When she hit the ball, Kylee Johnson did not think she got all of it. As it turned out, she was wrong.
Johnson got all of the softball and then some, as she carried it out of Harrington Village with ease. As a result, the two-run dinger to centerfield was all Clemson needed to win its first ACC Tournament Championship.
Johnson’s home run in the top of the seventh inning, gave the 10th-ranked Tigers a 2-1 victory over No. 3 Florida State in the championship game in Brighton, Mass.
“I really did not think it was going out to be honest. I knew the wind was pushing a little bit, but I was just glad to watch it go over,” Johnson said on the All ACC show on ACCN following the game.
Johnson’s teammates were glad to watch it go over, too. Up until her home run, Clemson had done little at the plate, as she and catcher Aby Vieira had the Tigers’ only other hits way back in the second inning.
From the third inning on, Clemson did nothing against Florida State pitching. Pitchers Ashtyn Danley and Julia Apsel kept the Tigers off balance all afternoon.
So, when Marian Collins drew a lead off walk to start the seventh inning, Johnson was not trying to hit a home run. Instead, she was trying to find a way to get on base and possibly start a rally, like they had done in their quarterfinal and semifinal wins over Virginia and Virginia Tech earlier in the week.
“I was just thinking, pass the bat and do anything I can do to help the team,” Johnson said. “Keep it simple. I just had a feeling that this team is going to pull it out in the end. Once we got that big walk, I was just doing anything I could do to keep it going.”
That has been the story for this year’s Clemson team. They just find any way they can to win games. Not only did they do it throughout this past week in the ACC Tournament, but they did it in come-from-behind wins recently against South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia Tech to name a few.
“The resiliency this team shows, it is just a special group,” Clemson head coach John Rittman said. “I can’t say enough good things about them. From where they came from to start the season, to where they are now.
“It has taken a lot of adjustments, a lot of hard work and a never-say-die attitude, and that is what champions have.”
And nobody fits that description better than Johnson. The sophomore has struggled at the plate at times this season, as she is just hitting .238 on the year.
She has been an on again and off again starter throughout the year in leftfield, and did not start in Clemson’s semifinal win over Virginia Tech.
“(The Coaches) do what is best for the team, and I respect that and do whatever I can to help my team in whatever way I can,” Johnson said. “Whether that is being in the lineup or cheering my teammates on from the dugout. So, I just try to give my best wherever I am.”
And, like her team, she came through with two hits in Saturday’s championship game, including her two-run homer to win the game in the seventh inning.
“We see her hit balls like that all the time in practice and I am just so happy for her in that moment. It is just a team win,” Rittman said.
And that’s what Johnson was doing, she was just trying to help her team out.
“Kyle is just an outstanding player,” Rittman said. “She is one of the hardest workers on the team. If you look at her batting average, she has struggled a little bit this year, but she is always working. She is always making adjustments.”
And on Saturday, she adjusted just enough to get the ball over the wall in centerfield, though she did not think she got all of it.
—photo courtesy of ACC Communications