Top storylines, how to watch as Clemson softball hosts NCAA Tournament regional
There’s no place like home.
Even if you clinch it by the skin of your teeth.
Though Clemson’s softball team flirted with a bit of disaster after a 37-1 start, the Tigers’ top-to-bottom résumé was still enough to clinch them the last hosting seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Despite going 9-8 over its last 17 games and losing four of its last six games, Clemson (46-9) clinched the No. 16 overall seed and the right to host a regional during Sunday’s selection show.
Now the Tigers are welcoming Auburn, Cal State Fullerton and UNC Greensboro to a double-elimination regional at McWhorter Stadium, their home venue. Clemson opens against UNCG (37-20), the region’s No. 4 seed, at 3 p.m. Friday on ESPNU.
No. 3 seed Cal State Fullerton (33-19) plays No. 2 seed Auburn (40-17) in the regional’s other Friday game at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN Plus, with games also set for Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s like I told our team all year long, ‘We’re gonna have to beat good teams to get where we wanna go,’ ” coach John Rittman said. “This is no different in regionals. It’s just a great opportunity and very proud of our team.”
This is another postseason opportunity for a program that’s been in win-now mode since its very first game four seasons ago. Clemson softball, which was added as a sport in 2017 and started play in 2020, has made the NCAA Tournament each of its three full seasons on campus.
There’s been notable progress along the way. After the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Tournament due to COVID-19, Clemson made the field for the first time in 2021. In 2022, the Tigers hosted a regional for the first time, won their first regional title and made their first super regional.
The next step for Rittman’s team is, naturally, a Women’s College World Series appearance. But that won’t be easy: In next week’s super regional round, the winner of the Clemson Regional will face the winner of the Norman Regional, which features — you guessed it — No. 1 overall national seed Oklahoma, which enters the weekend with a record of 51-1.
And, of course, Clemson must take care of business against the teams in its region, who are there for a reason.
“We started this program on the mantra that we were going to shock the world,” Rittman said. “And certainly you can’t look past this regional. We’ve got to get past this regional, then we can worry about Oklahoma. But what a better opportunity at the same time, you know?”
How Clemson softball got here
A loaded roster featuring three preseason All-ACC talents got off to a hot start. Clemson won its first 14 games before losing to Tennessee on Feb. 25 and was even better afterward, logging 23 straight wins (including its first 12 ACC games) through early April.
The depth and the talent of the ACC ultimately caught up to the Tigers — as did a hitting slump. They got swept at home by Florida State and also lost a conference road series at Virginia Tech before advancing to the ACC Tournament semifinals, where they lost to Duke.
Eight losses in their last 17 games and four in their last six put Clemson’s hosting chances in doubt, but the NCAA Tournament selection committee awarded the Tigers for their overall accomplishments — late-season slumps aside, 46 wins don’t just happen.
Clemson, which finished third in the league, was one of six ACC teams selected for the postseason, the second most of any conference. No. 3 Florida State and No. 8 Duke are hosting regionals, and Louisville, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech are also in the field.
Clemson softball’s top players
Two-way player Valerie Cagle is Clemson’s clubhouse leader, as well as one of the most decorated athletes on a campus with plenty of star power.
The redshirt junior just earned her second ACC Player of the Year award in three seasons for her excellence as a hitter and a pitcher. She leads Clemson in batting average (.465), home runs (18) and most other major statistical categories for hitting.
As a pitcher, she boasts a 1.20 earned runs average, a 23-5 record and 177 strikeouts in 169 innings of work. Cagle threw the program’s first perfect game against March 8 and won six ACC Player of the Week awards in 2023 (three apiece as a hitter and a pitcher).
Outside of Cagle, who was unsurprisingly a first-team All-ACC pick, Clemson landed four players on the All-ACC third team: outfielder Caroline Jacobsen, shortstop Alia Logoleo, outfielder Ally Miklesh and pitcher Millie Thompson.
Outfielder McKenzie Clark (.335 batting average, 11 home runs) is another accomplished hitter in the lineup, while Brooke McCubbin and Regan Spencer round out Clemson’s top four pitching rotation with Cagle and Thompson.
“I think we have to go back to the beginning of the season and what worked for us then,” Logoleo said. “Obviously we cooled off, but right now everybody’s 0-0 so we’ve got a lot of time to work through the kinks and figure things out before this weekend.”
Clemson Regional games, TV schedule
Stream the games through the ESPN app. Subscription required for those games broadcast by ESPN+.
Friday
Game 1: UNC Greensboro vs. No. 16 Clemson, 3 p.m., ESPNU
Game 2: Cal State Fullerton vs. Auburn, 5:30 p.m., ESPN+
Saturday
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 1 p.m., ESPN+
Game 4: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 3:30 p.m., ESPN+
Game 5: Game 4 winner vs. Game 3 loser, 6 p.m., ESPN+
Sunday
Game 6: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, noon, ESPN+
Game 7 (if necessary): Game 6 rematch, 2:30 p.m., ESPN+
