes,” Bakich said. “It’s very easy in today’s age to get caught up in technology. There’s some bullpens that I’ve seen online where it looks like they’re launching a rocket, not throwing a bullpen. Some kids get caught up in that and some coaches get caught up in that, and I’d say we got caught up in that a little bit too much last year, more on developing the movement of the pitches and whether it was induced vertical break or horizontal break moreso than this is college baseball and command wins.”

Pitching has been arguably Clemson’s biggest drawback in missing out on the NCAA Tournament each of the last two seasons. The Tigers had an ERA of 5 in 2021 and only slightly improved on that number a season ago (4.86). Clemson tried five different weekend starters last season, and its most consistent starter, Mack Anglin, has moved on to the professional ranks.

Left-hander Ryan Ammons will get the first crack at taking over Anglin’s Friday spot in the rotation, moving from the bullpen during the offseason. With a number of talented yet unproven freshman arms supplementing the holdovers, plenty of questions still linger as to whether or not the staff can make enough strides to get Clemson back in immediate contention for a spot in the postseason.

But the Tigers believe Belanger’s approach with the pitchers will work. The first test of that will come Friday when Clemson opens the season against Binghamton at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

“One thing we’ve stressed a lot on is we’re going to be a staff that throws a lot of strikes,” reliever Jackson Lindley said. “Because that’s what you’ve got to do to win ballgames is throw strikes, and that’s definitely a big point that we’ve been going on is throwing strikes, getting guys out and throwing up zeros.”

Dear Old Clemson has added the Tiger Sack Pack to our online store.  Save by getting the Two Pack of signed cards from two of the nation’s top defensive ends, Myles Murphy and Xavier Thomas.

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