Clemson Tigers Softball to Host NCAA Regional Fresh Off ACC Championship

The Clemson Tigers softball team drew the No. 11 national seed and will host a regional in the NCAA Tournament this weekend at McWhorter Stadium.

The Tigers are hosting a regional for the third time in four years and making their fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.

About the Clemson Softball Regional

The regional will start on Friday as the Tigers (44-12) will face USC Upstate (39-14) in the opener at 4:30 p.m. eastern on the ACC Network. Before that, the Kentucky Wildcats (29-26) will play Northwestern (29-18-1) as the number two and three seeds, respectfully, at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

The regional is a double-elimination tournament. The winner of the Clemson regional will face the winner of the winner of the Austin regional May 22-25. The site will be determined by seeding. Texas is hosting in Austin and is the No. 6 national seed.

This is the first time Clemson enters the tournament as ACC tournament champions, as the program won its first title in school history on Saturday over Florida State.

Clemson claimed the title with a two-run home run by Kylee Johnson in the top of the seventh, as the Tigers were down 1-0. Marian Collins drew a walk to give Johnson an RBI opportunity, and she drove a home run to center field to hand Clemson a 2-1 lead.

Pitcher Brooke McCubbin earned the win and pitched her way out of a jam in the bottom of the seventh. She allowed the first two runners on base and then induced a flyout, struck out a hitter and induced another flyout to end the game.

Clemson placed four players on the ACC Championship all-tournament team, led by tournament most valuable player Taylor Pipkins. Other Tigers selections were senior Aby Vieira, Maddie Moore and McCubbin, who won three games during the tournament.

Clemson was one of nine ACC schools selected to the NCAA Tournament, joining No. 5 Florida State, No. 14 Duke, California, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Stanford, Virginia and Virginia Tech.