ARLINGTON, Texas — Erik Bakich is ready to be back in the Clemson dugout.

The Tigers’ third-year head coach is serving a two-game suspension to start the season. Bakich joined William Qualkinbush and Bob Mahoney on the radio broadcast for Friday’s season-opening win over No. 17 Oklahoma State and will do the same on Saturday when No. 15 Clemson takes on No. 21 Arizona at noon.

“It was making the best of the situation,” Bakich told The Clemson Insider at the team hotel on Saturday morning. “I actually enjoyed being on with Qualk and Bob Mahoney. Never listened to a game broadcast before on the radio, but they do a fantastic job. Glad to be able to contribute a little bit and that was fun. But let’s just go ahead and say that this will be the end of that after today. Looking forward to getting back in the dugout.”

Bakich received rave reviews for some of his insights on Friday. One of those instances came in the bottom of the seventh when the Tigers pushed across what would ultimately be the winning run.

With two outs, Josh Paino on third and Andrew Ciufo at the plate, acting head coach Nick Schnabel called a timeout to talk to his team. Bakich told the radio audience that Schnabel was reminding his players to stay aggressive and for Ciufo to crowd the plate, which in turn might create a passed ball or wild pitch. Turns out, that is exactly what happened, as a wild pitch allowed Paino to score and put the Tigers on top for good.

“Sometimes you got to speak things into existence, right,” Bakich added. “So we’ll be doing the same thing, being super positive. And if it comes true, then we’ll be scoring a lot of runs and preventing a lot of runs.”

Speaking of Schnabel, Bakich’s longtime assistant shined in his role as acting head coach. The grittiness Clemson baseball has become known for over the past two seasons was on full display in Friday’s comeback win, and Schnabel pushed all the right buttons in leading the charge.

“He’s awesome. He’s turned down multiple head coaching opportunities,” Bakich said of his assistant. “You got a superstar head coach in waiting in Nick Schnabel. Once he gets the right opportunity — I mean, it’s got to be a really good program that’s very committed to baseball, but once he jumps and makes that move, he’s going to be one of the better head coaches in the country.”