CLEMSON – Erik Bakich and Clemson was right where they wanted to be in the eighth inning of Saturday’s winner’s bracket game in the Clemson Regional.
The Tigers were up a run with two outs. They were four outs away from advancing to the championship round. Then West Virginia’s Brody Kresser singled through the right side, changing the whole dynamic of the situation.
Reed Garris was pitching for the top-seeded Tigers, his first appearance on the mound since May 9 against Duke. The righty had missed the previous three weeks due to back spasms.
Garris had already pitched an inning and recorded the first two outs of the eighth inning before Kresser’s base hit. At that point, Bakich felt Garris was done, especially since they already overextended him in the first place.
“Reed was supposed to go one inning,” Clemson’s head coach said. “We were just going to have him go one inning and we extended him into a second.”
With that thought in mind, Bakich brought in First-Team All-ACC closer Lucas Mahlstedt to close the game. Bakich thought the righty had enough juice to get the final four outs the Tigers needed to advance.
He was wrong.
For a second straight night, Mahlstedt blew a save opportunity, and for the second straight night he blew it on the first pitch, as Armani Guzman doubled to left centerfield, scoring Kresser with the tying run.
From there, the ACC’s top closer gave up a two-out walk and four straight two-out hits in the top of the ninth inning, as the second-seeded Mountaineers rallied to knock off the host Tigers 9-6 at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.
“It is okay to question every call that works or does not work, but that one did not work so I have to point the thumb (at me) on that one,” Bakich said. “But we also have a guy that has been lights out all year and we have a lot of confidence in Locus Mahlstedt as well, but it did not work out tonight.”
In his one inning of work, Mahlstedt allowed four runs, all earned, on five hits, as he suffered his first loss of the season in five decisions.
“He has had a couple of tough outings in a row, but we do not lose confidence in our guys because they have a couple of bad stretches,” Bakich said. “We still have to go to our horses, and we feel like having Garris back, and even if it was supposed to be for a short stint, Lucas getting a four-out save is something we felt very confident with.”
Mahlstedt came in Friday night in Game 2 of the Clemson Regional against USC Upstate, with the Tigers clinging to a one-tun lead, and gave up a home run in the top of the eighth inning.
“In a normal situation and (Garris) was not coming off an injury, sure we would probably let him finish the game,” Bakich said. “Whether he faced the nine-hole or not, it was already a situation where he was a little bit over extended.
“He looked great, but it did not work out. Obviously, everyone will say, ‘you should have left him in,’ but it just did not feel like it was the smart move. Obviously, that is an easy one to point to and say, ‘you should have left him in.’ If he would have given up a hit, we should have took him out. So, that is coaching.”
Because he was worried about Garris being over extended, Bakich was concerned with how West Virginia (43-14) would play the situation. Do they steal with Kresser? Would Guzman bunt?
“I did not want to risk Reed in that spot,” Bakich said.
The Clemson coach leaving Garris in for one more batter to face was more of a risk, especially health wise, than Mahlstedt pitching to a lefty.
“Lefties have been doing damage against Mahlstedt lately, so he has made some adjustments going up and changing his slot and using his changeup more,” Bakich said. “It did not work, so it is easy to say it was a bad decision because it did not work.
“As a coach and coaches, you have to live with it when it does not work. It did not work. We just have to try to put our guys in a spot to be successful and it did not work tonight. And point the thumb and keep preparing these guys and keep coaching them to put them in those spots to have success. But, yeah, it did not work tonight.”