Pitching, defense and timely hitting. That is the recipe for winning baseball, and it is exactly what Erik Bakcih got from his team in Tuesday’s 3-0 shutout win over No. 10 Georgia.

Five Clemson pitchers combined for the shutout, while limiting the Bulldogs to just three base hits. It was the first time a Clemson team had shut out Georgia since 2017, and the first time the Bulldogs had been shut out in about a year.

Behind the phenomenal effort by the pitching staff, the second-ranked Tigers were also superb defensively. Add in a couple of base knocks with runners in scoring position, and two RBI with two outs, and you get one of the most complete performances seen from this Clemson team all season.

“The word that popping in my head was this is like a surgical type of performance,'” Bakich said after the win. “It was pitching, defense, timely hitting. You got Talan Bell all the way to Lucas Mahlstedt, after Reed Garris coming in in the middle of an at-bat. I thought that was a huge part of the game.”

“That’s kind of the recipe for postseason baseball. Because everybody is good. You are going to have to pitch, you are going to have to play defense, have to get those timely hits. It’s going to come down to who plays better because everybody is about evenly matched up in different areas.”

The freshman Bell was overly impressive in his biggest start to date. The lefty went 3.2 innings, allowing just two hits while striking out five. Then, underclassmen Jacob McGovern and TP Wentworth combined to hold the Dawgs to just one hit over the next 2.1 innings, before veterans Garris and Mahlstedt slammed the door shut over the final three innings.

Garris’ performance in the seventh inning was crucial. He came into the game with a runner on second and nobody out. The first hitter he faced grounded into a fielder’s choice, moving the runner to third. The next hitter grounded one right back to Garris, who made sure to hold the runner before firing to first for out number two. He then induced a ground ball to shortstop Andrew Ciufo for the final out of the inning, stranding the runner at third, and preventing Georgia from picking up any late momentum.

Mahlstedt then came on and sat Georgia down in order in the ninth, picking up his 15th save of the season, which ties the program record set by Nick Glaser during the 2000 season.

“The pitching we got tonight, to shutout an incredible offense like Georgia has, with all the threats in their lineup —105 home runs on their team — to put up that many zeros is tough to do,” Bakich added. “A testament to all the guys that went in there and pounded the strike zone. And the defense we played behind them.”

Now the Tigers get set to go on the road for the next two weekends in ACC play. First up is a trip to Raleigh to face off with No. 25 NC State. After that comes a trip to Tallahassee to face off with a Top 10 Florida State team.

“A great team win,” Bakich said. “Very proud of our guys. We will turn our attention back to ACC play and get ready to go to NC State.”