Clemson takes 'beer shower' at Cajun Cafe after winning first NCAA regional since 2010 (2024)

CLEMSON— As Clemson's players linked arms and faced the home crowd at Doug Kingsmore Stadium for a rendition of the alma mater, senior third baseman Blake Wright felt a tap on the shoulder.

It was Clemson coach Erik Bakich, who felt like a dad on Christmas morning, so excited to watch his kids metaphorically open their presents after a regional-clinching win over Coastal Carolina.

Only the next gift Bakich had in mind was a beer shower.

"He's like, 'We're going to the Cajun Cafe,'" Wright recalled Bakich saying, pointing toward the stadium's famed right-field grill. "We're jumping up there."

A couple dozen Clemson players had already leaped and clipped themselves onto the right-field fence before Bakich arrived.

"For me, screw it, why not?" Bakich said. "I like getting in the mix with these guys. Sometimes I think I'm younger than I am."

This is an ethos that has helped shape and mold the Tigers into the program's first regional champion since 2010.

Screw it, Bakich said, referencing shortstop Jacob Hinderleider's no-look, back-handed glove flip for an out in the Tigers' first win over Coastal Carolina on June 1.

Screw it, Bakich said, as Wright played it cool on a hidden ball trick in Clemson's decisive 12-5 win on June 2 over the Chanticleers, getting pitcher Ethan Darden out of a second-inning jam.

Bakich likes to refer to Clemson's stadium as "the playground," and his emphasis on playing loose and mentally free has taken a team that missed the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons and made it regional hosts two years running.

Last season, the Tigers flamed out in an extra-inning loss to Tennessee, but, this time, they reached another level, and Bakich's enthusiasm launched him atop the right-field wall, right by the stadium's famed Cajun Café.

Fans were embracing Bakich from just over a railing, before he pulled back to pump his left fist at the crowd and the sky.

"I would say probably one of the coolest things, if not the coolest thing, I've ever done on a baseball field," Wright said of that celebration.

Next, the Tigers will host the winner of the Oklahoma State regional in Super Regionals, hoping to achieve what they also haven't done since 2010.

Make it to Omaha for the College World Series.

"There's more work to be done," Bakich said.

In short order, Clemson will return its focus to another series, but the Tigers were able to appreciate for an extended and enthusiastic moment what they just accomplished.

They went 3-0 on the weekend, receiving quality starts from sophom*ore Tristan Smith and freshman Aidan Knaak on the mound. They saw their bullpen get clutch outs, allowing for a pair of 4-3 wins over High Point and Coastal Carolina.

In the finale, Clemson responded to an eighth-inning rally by the Chants— back-to-back homers cut a 6-2 lead to 6-5— with a six-run response in the bottom half. It was touched off by a solo homer from sophom*ore Cam Cannarella.

There was no panic in a team that has claimed 25 comeback wins on the season, especially with closer Austin Gordon already on the mound.

"It was just more of, hey, let's get a couple," Bakich said.

They did more than that. They poured it on.

They also stopped the bleeding early— in the most unorthodox of ways— when Darden started the game with back-to-back innings with two runners on and nobody out. The second time, runners moved from second and third on a sacrifice bunt fielded by Wright.

But Wright played it cool. Very cool.

The captain passed his pitcher on his way back to third, playing the role of encourager as he slapped Darden's glove and, seemingly, gave him the ball. Wright kept walking — baseball still in his glove — and concealed his secret with a casual slide of his wrist under his nose. Then a quick scratch of his back.

When the Chanticleers' Dean Mihos was sufficiently lulled to sleep, taking a lead off the third-base bag, Wright charged and made a tag.

The trick play was fitting, because the same hidden-ball trick by Wright and Darden was a turning point in a 2023 series at Florida State, sparking a red-hot second half that propelled the Tigers into the NCAA tournament for the first time in four years.

In neither case did Bakich know Wright was going to do that. He just did.

"They have a playground mentality, and that's what we want," Bakich said. "If they can harness their 10-year-old selves and little league self, and just play with a smile on their face, and just go get it— go for it. Screw it. Why not?

"I mean, that's how we're gonna be champions. We're not gonna be conservative. We're gonna go all the way to the aggressive-stupid line and floor it."

And that's what they did at the end of the game.

They floored it for the Cajun Café.

"It would have been an opportunity missed if we didn't jump into the Cajun Cafe and hang out with everyone in the cheap seats. Throw beer on us," Bakich said. "I mean, that was the best beer shower you could ever ask for."