CLEMSON — Erik Bakich has been absolutely killing on the recruiting trail of late.

Last weekend, Clemson had several recruits in for visits, ultimately landing four of those players.

One of those was 2027 RHP Gray Davis (Trinity, KY), who announced his commitment on Monday. While Davis had been on campus once before, that was for a camp. This visit was far more educational and before it was over, the 6-foot-1 hurler knew he was home.

“It was my first experience getting to go around campus, especially to a football game,” Davis told The Clemson Insider. “It was awesome. Coach Bakich talked a lot about how the baseball field is kind of like the playground. That is where the guys get to go out and do all the stuff they have worked on, trained for, and learned in the classroom, out on the field while having fun. It is a kids’ game. He emphasized that.”

“You don’t want to get so tight and so mental in the moment. Go out there and have fun and play the game the right way. Be your 10-year-old self again. That was huge for me. Baseball is so serious now, even in high school, it can get really serious, and a lot of people lose their love for the game. Especially in college. And I wanted to go somewhere that it would feel like a game as long as possible, and the whole staff does a really good job with that.”

Davis and his family got a lot of one-on-one time with Bakich, and his approach to the game is something that really hit the mark.

“We had some really good conversations,” Davis said. “He is a very down-to-earth guy, and he is very real, which is nice to see. You can tell he is a very genuine guy, and he really wants you to be a part of the family. He really cares about human beings and not just baseball players.”

Bakich is a players coach, and anyone who follows the program has seen one example after another of the head coach attempting to put the spotlight on his players. The latest instance came on Thursday night, when for the second year in a row, Clemson played an exhibition against the Savannah Bananas All-Stars and it’s those kinds of things that Davis has fallen in love with.

“Doing something like that, outside of the box, it is silly for sure, but getting players to do dances, it is hilarious, right?” Davis said. “I think it goes back to you want the kids to have a good time doing something that they love.”

Davis came into his visit not thinking the Tigers had much of a shot. Upon arriving, he was instantly met by assistant Nick Schnabel, who greeted with him a huge flex, displaying his excitement that Davis was on campus.

It didn’t take long for the right-handed pitcher and his family to realize they were actually home.

“I went into Clemson almost close-minded,” Davis said. “As soon as I got there, I got this feeling in my gut like, ‘This is different.’ This was somewhere I felt like I really wanted to go. Even if I didn’t play baseball, I’d wanna go to Clemson. The coaches really, really care about you. I was meeting the support staff, and even they knew my name.”

However, it was his meeting with Bakich that really sealed the deal after the head coach asked him something he’s never previously been asked by a college coach. By the time it was over, Clemson had poached one of the top players in the state of Kentucky right out of Louisville’s backyard.

“He asked me, ‘What separates you, why should I offer you?'” Davis said. “One, that is the first time anyone has asked me that. Second, he genuinely cares about how you are as a person. I feel like it wouldn’t matter if you threw 108 miles per hour, if you were a bad person, I feel like he wouldn’t want you. I just really got the vibe that this is the place I should be, and I didn’t get that vibe anywhere else. It just felt like home, and it felt like that to my parents.”

Davis’ fastball is already topping out at 94 mph, and he’s still only a high school junior. He also throws a changeup, slider and sinker.

After having already made his decision and returned home, Davis came across some of Bakich’s recent comments regarding not being willing to pay a portal player more than everyone else on the team is already making. Hearing those remarks only reinforced the decision Davis had made a couple of days earlier.

“The locker room is what wins games,” Davis said. “You can have a bunch of talented guys, and if you don’t have a locker room, you are not going to win. If the right talent can mix with the right locker room, it is a no-brainer that they are going to win a lot of ballgames. I think he has the right idea about that. I feel like it is a no-brainer to always go for the locker room instead of losing the locker room. When you go through tough times, it is the teams that can band together as a core group that will win games, so I think he is absolutely right.”

Photo courtesy of Gray Davis on Instagram