For Three WCWS Hopefuls, All Roads Lead to Clemson

Coming out of high school, Reedy Davenport wasn’t on many radars as a potential championship building block, at least not among Division I coaches. She was a four-time all-county selection in St. Johns, Florida, just outside of Jacksonville, but there are a lot of counties in the United States and a lot of local softball standouts. Strong and nimble, but also unimposing at 5-foot-6, she didn’t attend many of the big camps or play on the most acclaimed travel teams.

She stood out to those who saw her play. It just wasn’t always easy to get people to watch. 

Davenport happily accepted Florida Gulf Coast’s scholarship offer. She was grateful for the opportunity to play for a quality mid-major program that could reasonably hope to contend for conference titles. She repaid that faith several times over, winning Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year honors in 2019, and after the pandemic-interrupted 2020 season, ASUN Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 and Preseason Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2022. 

It was a good career, one for which she was genuinely grateful. Still, deep down inside a competitor’s soul, she also knew she could do the same things on the biggest stage. She could be the missing piece for a program on the verge of getting to the World Series. With her final season of eligibility, the result of NCAA pandemic allowances, she wanted to find out. But rather than one of the programs that didn’t know what they were missing back when she was in high school, she chose a program that couldn’t have offered her a place to play as a freshman. 

Due to the small technicality that it wasn’t around yet.

Along with fellow graduate transfers Caroline Jacobsen, by way of Duke, and Ally Miklesh, by way of Wisconsin, Davenport chose Clemson, a program that played its first collegiate game a year after the three of them first took the field as collegians. It has proved worth the wait.

“Usually, you think of a new program struggling in the beginning—not here,” Davenport said. “They play like they’ve been around for 100 years. Given the success they’ve had in the past few years, to me, that spoke for itself. If anything, it was a more of a positive that they were newer because you kind of get to set a foundation. You’re still helping to build a reputation. Having the opportunity to do that is huge for me.”

Each of the three found something different in this corner of South Carolina. The challenge of a chance to shine at a higher level. An unexpected encore to savor. A unique opportunity to contribute to the first chapter of history for not one, but two fledgling programs. 

For head coach John Rittman, coming off a super regional appearance in the program’s third season and building around a cornerstone in junior national player-of-the-year candidate Valerie Cagle, the separate paths that led each player to campus may provide the final puzzle pieces in getting to Oklahoma City and the Women’s College World Series.

“Probably the biggest priority for us is we’ve done such a good job of building this foundation and this culture, and we wanted to bring kids in that were high character individuals, kids that were looking to work on a master’s degree and fill some holes for us,” Rittman said. “When we started contacting players and contacting coaches, these three players kept coming up and meeting all the qualities that we were looking for in people.”

One more dance (before dentistry)

Nobody would have been more surprised to find Miklesh excelling as an ACC speedster this season than Miklesh. At this time a year ago, not far removed from a fourth frigid preseason with Wisconsin, she thought the remainder of her softball career could be measured in weeks, not years. It wasn’t so much that the cold bothered her—growing up in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, she got used to the challenges of northern softball. She just never tied her identity to the sport she played.

She loved softball, but she was no less excited about the adventures that might come with a schedule cleared of all those student-athlete commitments. A dentist’s daughter, she planned on taking a gap year after graduation and then following in her father’s footsteps and attending dentistry school. 

Yet as spring progressed, her coach in the Florida Gulf Coast League, the collegiate summer league not to be confused with Davenport’s alma mater, kept trying to talk her into one more go when the Badgers wrapped up play. 

Darned if the game didn’t seem to be whispering its own message to her, too. After hitting reasonably well out of conference last season, Miklesh caught fire in Big Ten play, hitting .345 with a .449 on-base percentage. By the time she returned to Florida, where she helped the Badgers reach the Gainesville Regional final, she reversed course on hanging up her cleats. 

“I had a really nice senior campaign—I was really satisfied with where I was as a player, and I was just ready to move on and take that next step in my life,” Miklesh said. “And then people that you hold close and whose opinions you value a lot say, ‘Hey, softball isn’t forever. If you can take this opportunity, do it.’ My parents were so incredibly supportive with it, so it was almost an easier choice to be like, ‘Yeah, my body feels good, let’s take this next step and play another year.’”

With a degree in health equity in tow, she decided to use her final season of eligibility—hitting balls into the gap instead of a gap year. She was intrigued by the idea of helping a new program take the next step beyond a super regional, something Wisconsin hadn’t been able to pull off. She also had some unusual insight into what she was getting into. Wisconsin beat Clemson in last season’s Clearwater Elite Invitational. Miklesh even contributed a clutch, seventh-inning single against Cagle during a rally that tied the game and sent it to extra innings. What stood out was how the Tigers reacted and stuck together, even as the game slipped away. 

“I just remember the excitement and even in that scenario, they still held their composure,” Miklesh said. “They were still together as a team. You couldn’t see them falling apart at all. It was just a hard-fought game. That’s another reason I thought it was super cool to come here, just because, the composure on the field is really the product of the team family atmosphere off the field.”

Now a constant presence in left field, Miklesh is hitting .355 with a staggering .512 on-base percentage, the latter second only to Cagle. She also leads the team with 10 stolen bases. The Tigers lost 47 of 79 stolen bases from a season ago with the departures of outfielder Sam Russ and pinch runner extraordinaire Carlee Shannon. Julia Bomhardt has stepped into Shannon’s cleats and perhaps even surpassed her predecessor in that distinctive role. But paired with Davenport at the bottom of the order, Miklesh’s ability to turn over the order, keep defenses honest with a little power and kickstart rallies is invaluable to what the lineup became without Russ. 

A chance to do something different 

Jacobsen wasn’t looking to make history in her final season, at least not individually. Nevertheless, she has already helped one program reach its first super regional within five years of beginning competition and could now help a program reach its first World Series in its fourth year on the field. 

“I think it’s pretty special how many strides they’ve taken every single year,” Jacobsen said of her new home. “I know firsthand how difficult that is. I think my freshman year at Duke, we had a losing record. And by my senior year, we had a super regional. So I know how hard it is to be in a new program and get your feet wet for the first time. And it’s kind of nice to to come into a program that has already had that super regional experience.”

Like Davenport, she made her decision to enter the portal relatively early last season, allowing her to explore her options and talk to people during the spring. Clemson associate head coach Kyle Jamieson originally recruited her when he was head coach at Furman and Clemson’s program still existed only on paper, a connection that helped put her at ease. And for all the similarities between the program she takes pride in helping build at Duke and the one for which she now hits in the middle of the order, the differences may be what drew her south. 

After graduating from Duke with a degree in political science, Jacobsen’s long-term plans have more to do with the MBA she’s working toward than what she does quite well on the softball diamond. Next year, she’ll move from Clemson to Greenville, where the university’s business school is located and where she now commutes a few times each week, to complete her degree. In her final season on the diamond, she wanted to experience something new. With all apologies to the Cameron Crazies, the Tallahassee product who didn’t stay home at Florida State wanted to see what it was like at a school that lives and breathes athletics and 81,000 fill the football stadium every weekend in the fall. 

As successful as Clemson was a season ago, remarkably so given the short history, the Tigers leaned heavily on Cagle and Millie Thompson to carry the day—at least in comparison to other elite teams. They ranked 45th in slugging percentage and 82nd in on-base percentage, behind most of the other seeded teams in the NCAA bracket. Most teams would have struggled to score against Oklahoma State’s Kelly Maxwell in a super regional, but when it scored one run in two games against the Cowgirls, Clemson looked like a team that gotten just about everything it could out of the tools at its disposal that season. 

And before thinking about taking another step forward this season, Rittman first had to replace one of the team’s most productive sluggers, Marissa Guimbarda. Enter Jacobsen. Not only is the new cleanup hitter batting .351 with a .734 slugging percentage (a figure that would have led the team in 2022), she’s punishing opponents who pitch around Cagle. 

“We got to see her talent level up close when we played Duke, and she’s just an excellent player,” Rittman said. “She doesn’t say a whole lot, but when she talks, it’s usually something really important. She’s just been a consistent leader, middle-of-the-lineup kid for us and just a huge, huge gift for us.”

Wherever you need me

A former baseball catcher’s daughter who grew up playing with her brothers, Davenport always took pride in defense. There might always be at least a few women a little bigger or a little faster on offense, but she could get the best of any of them with the glove. Watching her play the hot corner, it’s easy to understand why she received the wealth of defensive accolades at FGCU.

Except she didn’t receive those honors at third base. Davenport always carried the innate self confidence that she could excel at any level. But since arriving at Clemson, she’s also shown the humility to take on a new position—despite all the awards she won as a shortstop. 

“It’s definitely more of a reaction game at third than a thinking game,” Davenport said. “In middle infield, you have a lot more time to think, a lot more to move. At third, when it’s hit, you go. That was a little bit of a learning curve. You don’t get as much free roaming space as you would in the middle. But I kind of like not having to think all the time, just react. If you’re athletic, you make it work.” 

That willingness to fill in where needed not only gave Clemson an elite defender at third to support pitchers Cagle and Millie Thompson, but stabilized the entire infield. Junior Alia Logoleo has continued to grow into a rock-solid shortstop, committing just six errors in Clemson’s first 33 games. And ensconced in a comfortable role at second base, Maddie Moore has enjoyed a breakout campaign at the plate, giving the Tigers yet another 1.000-OPS threat. 

All born from the butterfly effect of one person’s unselfishness. 

“She’s just a very smart player, high softball IQ,” Rittman said of Davenport at her new position. “She’s got great hands. She understands the speed of the game. She plays the game at the speed it is supposed to be played at. She knows when she has to be quick but not in a hurry. She knows when she has some time. And she’s a leader on the field. She’s just a positive person, somebody that’s provided a lot of leadership for us, honestly.”

One year for a lifetime of memories

Even for someone coming from Madison, where Camp Randall Stadium tests the Richter Scale when “Jump Around” booms over the speakers, Clemson offered the newcomers immediate proof that it’s just a little different than most places, especially on Saturdays in the fall. 

“Madison’s pretty wild, but Clemson, down here, these fans are so passionate and intense,” Miklesh said. “Being in Death Valley for the first time, with all the music, the intro stuff, it really gets you almost emotional with how big football and sports are in this area.”

Football season might not have satisfied a fan base that has grown accustomed to a place in the playoffs, but it was helpful for the softball team’s title hopes. True to his commitment to culture, Rittman routinely gave players Saturdays and Sundays off in the fall. The newest arrivals, and the only players on the roster with no remaining eligibility, the grad transfers live together and quickly forged their own bond. But through the fall, returnees and newcomers alike had time to hang out away from the field—including enjoying the carnival atmosphere that takes over town on fall weekends. 

Instead of an enclave of short-timers living among, but separate from, people who have known each other longer and are wary of outsiders, Davenport, Jacobsen and Miklesh became Tigers. An FGCU Eagle and a Tiger. A Blue Devil and a Tiger. A Badger and a Tiger. But Tigers. 

“I love to talk—I just like talking a lot and found people that wanted to listen, which was nice,” Davenport offered. “I think a lot of us are likeminded and have like the same goals. And that’s the first step in finding people that you want to be around is people that have the same motivations and dreams as you do.”

The transfer portal and the world it birthed can be a confusing place. The new reality is not without pitfalls, big programs poaching from smaller programs, players bailing at the first sign of adversity, coaches bailing on players in favor of quick fixes at the first sign of job insecurity. It can be messy. But often so is the life that awaits players beyond college athletics. 

In this day and age all the more, former players will likely change jobs and careers many times over. They’ll pick up and move across the country or even across the world. They’ll regret thinking the grass is greener elsewhere or lament never taking the chance. They’ll stay in touch with some people and lose touch with others. In that sense, the portal is the most useful life tool available. Neither good nor evil. Just what you make of it.

“I think it’s kind of funny—softball doesn’t get easier as you play it,” Miklesh said. “There’s always a new challenge to face. But this year, I’m just taking it one game, one at-bat at a time, not really looking towards the future. I think I always was like, ‘All right, we need to win so many series to get to this point and climb the ladder here.’ And now I’m just really enjoying each game with my teammates, just soaking in all these memories.”

After talking to her parents following a recent home game, she remained in the dugout for a few extra minutes just to try and savor a time that is both fleeting and formative. 

“This is the dream,” she told herself. “Just soak it in and enjoy it.”

For Davenport, Jacobsen and Miklesh, the portal and the peculiarities of the pandemic brought together three disparate souls and three distinctive softball talents in the upcountry.  

“A lot of it is with the people and the experiences that we’re going to have together both on and off the field,” Jacobsen said. “I think that we have a chance to do something really, really special this year and kind of set the standard for Clemson softball for the future. I think that’s going to be a big part where the attachment does lie.” 

Each had her own reasons for coming, similar but distinct. 

One year to show the world. One year to experience something new. One year to savor. 

And one reason they share with more than 20 new people in their lives. One year to win it all. 

“We want to win a World Series,” Davenport said. “That’s kind of always been the goal.”