One of the changes in operation for Clemson baseball under Erik Bakich was put in motion during the Tigers’ season opener last week.

It hasn’t stopped since.

The Tigers’ offensive aggression has been most evident on the basepaths four games into the season. Clemson has successfully stolen 21 bases heading into Friday’s series opener against Central Florida, easily the most in the ACC.

The Tigers have already stolen more than 65% of the bases they did in the final season of the Monte Lee era. Senior infielder Ben Blackwell leads the team with eight swipes, which is more than every other team in the conference (North Carolina is the next-closest with seven).

Clemson set the bar high in its opening win over Binghamton last week when the Tigers swiped 11 bags, just one off the single-game school record of 12 set in 1950. Clemson has stolen multiple bases in every game since, including four in its comeback win over Charlotte on Tuesday.

“We love it. That’s Clemson baseball,” Blackwell said. “That’s how we’re going to do it all season long, so I’m excited to keep things rolling.”

While the statistical difference in that aggression is staggering, it’s not all that surprising given Bakich’s track record of keeping the pressure on opposing defenses.

Michigan, the program Bakich led before taking the Clemson job last summer, finished in the top 5 in the Big Ten in stolen bases the previous five full seasons (the 2020 season was canceled in response to the coronavirus pandemic). The Wolverines stole at least 81 bases in each of those seasons, including last season when Michigan had the second-most in the conference.

Bakich’s teams led the Big Ten in steals in 2019 and 2017, swiping 107 bases or more in each of those seasons. The reason for that aggression, Bakich said, is simple.

“You never want to be one-dimensional,” he said. “You don’t always want to rely on the long ball. You don’t only want to be a bunt-and-run type of team. You want to be able to do it all.”

Bakich said factors such as how a defense is aligned and the elements dictate just how aggressive he wants to be, using those 11 steals in the opener as an example. With a stiff breeze blowing right to left that day at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, Bakich figured that would make it less likely for fly balls to carry to all parts of the park. So Bakich wanted to try to manufacture runs a different way.

“We’re on the go,” fellow infielder Blake Wright said. “We’re on the attack.”

That aggression has paid off far more often than not in the early going, and Clemson, which is averaging more than 10 runs per game, isn’t showing many signs of slowing down.

“We just always want to weaponize our guys to be able to be dynamic to score in multiple ways,” Bakich said. “And when you can do it multiple ways, you can run and hit the long ball, that’s usually conducive for double-digit scoring and high offense.”