Four Homers Push Tigers Past Charlotte
CLEMSON, S.C. - Home runs at the hands of Macey Cintron, Jamison Brockenbrough, Julia Knowler and Kylee Johnson pushed the Clemson Softball team to its fifth victory of the 2025 campaign with a 14-8 comeback win against Charlotte (2-9) in the home opener. Clemson’s four home runs tied a program record for most homers in a single game and marked the third time this season the Tigers have hit this many.
In total, Clemson’s offense put up 11 hits with 13 RBIs. Knowler led the charge going 3-for-4 with five RBIs and two runs scored. The sophomore tied her career highs in both RBIs and hits. Marian Collins and Aby Vieira joined her as additional Tigers that added multiple hits with two each, while Alex Brown, Cintron, Collins, Vieira and Brockenbrough finished with two runs apiece.
In the circle, Cintron earned her second win of the year after pitching 2.1 innings with one strikeout, no walks and only two hits. Senior Reese Basinger continued her hot streak in relief with 3.0 innings, no walks, only one hit and four strikeouts. With her four strikeouts tonight, Basinger eclipsed the 500-career strikeout milestone. Senior Brooke McCubbin started in the circle and pitched 1.2 innings with one strikeout.
Charlotte capitalized on early defensive mistakes by the Tigers. Clemson made two errors in the second inning that allowed the Niners to plate seven runs.
The Tigers rallied in the bottom of the third to pull back within one run that began with Collins and Vieira hitting back-to-back singles. Brockenbrough turned the heat on and turned over the lineup with a walk to load the bases that allowed Brown to reach on a fielder’s choice that had Collins scoring from third on an error. Moore followed with an RBI to plate Vieira, and Knowler chipped away further with a base-clearing double into right center. The highlight of the third inning came from Cintron, who sent the seventh pitch of her at bat out of left center for a two-run homer to cut Charlotte’s lead down to 7-6 after three. This was Cintron’s fifth homer of the year and ties her with Knowler and Vieria for the fourth-most home runs by a freshman in the program’s short history.
Charlotte got one run back in the top of the fourth inning, but Clemson answered immediately in the bottom half with eight runs behind three homers. The Tigers’ three home runs in the fourth tied the program record for most in a single inning and were contributed by Brockenbrough, Knowler and Johnson. Similar to the third inning, Collins and Vieira led off with back-to-back singles that put two on for Brockenbrough to record her second home run of the year with a shot out of center field to give Clemson the 9-8 lead with no outs.
Continuing to stay hot at the plate, Brown doubled into right center, and Moore extended her reached-base streak to 28 games with a walk to put two runners on for Knowler’s fifth home run of the season. Cintron followed with a walk that allowed Johnson to step to the plate for her first at bat of the evening and drive a two-run shot out of center to extend the lead to 14-8 that held for the remainder of the game.
Up Next
The Tigers return to McWhorter Stadium on Friday, when Clemson begins the Clemson Classic with a doubleheader against Elon and Villanova. First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. against Elon on ACCNX.