End of the road: Clemson softball eliminated in NCAA regional round
Clemson softball’s season is over in the NCAA regional round.
The Tigers lost 5-0 to No. 10 overall seed Georgia in Sunday’s regional championship game at Jack Turner Field in Athens, ending their postseason run.
Clemson, the No. 2 seed in the region, made a valiant effort after losing its opening game Friday against UNC Greensboro. The Tigers won back-to-back elimination games against Charleston and UNCG on Saturday to reach the regional title game for the fifth time in six NCAA Tournament appearances under coach John Rittman.
But a fresher, more talented Georgia team took care of business at home, advanced to the super regionals and ended Clemson’s season at 34-22.
Top-seeded Georgia (41-18) advanced to the super regional round and will play the winner of Sunday’s Knoxville Regional between No. 7 Tennessee and Virginia.
“For your season to come to a conclusion like it did today, it’s just always very difficult,” Rittman said postgame. “But there’s a lot that this team has to be proud of.”
Clemson-Georgia softball game recap
UGA’s Marisa Miller opened the scoring Sunday with a solo home run in the fourth inning (1-0). The Bulldogs added two more runs apiece in the fifth inning (3-0) and the sixth innings (5-0) while Clemson continued to struggle offensively.
Clemson hit just 2 of 22 (.091) overall and was 0 of 10 with runners on base.
The Tigers were also shut out for the second time in four NCAA games and finished the Athens Regional with seven total runs in four games (1.75 runs per game).
In Clemson’s two losses this weekend, the team was a combined 7 of 48 (.127) hitting and 0 for 19 hitting with runners on base.
“Offensively, it’s no secret we struggled to hit in the last month,” Rittman said, adding that Clemson will “reevaluate some things” this offseason including weigh room, conditioning and swinging approaches for individual players.
Had Clemson won Sunday’s opening game, the Tigers would’ve forced a Game 7 and needed to beat Georgia a second time later Sunday afternoon.
It would’ve been the team’s fourth elimination game in two days, a fate Clemson earned after Friday’s 1-0 upset loss to UNCG in the team’s NCAA opener. Teams rarely advance out of the loser’s bracket in the baseball and softball postseasons.
‘Gave it everything we had’
The 2026 season was a bit of a step back for Clemson following a historic 2025: Last year, the Tigers won their first ever ACC tournament championship, advanced to the super regionals and narrowly lost to eventual national champion Texas.
This year’s team won 14 fewer games and six fewer conference games.
Still, Clemson continued its streak of never missing the NCAA Tournament in its existence as a program and tied a program record for most Top 25 wins in a single season (10) while playing the hardest schedule in program history.
The Tigers also got memorable postseason performances from sophomore second base Marian Collins, who became the first player in program history to hit three doubles in one game Saturday, and senior pitcher Abby Dunning, who threw a whopping 331 pitches over the weekend and had two complete games and a save.
“At the end of the day, you can look in the mirror and you can say we gave it everything we had and left it all out on the field,” Rittman said.
2026 Athens Regional schedule
Friday, May 15
Game 1: UNC Greensboro 1, Clemson 0
Game 2: Georgia 5, Charleston 2
Saturday, May 16
Game 3: Georgia 8, UNC Greensboro 0
Game 4: Clemson 3, Charleston 1
Game 5: Clemson 4, UNC Greensboro 1
Sunday, May 17
Game 6: Georgia 5, Clemson 0
This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 2:24 PM.
