CLEMSON -- A cluster of RVs and campers remained in the foggy Jervey Meadows wilderness early Tuesday morning.
We didn't conduct any boots-on-the-ground reporting to confirm what exactly was going on here, but it's pretty safe to say these folks had already planned to stay the week through Clemson's Super Regional.
Presumed Clemson Super Regional.
Yes, the searing shock and pain of it are still fresh for Clemson fans only 48 hours removed from the end of their season.
It was all right there in front of them, and then it was gone.
Those emotions of deflation and disbelief are countered with a feeling of resignation and inevitability rooted in Clemson's most recent baseball tradition.
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A tradition of not just failing to make it to Omaha, but failing to come close.
Thirteen years since the Tigers' last trip to the College World Series.
Thirteen years since their last appearance in a Super Regional.
Five consecutive home regionals that ended with another team celebrating (2011, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2023).
So there's a push and pull between the present and distant past as we're trying to settle on how to process the big picture after Year 1 under Erik Bakich.
As his team prepared for Lipscomb last week, prepared for Doug Kingsmore Stadium embracing this team in a rare and special way, Bakich said the Tigers were playing with house money by virtue of the splendid turnaround that occurred during the regular season and through the ACC Tournament.
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Here's what we wrote about that last week:
On that count we'd push back, because an NCAA flameout would certainly be a prominent part of the story if that happened.
The lack of a great pre-NCAA run was not why Jack Leggett was fired, why Monte Lee was hired, why Lee was fired, and why Bakich was hired.
The story of the last decade-plus has been a program that gradually slid away from the business of getting to Omaha.
Step one in getting back into that business is getting back into the business of playing host to NCAA Tournament games. But step two, actually winning those games and those regionals, is a vital step.
Here's Bakich's full quote:
"We truly feel like we've got house money. And we wouldn't feel that way had we not gone through it, and gotten drug through the mud for the first half of the season where Team 126 was going to be a team that was remembered for nothing. And now this is a team that, regardless of what happens this weekend, will be remembered for one of the best turnarounds that Clemson baseball could've asked for, and storylines for future generations of Clemson baseball players: Any time that any future teams hit a rough patch, to know that they are never out of the fight. Just look at what Team 126 did in the middle of their year."
Bakich had basically the same take two days ago. A week after his team congregated in a joyous dogpile in Durham, they were dog tired against Charlotte not just physically but mentally -- still replaying in their minds the one-strike-away pivot point from the night before against Tennessee.
Maybe it'd have been good for this team to suffer a loss in the ACC Tournament.
Or maybe this was just some of the pitching frailties finally catching up to Bakich's team, combined with some highly punitive (and highly questionable) discipline for Cam Cannarella.
It's hard to disagree with Bakich's positive spin on the season, mainly because he nor his players are responsible for the failures of the past.
This is a new coach who brings a new, refreshing identity. Ideally they move on, grow from it and are better for it on their way to bigger and better things next year and beyond.
Some fatalists might point to Lee's first team winning the ACC championship before coming home and failing to emerge from its regional.
That team went 44-20 and was drubbed twice by Oklahoma State.
This team went 44-19 and lost its mojo against another team wearing orange.
But it's nonsensical to attach any predictive significance to that comparison.
It's nonsensical to say Bakich's first season wasn't successful, all things considered.
Yes, longtime Clemson baseball fans can't help but consider the history as they look back to the travel plans to Omaha they were starting to sketch as recently as Saturday afternoon.
There was nowhere to go and no baseball to watch for the folks whose RVs and campers were still beyond right field Tuesday morning.
It's going to take time for the wounds to heal from this one, and it's going to be another year before this program has another chance to fulfill the aspiration that's stitched onto the back of the baseball caps.
The layers of postseason disappointments make this hard for fans to digest.
But the layers of uplifting moments during his first season make it a successful season for Bakich.
It doesn't have to be one or the other.
Both can be true.
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