3 years in the making, Clemson makes history with first home softball games
Clemson University announced it was starting a softball program exactly 1,065 days ago — with no coach, no players, no stadium. There was a plan.
Nearly three years of hard work later, a vision became a reality as the Tigers hosted their first home games in program history Wednesday afternoon against Western Carolina.
A few dozen fans were waiting to get in when the Clemson Softball Stadium gates opened approximately 90 minutes before Wednesday’s first pitch. Later in the day, fans were turned away from the sold-out venue.
“People make a comment thinking people don’t care about women’s sports. Look at us — we have a sold-out crowd at 2:30 on a Wednesday,” said Tigers second baseman Cammy Pereira, who went 3-for-3 in Game 2 of Clemson’s doubleheader against WCU. “I think that’s pretty neat. All of us came over from class and people probably took off work to see this game, so we’re super appreciative of our fan base. It’s pretty awesome to see all of that.”
Clemson dropped Game 1 of Wednesday’s doubleheader, falling 2-0 to the Catamounts, but otherwise the day could not have gone any better.
The Tigers rebounded to beat Western Carolina 8-0 (5-inning run rule) in the nightcap, and freshman Logan Caymol threw a no-hitter with 11 strikeouts. Clemson is 3-4 after opening the season this past weekend at a tournament in Orlando, and the Tigers will host Maryland and Michigan State this coming weekend in the Big 10/ACC Challenge.
“Just a fantastic atmosphere to play softball in tonight. Super excited to get that first W at home under our belt,” Clemson coach John Rittman said. “We dealt with a little adversity in the first game and took a loss in a tough-fought game... I was really proud of our team and the way they battled back in the second game. Just special to be a part of history.”
Natalie Honnen, who has served as Clemson’s softball sport administrator since the program’s inception, was a part of a group that worked behind the scenes for three years to ensure a day like Wednesday was possible. There were plenty of items to mark off the checklist along the way, including hiring Rittman as the Tigers’ head coach in November 2017, building a stadium from scratch and putting together a roster of 18 student-athletes — four of them from the state of South Carolina.
The whole process went as smoothly as one could hope for, all the way up to first pitch at 2:46 p.m. Wednesday.
“We came into it with a game plan. There was a lot of thought before we made the announcement,” Honnen said. “We planned, ‘How are we going to do this? What resources are we going to put into it?’ ... We came in with a game plan and it has gone as we predicted.”
Perhaps the only thing that didn’t fully cooperate was Wednesday’s weather. Showers were in the forecast. And after snow and heavy rain last week, lots of work went into getting the field ready for first pitch. But the rain held off and the doubleheader was played without a hitch.
A capacity crowd of 1,616 was on hand, including Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and former Tigers star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.
“People coming out and cheering for our team has been amazing. We talked with the coaches last week and our coaches were saying how amazing it’s been from a social media standpoint, the fan support that we’re having. It’s something that I don’t think we could have predicted,” Honnen said. “We want to make sure that we’re building a program that makes our fans proud and the Clemson family proud. I think we’re going to do that.”
With 1,056 season tickets sold for a stadium that seats 1,000, there is plenty of excitement surrounding the program. Honnen is hopeful the fans will stick around through the ups and downs of the first few years as Clemson tries to build a program that can compete at a national level.
“The important thing is, the team’s going to make you proud. They’re going to work hard. You’re going to see that they’re going to develop. Each game is going to get better. We’re going to bring it each game,” Honnen said. “It’s going to take time to develop. It’s a process. We’re not going to focus on the end result.
“Let’s take care of the right things and let’s grow and develop and understand that it’s going to take some time.”
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 6:54 PM.
