Clemson softball awarded postseason regional

The Clemson softball team will be hosting their first softball regional in just their third season as a program.

The Tigers (39-10) will be the #10 seed and will play the UNC Wilmington Seahawks (32-13). The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (45-11) and the Auburn Tigers (39-15) will be the other two teams hosted at McWhorter Stadium.

The Oklahoma Sooners are the overall #1 seed with a 49-2 record.

Other ACC schools hosting regionals are ACC Champions Florida State, Virginia Tech & Duke

The ACC got six teams in total. Notre Dame will be in the Northwestern regional, and Georgia Tech will be in the Florida regional.

Clemson was disappointed when they weren’t given the opportunity to host last season. They played a tougher schedule in 2022, but they earned the respect of the selection committee. The Tigers defeated overall #3 seed Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament before falling to overall #2 seed Florida State in the championship game, finishing as the ACC runner-up for the second year in a row.

The winner of the Clemson regional will face the winner of the Oklahoma State regional in the super regional. If Clemson wins their regional and the Cowboys don’t win theirs, the Tigers will have an opportunity to host the super regional as well.

This is a phenomenal accomplishment for Coach John Rittman and his team. To be awarded a regional in just the third season of the program’s is existence is impressive by itself. What makes it even more remarkable is that Rittman has accomplished this during the COVID-19 pandemic. The inaugural 2020 was cut short and the 2021 non-conference schedule was limited due to ongoing concerns about travel and unnecessary contact.

UNC Wilmington captured an automatic berth in the playoffs by winning their first Colonial Athletic Association championship 10-2 against the Elon Phoenix. The Seahawks’ Mary Sobataka crushed her second career grand slam in the title game.

Louisiana win the Sun Belt championship over the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. They will have the longest trip of the three visiting teams in the Clemson regional.

Auburn has cut their teeth in the very competitive SEC. They lost in the first round of their conference tournament to Missouri.

Clemson is the favorite to advance from their regional, but I fully expect the Auburn Tigers to give them everything they can handle. They are led on the mound by sophomore Maddie Penta, a right-handed pitcher named to the All-SEC first team. Infielder Bri Ellis was named SEC Freshman of the Year. She bats .300 on the season, has 18 home runs, 42 hits and 45 RBIs.

That said, I expect Clemson will advance from their regional to play in the program’s first super regional.

Regional play begins Friday, May 20th. The College Softball World Series will be in Oklahoma City starting June 2nd.