Otis Redding once sang, “Sweepin’ in the mornin' sun, I'll be sweepin’ when the evenin' come, watching the Tigers roll in. And then I watch 'em Sweep Cal away, yeah” or something to that effect. You get my point.
SWEEP!! 🧹🧹🧹 Luke Gaffney and Tristan Bissetta help Clemson Baseball completed the sweep with 4-3 victory What do you think of the team's play this weekend? Share your thoughts below! #Clemson#ClemsonBaseballhttps://t.co/tQ0xXZisEg
— Clemson Sports Media (@CUSportsMedia) April 7, 2025
Break out the brooms Tiger fans, the Clemson baseball team flew nearly 2,600 miles and probably played their best series top to bottom of the season, taking all three games from a well-coached Cal Golden Bears team.
The nights were late, even the Sunday game did not end until nearly 8pm on the east coast. Coach Bakich mentioned that the team will take a “red-eye” flight back home.
This was the first series that the adversity was happening when the Tigers were in the lead. The last few weekends had the Tigers chasing some runs in the middle innings, but outside of a early 1-run deficit on Sunday, it was Clemson who was doing the leading all weekend.
There were some really good things that happened over the weekend, and I am going to have to be nit-picky to find things that weren’t.
Here are some things that we learned in this weekend’s series recap with Cal:
The Great
Starting Pitching - Saying that kind of defeats the purpose of the entire column. I thought Aidan Knaak was really good on Friday, Darden was spotted a big lead and pitched really well Saturday, and BJ Bailey was again solid in his newly found Sunday starter role.
Minimal Free Passes - The entire pitching staff only walked 5 Cal hitters this weekend, and 4 of them were by the starters. I have been saying for a few weeks that walks have killed, especially in the (few) losses the team has. This staff limited all of the “free 90s” and the results speak for themselves.
Lucas Mahlstedt - Arguably the best closer in the game. His frisbee-slider is something to behold. Mahlstedt does not overwhelm opposing hitters with tremendous stuff, but he baffles them with different arm slots and mixes speeds. He is a joy to watch. 4 strikeouts over 2 innings and added 2 more saves to his total for 11 on the season which leads the nation.
The Defense - Dazzling defense all weekend which started with the unbelievable catch (yet again) by Cam Cannarella followed immediately by a diving play by Jarren Purify on the very next hitter. Those two plays set the tone the entire weekend. The Tigers had no errors in the three games, which again, helps the staff limit the base runners and therefore runs.
The Good
Timely Hits - Situational baseball is something that was a problem with the last coaching staff. Coach Bakich preaches daily about the importance of doing the little things, like scoring the runner on third with less than 2-outs. It is almost mandatory under this coaching staff. This team currently does the little things that make a difference. Cannarella stealing a bag in the Sunday game which led to a Luke Gaffney game-winning RBI. If Cam is not on 2nd, he does not score and we may still be playing. Just extremely smart baseball going on this weekend and it was a joy to watch.
Tristan Bissetta - Coming off a monster summer in Cape Cod, I thought we’d see more from Bissetta, but he has kind of been outplayed early by Tryston McCladdie and Jack Crighton to an extent. However, Bissetta still gets his shot to play and he came up huge in Sunday’s game with a 2-run homerun which was huge to get the win on Sunday.
Dominic Listi - It is laughable, at this point how much Listi loves to get on base. He walked 6 times on Saturday and Sunday. I don’t remember a leadoff hitter in the Clemson lineup that is so good at making sure he’s on for the boppers behind him. He constantly puts pressure on opposing hitters and does it with such fire and passion. It is great to see.
The ‘Meh’
I’ve Got Nothin’ - The fact that the broadcast was (better than North Augusta) pretty bad yet again. I’m surprised in 2025 that we don’t have better coverage of ACC baseball. I’ll give Cal a buffer year to get up to snuff, and it really wasn’t horrible, but c’mon.
9PM Starts - Understanding it was a 6PM local time start, Friday was a great game yet some people I know fell asleep. Especially those with young kids that like to wake up extra early on Saturdays for some unknown reason. Ok, fine, it was me. I had to watch the ending of the game on Saturday moring with my Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
A - I’m going with the year’s first A. I thought this series was just extremely well played baseball, really by both teams. Cal fans may not think they played well in Saturday’s run-rule game, however I think they did except for the first three pitchers they threw out there, as that accounted for only 2 innings and 13 Clemson runs.
The Tigers are 30-5 (9-3 ACC) on the season, currently 1st in the ACC and are ranked in the top 5 in all major polls.
Next up are a mid-week game against Gardner-Webb on Wednesday at home, followed by a weekend series with the Stanford Cardinal, also at home. Wednesday’s start is 7PM EST, while the weekend series will be: Friday at 6PM, Saturday at 6PM and Sunday 3PM EST respectively.
Otis Redding once sang, “Sweepin’ in the mornin' sun, I'll be sweepin’ when the evenin' come, watching the Tigers roll in. And then I watch 'em Sweep Cal away, yeah” or something to that effect. You get my point.
SWEEP!! 🧹🧹🧹 Luke Gaffney and Tristan Bissetta help Clemson Baseball completed the sweep with 4-3 victory What do you think of the team's play this weekend? Share your thoughts below! #Clemson#ClemsonBaseballhttps://t.co/tQ0xXZisEg
— Clemson Sports Media (@CUSportsMedia) April 7, 2025
Break out the brooms Tiger fans, the Clemson baseball team flew nearly 2,600 miles and probably played their best series top to bottom of the season, taking all three games from a well-coached Cal Golden Bears team.
The nights were late, even the Sunday game did not end until nearly 8pm on the east coast. Coach Bakich mentioned that the team will take a “red-eye” flight back home.
This was the first series that the adversity was happening when the Tigers were in the lead. The last few weekends had the Tigers chasing some runs in the middle innings, but outside of a early 1-run deficit on Sunday, it was Clemson who was doing the leading all weekend.
There were some really good things that happened over the weekend, and I am going to have to be nit-picky to find things that weren’t.
Here are some things that we learned in this weekend’s series recap with Cal:
The Great
Starting Pitching - Saying that kind of defeats the purpose of the entire column. I thought Aidan Knaak was really good on Friday, Darden was spotted a big lead and pitched really well Saturday, and BJ Bailey was again solid in his newly found Sunday starter role.
Minimal Free Passes - The entire pitching staff only walked 5 Cal hitters this weekend, and 4 of them were by the starters. I have been saying for a few weeks that walks have killed, especially in the (few) losses the team has. This staff limited all of the “free 90s” and the results speak for themselves.
Lucas Mahlstedt - Arguably the best closer in the game. His frisbee-slider is something to behold. Mahlstedt does not overwhelm opposing hitters with tremendous stuff, but he baffles them with different arm slots and mixes speeds. He is a joy to watch. 4 strikeouts over 2 innings and added 2 more saves to his total for 11 on the season which leads the nation.
The Defense - Dazzling defense all weekend which started with the unbelievable catch (yet again) by Cam Cannarella followed immediately by a diving play by Jarren Purify on the very next hitter. Those two plays set the tone the entire weekend. The Tigers had no errors in the three games, which again, helps the staff limit the base runners and therefore runs.
The Good
Timely Hits - Situational baseball is something that was a problem with the last coaching staff. Coach Bakich preaches daily about the importance of doing the little things, like scoring the runner on third with less than 2-outs. It is almost mandatory under this coaching staff. This team currently does the little things that make a difference. Cannarella stealing a bag in the Sunday game which led to a Luke Gaffney game-winning RBI. If Cam is not on 2nd, he does not score and we may still be playing. Just extremely smart baseball going on this weekend and it was a joy to watch.
Tristan Bissetta - Coming off a monster summer in Cape Cod, I thought we’d see more from Bissetta, but he has kind of been outplayed early by Tryston McCladdie and Jack Crighton to an extent. However, Bissetta still gets his shot to play and he came up huge in Sunday’s game with a 2-run homerun which was huge to get the win on Sunday.
Dominic Listi - It is laughable, at this point how much Listi loves to get on base. He walked 6 times on Saturday and Sunday. I don’t remember a leadoff hitter in the Clemson lineup that is so good at making sure he’s on for the boppers behind him. He constantly puts pressure on opposing hitters and does it with such fire and passion. It is great to see.
The ‘Meh’
I’ve Got Nothin’ - The fact that the broadcast was (better than North Augusta) pretty bad yet again. I’m surprised in 2025 that we don’t have better coverage of ACC baseball. I’ll give Cal a buffer year to get up to snuff, and it really wasn’t horrible, but c’mon.
9PM Starts - Understanding it was a 6PM local time start, Friday was a great game yet some people I know fell asleep. Especially those with young kids that like to wake up extra early on Saturdays for some unknown reason. Ok, fine, it was me. I had to watch the ending of the game on Saturday moring with my Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
A - I’m going with the year’s first A. I thought this series was just extremely well played baseball, really by both teams. Cal fans may not think they played well in Saturday’s run-rule game, however I think they did except for the first three pitchers they threw out there, as that accounted for only 2 innings and 13 Clemson runs.
The Tigers are 30-5 (9-3 ACC) on the season, currently 1st in the ACC and are ranked in the top 5 in all major polls.
Next up are a mid-week game against Gardner-Webb on Wednesday at home, followed by a weekend series with the Stanford Cardinal, also at home. Wednesday’s start is 7PM EST, while the weekend series will be: Friday at 6PM, Saturday at 6PM and Sunday 3PM EST respectively.
