No matter the consequences, Clemson head coach Erik Bakich is once again speaking out about what transpired during Clemson’s 11-10 extra inning loss to Florida in the Super Regional on Sunday.

After Jack Crighton had already been ejected early in the season-ending loss, Bakcih and assistant Jack Leggett would both wind up being tossed during the decisive thirteenth inning.

It started when Alden Mathes launched a solo shot out to right, giving the Tigers what would be a temporary 10-9 lead. Mathes slammed his bat to the ground towards the Clemson dugout in celebration, and after rounding the bases the umpires huddled to discuss a potential ejection of the Tigers’ outfielder.

One day after addressing the controversy on The Mickey Plyler Show,  Bakich went into more detail about what transpired, despite any consequences he could face for being critical of umpires.

“I will be straight up and honest, whatever the ramifications of it are, I don’t care,” Bakich said on Wednesday. “Mathes hits the homer, spikes his bat. Huge moment, Awesome moment. Spikes it at our dugout. Which is totally fine. We’ve seen the other side of it where any gesturing, motion, bat tossing towards the other dugout is grounds for immediate ejection. But he spikes it at our dugout.”

“They immediately went out and you could tell it was not about anything other than the decision about whether they were going to eject Alden. Which means he is not only out of that game, but the next game. I immediately run out there. They shooed me away, while I was just basically saying he did that at our dugout. Just making sure. Walked back, our dugout is very animated. Coach Leggett, everyone saying the same thing. I could hear a lot of talk of ‘He threw it at our dugout.’ Their guy, referring to Caglianone, the one he hit off Tristan Smith, he spiked it at their dugout, just a lot of that kind of talk going on.”

While the umpires were huddled up, Leggett was ejected for arguing from the dugout, which in turn brought the assistant out onto the field. When Bakich was informed Leggett was being ejected, he then came out and was also tossed. Both coaches were also hit with two-game suspensions which they will have to serve to start next season.

“The crowd was loud and they had turned and kind of shooed us a few times, no big deal. Nothing at this point,” Bakich said. “At one point, the one umpire looked at coach Leggett, as he was animated and saying what he was saying and he just tossed him. Then coach Leggett came out. I kind of gave him a low-five when he walked out. I did kind of incite the crowd a little bit at that point. And coach Leggett didn’t really do much, just kind of walked out in front of our dugout, not out on the field, just in front of our dugout.”

“Crowd was awesome, as the always are. Umpires sent him away again and he came back and then the crew came to the line and they called me out and said they were not ejecting Mathes but we are ejecting Jack Leggett and he is suspended. I said something like, ‘What, that is ridiculous.’ They said he can’t be yelling at the umpires like that and he is suspended because he is not allowed to come out on the field.”

“And because you incited the crowd, you are ejected too and he walked away. Well, sorry but the competitor in me is not just going to tuck tail and just turn around and go. So I started to argue more and the next umpire did what he is supposed to do and said ‘If you don’t turn around right now you get two games,’ and I said something like I don’t care and he put up two games. At that point, it was like screw it, I am getting my money’s worth.”

After the lengthy delay, the Gators were able to push across two runs in the bottom of the thirteenth to walk it off and end Clemson’s season, but Bakich feels that the officiating absolutely had am impact on the outcome of the contest.

“It’s too bad, it is unfortunate,” Bakich said. “A lot of the really good officiators out there are able to separate their personality and their personal emotion from being able to just officiate. And I felt like there was some personality and personal emotion that got in there. The best officials do a good job of just diffusing and we didn’t see that. It is what it is.”

“It’s tough way to end. I hate it for our players the most. I know everyone is fired up and pissed off and we are too and that is because it stems from the outcome of the game being influenced by the ejection or something like the year before. But it is just part of the game and part of what happened. It just sucks to always be on the wrong side of it.”

While Bakich does have the option to appeal, the head coach isn’t very confident the suspension would be overturned. He is already planning to miss the first two games next season when the Tigers open up in Arlington, Texas.

“We’re not that bad that we need every call,” he said. “But when you start chucking players, whether it is Jack Crighton or Cam Canarella last year, or potentially Alden Mathes and members of the coaching staff, it’s just not what anybody wants. I don’t think that is what the good officials want at least.”

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