No. 11 Tigers seek to clinch ACC crown at Syracuse

Rittman credits Clemson's depth pitching, with freshman Millie Thompson a key contributor, for success this season.

by Zachary Wagner - Correspondent - Thu May 06 19:01:03 GMT-04:00 2021

The Clemson softball team is set to play in its final regular-season series this weekend in Syracuse, New York for a four-game set against the Orange. The Tigers sit at 37-4 on the season and control their destiny in the ACC standings to capture the program's first ACC regular-season title in its first full season of softball.

The Tigers enter the series on a 17-game winning streak, tied for the second-longest in Division I. Clemson head coach John Rittman knows that every week more and more eyes are turning towards his team, but he wants his athletes to embrace it.

“I think the biggest thing is to embrace the success,” Rittman said on handling expectations. “One of our goals was to shock the world and let people know that even though we were a young program, that we were coming out ready to win every game.”

This is not the first time this season the Tigers have found sustained success and went on a winning streak. Earlier this season, during the months of February and March, the Tigers went on a 17-game winning streak before taking a loss at the hands of Duke. Clemson then beat the Blue Devils the following day, snapping their 20-game winning streak.

“When we started winning and going on that first win streak, our main objective was to embrace it and continue to be humble and work hard,” the second-year Clemson head coach said.

Most of the attention the Tigers have received this season has been focused on Valerie Cagle -- and rightfully so. The redshirt freshman from Virginia was named to the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Top 10 finalist list and leads the team in batting average, hits, doubles, home runs, walks, wins and saves.

She has been a force to be reckoned with all season, but Coach Rittman knows that the Tigers' success doesn't happen without his No. 2 and No. 3 options who form the bullpen, the freshman duo of Millie Thompson and Regan Spencer.

“We don’t go on the winning streaks, we don’t go sweep series without Millie and Regan,” Rittman said about the true freshman duo. “Their ability to step up in big-time moments and perform is outstanding. Regan has fought through some injuries and came back and gave us some big innings and Millie has just competed her rear-end off all year.”

Thompson currently sits a game above her classmate with seven wins but Spencer has six wins in almost half the innings Thompson has pitched in the circle. Both have been great additions to Rittman’s bullpen, which lacked depth last year.

“Millie’s improved dramatically since last fall,” Rittman said on his No. 2 starter. “As a coach that’s all you can ask for. Go out and give the effort and improve and I think our pitching staff led by coach (Kyle) Jamieson has done that.”

When asked about what three words he could use to sum up the season, Rittman did not hold back.

“I think the three words would be, grateful, grateful that we had a season,” said the head coach. “Special, you know, this team is special, and then finally, win. Our goal is to go out and win.”

All four contests versus Syracuse (19-20, 11-17) from Skytop Stadium this weekend are scheduled to stream on ACCNX with Friday (3 p.m.) and Sunday's games (noon) being single-camera pass-through broadcasts. Florida State is the other team with a chance to best Clemson by winning percentage at 24-4-1 in ACC play, heading into a four-game series at Pittsburgh.

The Tigers are ranked No. 11 in the nation heading into the final weekend and will look to accomplish that goal they wrote down back in the fall when they started practicing: win the ACC.