Share on LinkedIn

CLEMSON, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - Clemson baseball (44-14) is set to host Florida (32-28) in an NCAA Super Regional on Saturday, June 7 at 2 p.m. at Doug Kingsmore Stadium.

Clemson head baseball coach Erik Bakich said the team feels ‘dangerous’ ahead of the best of three-game series with the Gators.

“We’re fired up!” Bakich said. “Everyone is confident who has made it to this level. Everyone is coming off a Regional championship. How could you not be confident?”

According to Bakich, Clemson’s confidence is well established, resulting from the groundwork they laid in August.

“We feel especially confident because our guys have been consistent,” Bakich added. “Not just this season but from day one of the Fall. What they’ve done off the field as well as on the field. How they’ve competed in the classroom, how they’ve served the community as well as the consistency.

“Maybe not every week, we’ve had a couple of slip-ups here and there but our guys, from a preparation standpoint, have been hyper-competitive and ultra-consistent and as a coaching staff and as a program and as team 127 we couldn’t ask for anymore. We draw a lot of confidence in our preparation. Knowing that we’re ready, it’s time to let it rip.”

Despite Florida’s regular season record, the Gators have a high-powered offense with multiple players with double-digit home run seasons.

“It’s a dangerous lineup top to bottom,” Bakich said. “A lot of home run threats in there so yea we’ll definitely have to be competitive and if they hit a home run, you know, we’ll take it. They can earn that but what we don’t want is to couple that with free passes or errors or things like that.”

“Our biggest focus is just executing every pitch and just competing every pitch,” said Clemson junior pitcher Austin Gordon. “We know what the ballpark is going to do. We know they hit a lot of home runs but all we can do is just worry about us. Control the things that we can control and just execute every pitch.”

“We’ve been doing a pretty good job lately of not beating ourselves and being pretty stingy from a pitching and defense standpoint,” Bakich added. “We will absolutely have to do that with a team like this and a caliber of this offense with the power threats.”

Clemson will start Tristan Smith on the mound. He had the start for the Tigers in the Regional opener last weekend against High Point.

The Tigers play for their first College World Series trip since 2010. The same season Clemson last hosted a Super Regional. The Program has hosted a Super Regional four times prior and has advanced to the College World Series each of those four previous seasons.

Clemson and Florida play at 2 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN. Game 2 is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. A third and final Game 3 will be played if necessary on Monday at a time to be determined.