Sense of family has Clemson softball rolling

Clemosn has had a lot to celebrate this season. (Photo per the ACC)

by Zachary Wagner - Correspondent - Thu Mar 18 14:45:54 GMT-04:00 2021

To say the Clemson softball team is on a roll -- would quite frankly be an understatement. The Tigers have rattled off 13-straight wins, the longest winning streak in the ACC, and have swept four-straight series (at Georgia Tech, vs. Elon, at Virginia and vs. Furman).

They are currently 16-2 on the season and 8-2 in conference play. The Tigers sit in second place in the ACC standings, trailing only Duke who is 8-1 and 20-1 overall. Clemson and the Blue Devils are scheduled to meet on the diamond inside of McWhorter Stadium for a four game series March 26th-28th. The winner of the series could very well see themselves win the regular-season ACC Championship.

There are multiple players in the Clemson softball program who are leading the conference in multiple categories. Redshirt freshman outfielder Marissa Guimbarda leads the ACC in RBI (21) and is currently in second for home runs (six). Redshirt freshman utility pitcher/outfielder Valerie Cagle is putting together an All-American type season in the circle, leading the conference in wins (10), saves (three) and is second in earned run average (1.17).

So how has head coach John Rittman got his team back to where they left off last season -- the program's inaugural campaign that was ripped away due to the COVID-19 pandemic? One word: family.

If you've been to a Clemson home game this year, the family effect has been on full display. Pre-game, the players are loosening up together, throwing the football or frisbee around in the outfield and you would be surprised to find a face that isn’t out there smiling. When lineups are announced before the National Anthem, it seems that every player has at least one secret handshake with another teammate.

That family feeling comes up all the time when talking with players after the games or with Rittman during his press conferences.

“The team camaraderie, it’s crazy,” redshirt freshman outfielder Morgan Johnson said when asked about what her favorite part of this year's team was. “We are all personalities that just jell together and we have a lot of fun people on the team.”

That family effect was shown when Johnson hit her first home run of her collegiate career against Elon, just over a year after tearing her ACL opening weekend of the 2020 season. There was not a person in the stands in McWhorter Stadium or the Tigers' dugout who was not cheering or just happy for the Georgia native.

When Rittman signed his contract to become Clemson's head coach, he knew he had his work cut out for him. He told ACC Network's Parker and Durham during an interview earlier this month that he knew the biggest thing would be the types of student-athletes he brought in would cultivate the culture of the program.

“You try to recruit the best student-athletes you can,” Said Rittman on ACC Network. “We really focused on the character and players that wanted to come in and play right away. We also wanted kids that could compete. We knew we were a first-year program and we kind of sold that, but we also sold that we wanted to shock the world.”

Shocking the world, those Tigers are doing in their second (more like 1.5) year of the Clemson softball program. Just this week Clemson received their highest ranking in program history, coming in at No. 23 in the USA TODAY/NFCA poll.

Clemson can keep their streak alive this weekend in Louisville, Kentucky in its fourth ACC series of the season. Game one of the four-game series will kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday night before a saturday doubleheader and the series-concluding game on Sunday.