Clemson softball will have lots of new faces this season – seven freshmen and three transfers. They will be tasked to replace 10 seniors who graduated last year, including their top three pitchers, one of which was All-American Valerie Cagle. Cagle, Mille Thompson, and Regan Spencer accounted for over 82 percent of the Clemson innings last season. Clemson went to the transfer portal for two graduate transfers that they hope can provide immediate pitching help. Reese Basinger was a three-time All Big South selection at Winthrop with a career ERA of 2.33 and 477 strikeouts in 511 innings. Canadian Brook Melnychuk transferred from Louisiana Tech where she led the team with a 2.77 ERA and a 13-7 record. Clemson will also have to replace all three outfielders from last year: McKenzie Clark, Ariella Oda, and Lindsey Garcia, each of whom played over 215 games as a Tiger. Tennessee transfer Jamison Brockenbrough, a junior, may be in line for one of those spots. Five of the seven Clemson freshmen were ranked in the Top 25 by Extra Inning Softball so there is certainly talent incoming. Those players are OF Samantha Minish (#7), INF Taylor Pipkins (#19), P Macey Cintron (#20), SS/2B Madison Lardizabal #20), and OF Riley Finnell (#24). I saw some Fall Ball notes from TigerNet – the Clemson message board – which I linked below. This was an interesting comment: “from what I hear, there is more cohesion in the dugout this year - and much less drama, we’ll see if that continues. That would be a good thing as the drama hurt our performance last season.” The big news in the thread was the decomitment of Class of 2025 left handed pitcher/infielder Addi Linton, who Extra Innings had as a Top 5 recruit in 2020. Linton is a Premier Girls Fastpitch All-American, two-time national champion, and multiple-time player of the year. During her sophomore season, Linton posted a .617 batting average with 21 home runs and 71 RBIs. In the circle, she went 12-2 with 168 strikeouts over 102 innings. She had originally picked Clemson over Tennessee, Florida State, Texas A&M and South Carolina. OK, back to Hokie softball.