CLEMSON — Six years ago, Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney made a memorable statement after his team’s fifth-consecutive win over rival South Carolina. He declared, despite living in a critical culture, “the fun is in the winning.”

Since then, that motto has become a cornerstone of Clemson football’s mindset, as Swinney and the Tigers have bypassed program winning records at every turn.

Now, Clemson baseball coach Erik Bakich is putting his own spin on Swinney’s philosophy. The third-year coach believes that while there is certainly fun in winning, fun should also be a prerequisite for success.

In his first two seasons at the helm, Bakich has shown that his joy-based culture translates to success on the field. 

In his debut season, Clemson won its first ACC Championship in eight years and hosted an NCAA Regional. In year two, Bakich led the Tigers to a regional championship and a Super Regional, the program’s first since 2010.

While Clemson’s accomplishments under Bakich include many traditional milestones for the program, like winning their conference and hosting postseason tournaments, he has also secured some unconventional victories for the Tigers. 

Last November, for example, Clemson baseball hosted an exhibition game against the Savannah Bananas, a wildly popular amateur baseball team known for their “Banana Ball” rules and on-field antics. During the game, Clemson players had the chance to fully embrace the Banana Ball experience.

Graduate transfer Dominic Listi could be seen catching a fly ball behind his back, while junior Jay Dillard rode into his at-bat on horseback. The team also performed choreographed dance routines and led the crowd in song, garnering millions of views on social media in the following days.

 It is safe to say that the event lived up to the Bananas’ self-proclaimed motto, “The Greatest Show in Sports.”

Bakich worked closely with Bananas founder Jesse Cole to organize the event and spoke afterward about how valuable the experience was for his team. In the future, he hopes to bring some “Banana” elements to college baseball.

“We are literally in the space of trying to do some things maybe no one else is doing right now,” he said after the exhibition.

Bakich has also sought out other ways to inject originality into Clemson baseball, like a new partnership with Absolutely Ridiculous, a baseball apparel brand that aims to “reimagine sports through functional art to instill confidence and foster self-expression,” according to their website.

Through the collaboration, Clemson players were able to customize their own gloves and sliding mitts for the upcoming season. 

Shortstop Andrew Ciufo, for example, added an Italian flag and the names of his grandparents to his glove while junior centerfielder Cam Cannarella opted to add his name to a pre-made design by Yankees star Jazz Chisolm. 

Clemson Baseball is the first college program that the brand has collaborated with up to this point.

For Bakich, the rationale behind the partnerships with Absolutely Ridiculous and the Savannah Bananas is partially about setting Clemson apart from other teams. More importantly, the goal is to draw Clemson players back to their original love for baseball.

“In order to perform at the biggest stage with the brightest lights, and the highest stakes, and the most pressure, you have to go back to when this game was very simple. That’s why we nicknamed the field the playground,” Bakich said. “To allow our guys to play mentally free, they have to remember what it was like playing on the small field, what it was like when their reasons for playing were centered around their love of baseball and love of having fun with their friends. If we can return to that, we will get their best performance on the field.”

According to Ciufo, Bakich’s attitude and mindset is infectious. 

“The day-to-day talks he gives us, and the daily energy he gives us, and the consistency that he brings to the field every day, I think his players seeing that motivates them to never take a day off, never just go through the motions because his intensity as a coach is real,” he said.

At the end of the day, Bakich and his team share the same ultimate goal as any other college program — an appearance in the College World Series and a National Championship trophy to display in their facility.

However, in order to reach that level Bakich believes that his team should, “have a little bit more fun playing baseball because their best baseball will be a byproduct of it.”