Mainieri gets first taste of Carolina-Clemson series; Bakich knows it well

First-year South Carolina coach Paul Mainieri hasn’t experienced a Clemson-USC series yet. Tigers coach Erik Bakich got his first taste in 2002 as a volunteer assistant coach at Clemson, and has an additional two years of facing the Gamecocks at the Tigers’ helm under his belt.

            Mainieri admits the fan fervor for one series – and a nonconference one at that – is new to him. There was, after all, no in-state baseball rivalry at Air Force, Notre Dame or LSU with the attention that the Clemson-Carolina series has.

            “All anybody in this town ever talks about its playing Clemson,” Mainieri said after the Gamecocks’ win over Gardner-Webb Tuesday night moved their record to 9-0. “It's a new experience for me. I sometimes think that the fans care more about what we do against Clemson than they do about what we do in the SEC, which is crazy in a way.”

            Bakich understands why USC fans – and Clemson fans – get so fired up.

            “It’s the best rivalry in college baseball – bar none,” Bakich noted after Tuesday’s 20-7 win over Winthrop improved Clemson’s record to 7-1.

This year’s three-round faceoff begins at 7 p.m. Friday in Clemson’s Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Game 2 is at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Fluor Field in Greenville and the series concludes at 5 p.m. Sunday in Columbia’s Founders Park.

Mainieri said he plans to start Matthew Becker (2-0, 1.59 ERA) on Friday,  Jake McCoy  (1-0, 3.00) on Saturday and - depending on how things go - Dylan Eskew (0-0, 2.57) on Sunday. Eskew, the Friday starter the last first two weekends, left his most recent start early a back strain.  UPDATE: On Thursday USC changed the probable Sunday starter to TBA.

The Tigers will counter with Aidan Knaak (1-0, 6.00), Ethan Darden (1-0, 1.80) and Justin LeGuernic (0-1, 8.22).

Clemson won both meetings last season, with a scheduled third game canceled by rain.

The Tigers went 3-1 against USC in the regular season during Bakich’s 2002 stint in Clemson, but Carolina won two meetings in the College World Series, sending the Tigers home from Omaha. Drew Meyer, Yaron Peters and Landon Powell were among the Gamecocks’ top players, while Clemson countered with Jeff Baker, Khalil Greene and Michael Johnson

 Bakich believes there will be a lot of talent on the field against this weekend.

            ”Both rosters are always going to be good. And the fan bases are going to both be off the chain, and it's going to be awesome,” he said. “It's going to be electric, no matter where you're playing. I mean, we play here, there, Fluor Field, Segra Park or in the freaking parking lot, and it’s going to be off the chain.”

            Top players for Clemson this year include Cam Cannarella and Aidan Knaak. Carolina can counter with Ethan Petry and Nathan Hall – who along with Nolan Nawrocki transferred from Clemson after last season.

Clemson is batting .312 this season compared to USC’s .304.  Carolina pitchers have a staff ERA of 2.25 with 105 strikeouts in 76 innings. The Tiger have an ERA of 5.56 with 80 strikeouts in 68 innings. The lone common opponent is Winthrop. Carolina edged the Eagles, 5-3, in Rock Hill last week, while Clemson feasted on three errors and 11walks and two hit batsmen in its lopsided win earlier this week.

Still, the numbers fans will remember after this weekend are final scores.

            “It's important to the fans, and it's important to me and. It's important to our players, and we're going to go out there this weekend and do everything we can do to be successful against a really outstanding ball club,” Mainieri said. “I know that the fans are going to flock to the games and the weather is going to be beautiful and in three different venues. I mean, that's a pretty cool setup. We’re just really excited about the opportunity to go out and play … against an arch rival. I'm not down playing the games one Iota. Believe me.

“Whether we sweep or get swept or something in between, you're still going to be a lot of season left, so you can't overdo it with the players,” Mainieri said. “We prepare for these games by taking every day seriously, you know, whether it's practice, whether it's a nonconference game, midweek, or weekend.”

Bakich said he and his program have great respect for the rivalry and treat it accordingly.

“We have things inside of our program that are dedicated to them all the time. And we're always paying getting close attention to them,” Bakich said. “The rivalry is best when both teams are awesome, and that's what I remember about being here the first time, like two top five teams going at it. It’s great for the state and great for college baseball when Carolina and Clemson are two of college baseball's best teams.

“There's only a handful of environments nationally that can even come close to what this is going to be like this weekend, so, it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be awesome,” Bakich said.

            Mainieri wants to make sure his team doesn’t put too much stock in the series where the big picture is concerned.

            “It's the third weekend of the season after this weekend is over. We're still going to have what -- 42 more games in the season?” He said ”So, you know, no matter what happens this weekend, and obviously, I hope that we have a lot of success … but there's still going to be a lot of baseball ahead of us.”