Blake Wright addresses the chaos, ejections in 13th inning against Florida

The second and final game of Clemson‘s super regional series vs. Florida ended in drama on several fronts, but a loss for the Tigers.

Minutes before their season came to a close thanks to a blown lead in the bottom of the 13th inning against the Gators, Clemson coaches Erik Bakich and Jack Leggett managed to get kicked out of the ballgame just after the Tigers had taken a lead in the top of the 13th.

Clemson’s Alden Mathes launched a pivotal solo shot in the top of the 13th inning, putting the Tigers up 10-9. He was fired up about the big blast and slammed his bat to the ground as he made his way down the first base line. That’s when things got interesting.

In the aftermath of the bat spike, Clemson assistant coach Jack Leggett was ejected from the game. In a statement the next morning, the crew chief said Leggett was “pointing and screaming” while the umpires huddled to discuss the bat spike but did not “obey the warning” and was tossed after carrying on his behavior.

Once he was tossed, Tigers head coach Erik Bakich came out to argue the ejection and he was tossed as well, with the crew chief noting he “clearly” incited the crowd by pumping his arms shortly following Leggett’s ejection.

Not only were Bakich and Leggett ejected, they also would have been in for suspensions had Clemson continued its season. Leggett acted out even further once he was tossed, coming out of the dugout to try and continue his conversation with the umpires, which earned the suspension. Bakich suffered the same fate when he also failed to return to the dugout promptly following his ejection.

After the game, Clemson player Blake Wright shared his view of the events as they unfolded.

“Well Alden hit the bomb, then he did a bat flip — or, he didn’t even do a bat flip, he just slammed the bat on the ground,” he explained in the postgame. “They threw him out. You know, coaches were pretty mad about it, yeah, and I think someone got tossed, and I don’t even know, it just turned out to be chaos.”

However, Wright saw a silver lining, that the Tiger crowd was able to garner some momentum from the bizarre turn of events.

“But it started to ignite the crowd a little bit, so I thought it ended up helping us a little bit to bring the energy back,” he added.

Clemson did get a loud ovation for its martyred coaches in Game 2 of the super regional, but the support just wasn’t enough to push the Tigers over the line as Florida rallied for a pair of runs in the 13th to end the game and advance to Omaha.