CLEMSON — Clemson lost more than a softball game on Saturday.

The Tigers also lost their head coach and saw their 15-game winning streak come to end at McWhorter Stadium. Duke evened the series, 1-1, with a 5-3 victory.

Clemson head coach John Rittman was tossed in the fourth inning after arguing with the home plate umpire following a play at the plate.

The Blue Devils increased their lead to 4-1 in the fourth inning when  D’Auna Jennings singled up the middle to bring Jada Baker home.

Rittman disputed that Jennings was standing out of the batter’s box and got in an argument with home plate umpire Tatem Stoelting. The argument resulted in Rittman getting tossed from the game.

“We have a rule in our game where if you are out of the box and hit the ball, the runner is out,” Rittman said. “It was with two strikes. It was a pretty big call at the time. I felt like she was out of the box and the umpire did not see it or did not call it.

“I expressed my opinion, she gave me a warning. And when I went back out to make a pitching change, I again said, ‘You know she was out of the box.’ That was enough to get me tossed, unfortunately. I am not proud of that, but I am going to fight for my team.”

A Clemson spokesperson told The Clemson Insider that Rittman will not be suspended for his ejection from the game and will coach in Sunday’s series finale. Softball rules, we are told, are not the same as baseball rules when a coach is ejected.

Rittman also confirmed can coach on Sunday.

A fielding error by Alex Brown at third base and a full-count walk, kept the Blue Devils’ third inning alive, which led to a two-out, two-run double from Kairi Rodriguez to right centerfield.

Rodriguez’s double gave Duke a 2-1 lead at the time.

The Blue Devils (16-7, 1-1 ACC) increased their lead to 4-1 in the fourth inning after Baker doubled to leftfield with one out to plate Aleyah Terrell. D’Auna Jennings followed with a single up the middle to bring Baker home for the fourth run.

The Blue Devils extended their lead to 5-1 in the sixth thanks to a KK Mathis home run to left centerfield.

Clemson (18-7, 1-1 ACC) got on the board in the bottom of the first inning after Maddie Moore singled to centerfield to score Brown, who led off the inning with a walk.

After that, Duke starter Cassidy Curd dominated the Tigers’ batters until she gave up back-to-back jacks in the bottom of the sixth inning. Moore sent a 2-1 offering over the rightfield wall and then Julia Knowler smashed a bomb to the same spot on a 2-2 count.

As she ran up the line, Knowler tossed her bat high in the air as the ball went over the fence. Duke’s coaches complained about her tossing of the bat, but the umpires let her stay in the game.

“There is a lot of fight in this team,” Rittman said. “They are not going to quit. They are going to fight until the last out. Two good teams were going at it today, and they got the better of us.”

Up Next

The rubber match between the two ACC rivals will start at noon on Sunday.