Clemson named to third consecutive NCAA Tournament |
Clemson softball found out its NCAA Tournament path on Sunday evening.
The Tigers are the No. 16 national seed and will host UNC-Greensboro (37-20) at 3 p.m. on Friday (ESPNU). The Auburn (40-17) and Cal State Fullerton (33-19) winner (5:30 p.m. game on ESPN+) faces the winner of that game on Saturday. The Clemson Regional winner is almost guaranteed to head to No. 1 national seed Oklahoma in the Super Regional round, which is 51-1 on the season. The Tigers defeated UNC-Greensboro twice, 3-0 and 6-1, hosting them for an invitational earlier this season. They defeated Auburn 1-0 in last year's NCAA Regional in Clemson. Clemson (46-9) stumbled to the finish after starting 37-1 this season. The Tigers dropped four of their final six games, including getting no-hit in the ACC Softball Championship semifinals against No. 6 Duke, 2-0. John Rittman's Tigers entered the week at No. 14 in the RPI after they notched a narrow win over six-seed UNC before the loss to Duke on Friday. Clemson went 4-6 versus Top 25 opponents and 0-3 against the Top 10 foes. The last win over a Top 25 team was at No. 24 Virginia Tech on April 30, 5-4. The last victory over a Top 10 as a program was in the 2022 season, also over a No. 2 Virginia Tech (4-1). Going into the weekend, two-way standout Valerie Cagle ranked sixth nationally in batting average, ninth in slugging percentage, 10th in home runs, 13th in on-base percentage and 14th in ERA. In its third year as a program, Clemson was a No. 10 national seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament, going 3-0 in a first-ever home regional before falling in both games of the Oklahoma State Super Regional.
The bracket is set!!! 🥎🏆
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 14, 2023
➡️ https://t.co/AAj3b4HkHO
#RoadToWCWS pic.twitter.com/K9oLyLjbMZ
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