Ever since Clemson announced on March 14, 2017 that it would be adding softball as a replacement for the women’s diving program, the excitement of the new program’s coaches, players and fans has been steadily increasing with a series of “firsts.”
- On November 3, 2017, the Tigers hired its first softball head coach, John Rittman, who is well-liked in the softball world and has been a head coach at Stanford and Kansas. He has also worked as an assistant with USA Softball.
- Last month, the ACC program announced its first-ever softball season schedule which begins Feb. 7, 2020 for the new team with a game against St. John’s in Orlando, Florida.
- The Tigers’ first home game is on February 12, 2020 with a doubleheader against Western Carolina. The initial campaign also includes Clemson being one of the six host cities for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge (Feb. 14-16, 2020).
- Player-wise, Rittman’s program has been steadily adding talented players which started early on as pitcher Logan Caymol, a top 100 prospect in her class, was the first signee in school history on Nov. 8, 2017.
- The Class of 2020, the school’s third, had seven signees and was ranked #14 in the country in the Extra Inning Softball’s Top 50 College Softball Recruiting Classes. The previous year, the Tigers’ Class of 2019 was ranked #43 in the Top 50 by Extra Inning Softball.
- As for facilities, ground was broken on Feb. 2 of this year and on Sept. 30 the team held its first practice at Clemson Softball Stadium.
- This week (first week of Dec. 2019) also held a key moment for the Clemson players as they got their first look at the school’s new softball locker room… and let’s just say it’s sparkling clean with a lot of orange and purple!
Here’s the video released by the school showing the team’s excitement…
