The story of the #17 Clemson Tigers (24-11, 8-4 ACC) softball program is a familiar one.
The program is only 4 (and a half) years old. Coach John Rittman came over from Stanford, touting a prestigious career and a penchant for success. Growing a program from the ground up, taking a mixture of local high schoolers, some small-school transfers, and a certain player from the northeast that was looking for a new place to start her college career, Coach Rittman and team have achieved some lofty heights already. After a COVID-shortened 2020, the program would win its first ACC regular season title, followed by hosting regional after regional for the NCAA national tournament postseason, winning those regionals twice and reaching the Super Regionals – a meager two wins away from reaching the ever-elusive Women’s College World Series.
The key pieces of the program’s first ever graduating class have now reached its precipice. This final season for each of the seven key rotation players has come to its final moments:
Mckenzie Clark, the SportsCenter-favorite and 5-tool outfielder; Alia Logeleo, Arielle Oda, the can-do-anything-for-the-team experts; the pitching combo of “The Captain” and changeup master Millie Thompson as well as the ever-steady and reliable Regan Spencer; the hard to forget catcher Jojo Hyatt; and the best softball player on the planet and reigning National Player of the Year, Valerie Cagle.
The next logical step for this program, and ultimately where this team wants to go before their best players leave, is a visit to the WCWS in Oklahoma City. It seems like everything points to that result, right? The only ridge left to climb for this already storied program is the mountain top, don’t you think?
No matter the upward trajectory of this Clemson Softball tale – something has been off in 2024.
This year’s team has dubbed themselves “the hunted” instead of “the hunter” – branding all of their marketing with the “gold standard” – one that points to going after the gold in OKC and not taking anything else as an acceptable result. But history says that something about the mindset of lofty expectations tends to hold teams back – and in a pitch-by-pitch sport, it’s easy to let that thought process make you care about being a little too perfect to meet those expectations. You begin to press. You begin to overthink. You get antsy.
However shocking the highly ranked Clemson Tigers’ loss to the lowly Furman Paladins (18-18, 3-3 SOCON) was on Tuesday night, it is a perfect microcosm of Clemson’s somewhat pedestrian results thus far: good-but-not-great pitching, unfortunate fielding errors, and a lack of the timely hit to take the lead.
In the face of adversity, you start to let the ideas of not reaching that goal – the scary thought of failure – creep in. In sports like softball, these thoughts start to show themselves in basic execution – the things you’ve been doing so well your entire career. Chasing pitches out of the strike zone, throwing pitches a little too easy to barrel up, missing the routine play in the field – and not getting runners across home plate when it matters most.
Some would say that because of Clemson’s program losing some of its “newness,” other teams around them are starting to figure them out. They now know how to attack and defend the core of this Clemson team. Regan Spencer tends to agree.
We’re not the new kids on the block anymore. People know what to expect from us and they have to bring their A game and come prepared for us… And we have to do the same. We can’t take anyone lightly.
Regan Spencer, Senior RHP, after the series win against Boston College
While Regan makes a good point, others would attribute the struggles of this team to not being able to hit against good teams. The statistics show that the team hits about average compared to any other team’s ability to get on base against the best pitchers in the country – Tennessee’s Pickens, South Carolina’s Vawter, Georgia’s Backes, to name a few – but have more often than not left those runners on base once they reach.
In Clemson’s losses, the Tigers have left an average of 8 – eight – runners on base. In Tuesday’s one-run loss to Furman, hitters left 10 runners on base, with runners left in scoring position in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th innings. For Clemson players, fans, national softball media, and any other prognosticators of the sport, they know the story of not finishing the job with RISP all too well. Coach Rittman would say the same.
(Timely hitting) has kind of been our issue in games that we’ve lost this year. We’ve had our opportunities, and we just didn’t cash in… We obviously have to figure out how to hit with runners in scoring position against good pitching. We’ll go back to the drawing board and keep working hard. Tomorrow’s a big day.
John Rittman, Head Coach, after loss to Boston College
So what’s the answer? Some would say it’s a bit complicated. History on the diamond may give us a simple one: Get out of your own way.
Take one game, one inning, one at-bat at a time. You aren’t going to win – or lose – the national championship on one swing. Leadership for the 2024 Clemson Tigers, from Coach John Rittman and his coaches to his star-studded and experienced senior class, needs to show up in ways it hasn’t seemed to just yet.
The biggest message is that we’ve got to start making adjustments at the plate… We’ve got to continue to work on better situational hitting… We’ve got to execute. We’ve got to be able to fight back and show a little grit in these games.
John Rittman, Head Coach
As Coach John Rittman would continue to say: Good teams respond. It’s time to see how this one responds – if not for this season, for the final word on this senior class. “Gold” is still within reach, but this team’s summit may be shortened if it can’t drive in a runner at the peak. For these seniors, let’s hope it can.
