Bakich not Concerned with Tigers’ Hitting Woes

CLEMSON — The good news is No. 14 Clemson won all four of its games this weekend. The bad news is the Tigers did not hit the baseball all that well at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Clemson won its fourth consecutive game on Sunday with a 4-2 victory over North Carolina A&T. Though the Tigers got a home run from Tryston McCladdie and a double from Dominic Listi, they only managed five hits in total.

It marked the third time in the four games Clemson tallied just five hits. The Tigers’ best game at the plate came in the first game on Saturday, as they tallied 16 hits in a 12-7 victory over the Aggies.

“There are no concerns,” Clemson head coach Erik Bakich said.

Bakich is not worried because the Tigers (6-1) played around with their lineup all weekend, much like they did last week when they won two of three games in the Shriner’s Children Tournament in Arlington, Texas to open the season.

“I think it is more let’s work with this guy and let’s make sure his pitch selection is good,” Bakich said. “It is not his swing. It is the pitches he is swinging at. Leaving the zone and not swinging at good pitches to hit and getting himself out.”

Another example is a player dropping the barrel a little bit and having to flat him out.

“I think it is just being more tactical,” Bakich said. “We know that we have really good players. We know that we have a really good team. It is just about making tweaks here and there and we will do that all season long.

“We do not need to be playing our best baseball right now. We need to be playing our best baseball in June.”

Bakich likes the fact the Tigers have things to work on.

“That is what we want,” he said. “We wanted opportunities for growth, and we got it with pitchers and hitters. We have been playing very consistent defense all along and that has to continue to be a staple. I know we had two throwing errors today, but we are not concerned about that all.

“Really, we are not concerned about the team. It is more about helping the individual guy’s fine tune this, fine tune that or make this particular adjustment or whatever.”

The Tigers hope to get a little more pop in their bats this coming week as they host Winthrop on Tuesday and then play a three-games series against rival South Carolina next weekend.