Clemson Athletics Director Graham Neff has decided on Erik Bakich of Michigan as the Tigers’ new baseball coach according to reports both locally, in Michigan and nationally. Bakich will replace Monte Lee who was fired at the end of this season.
Columbia sports radio personality Teddy Heffner broke the news of the hiring Tuesday morning. Media outlets that cover Clemson and Michigan followed suit, and national college baseball expert Kendall Rogers of D-1 Baseball confirmed the hire through his sources and added that Michigan assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator Nick Schnable will join Bakich at Clemson.
Rogers reported that Clemson was willing to give Bakich a deal worth a million dollars per season to return to the program where he served one season as an assistant for Jack Leggett in 2002. He then moved with Tim Corbin to Vanderbilt for seven seasons before becoming the head coach at Maryland. He took over at Michigan in 2013.
With the Wolverines, Bakich went 328-216 including 140-93 in the Big Ten. His best season was 2019 when his team reached the College World series, losing in the championship round. That team went 50-22 and Bakich was named the National Coach of the year. Bakich took four other Michigan teams to the NCAA Regionals but none, including this season, made it to a Super Regional.
This season’s Michigan team went 34-28 and finished fifth in the Big Ten at 12-12. They reached the championship round of the Louisville Regional undefeated only to lose twice to the Cardinals. This season the Wolverines had a batting average of .284 with 92 home runs. On the mound, their pitchers had a 7.00 ERA, which ranked 244th nationally out of 293 teams.
