CLEMSON – When Clemson pitcher Brooke McCubbin saw her former high school teammate Jamison Brockenbrough in the transfer portal last summer, her thoughts were clear and immediate.

Clemson’s veteran center fielder, second-team All-ACC selection McKenzie Clark, had just graduated, leaving a hole in the lineup in the shape of 44 career home runs and a .346 batting average. Head coach John Rittman needed someone with power and veteran poise to fill the void. Brockenbrough, a center fielder with experience, needed a new home.

McCubbin quickly made the connection.

“When I heard that she was going to transfer, I was like, ‘You can always come here. Centerfield is open, and McKenzie just graduated,’” McCubbin said. “Knowing that was a possibility made me really excited. Then I was on her visit, and she committed in front of me, so I was definitely really happy for her and knew this was a good place for her to be.”

The pair already had a history of dominance. McCubbin, now a senior, and Brockenbrough, a junior, previously won two Georgia State Championships at Locust Grove High School in the Class 3A Division.

Before graduating, McCubbin was named the Georgia Softball Gatorade Player of the Year in 2020. Brockenbrough, a three-time All-State honoree, posted a .416 average her junior year. The pair also played together throughout high school on the Georgia Impact travelball team.

When McCubbin graduated a year ahead of Brockenbrough and left for Clemson, it seemed that their tandem on the field had reached its end. But three years later, the pair are teammates– and roommates– once again.

“I think our first game in the fall, when Brooke was on the mound and I was out in center, I was like this is so crazy, this feels like high school again,” Brockenbrough said. “We won two state championships together, too. It was a full circle moment.”

Since fall scrimmages wrapped up five months ago, Brockenbrough, McCubbin and the Tigers have come a long way. After a rocky 3-6 start, Clemson transformed its season, finishing with an overall 41-12 record, including a 19-5 performance in ACC play and good enough for the No. 2 seed in this week’s ACC Tournament.

The Tigers finished their last 44 games with a 38-6 record, helping them elevate to No. 14 in the NCAA Softball RPI rankings. Among the highlights of the last month came on April 22, when the Tigers traveled to Knoxville and defeated the top-ranked Tennessee Volunteers, Brockenbrough’s former school, with a 4-3 upset victory. 

McCubbin earned the win in the circle, allowing no runs on only two hits in four innings of work.

The game went into extra innings with a stalemate 3-3 score. In the bottom of the ninth, after Clemson took a 4-3 lead, Tennessee threatened to even the score or win it with a runner on second base with only one out. As a fly ball leaped from outfielder Kinsey Fiedler’s bat and the runner sprinted to third, Brockenbrough came up and made an unexpected catch and made a quick throw to second baseman Maddie Moore to turn a double play and secure a Clemson victory.

Tennessee’s dugout stood stunned while the Tigers celebrated their first win over a top-ranked team in program history.

“It was probably one of my top-three softball experiences, not just because we got the win but because of the environment and because we all just stuck together so well,” Brockenbrough said of her return to Tennessee.

“That last play, I knew it was going to be hard… one out with a runner on second, we have to get this out against one of their best hitters. I didn’t expect to end the way it did, but it was perfect the way it ended, getting that last out and having that adrenaline rushing.”

Watching from the circle, McCubbin said it felt like “the stars aligned” for her friend to have that moment.

Just four days later, McCubbin helped keep the Tigers’ momentum rolling. The righty pitched four dominant innings in Clemson’s 19-0 run-rule shutdown of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The following day, she returned in relief to pitch four more shutout innings, allowing just one hit in an 8-2 victory to complete the series sweep. 

She improved to 13-5 on the season with a  2.75 ERA over 109.1 innings of work.

That week, McCubbin was awarded ACC Pitcher of the Week– her first time earning the honor. 

“I was in my kitchen cooking, and I saw that ACC Sports was trying to collaborate with me on a post (on Instagram), and I was like ‘is this happening?’ because I had never gotten an ACC Pitcher of the Week before.”

The post proved to be a welcome way to start her dinner. 

Clemson needs Brockenbrough and McCubbin’s veteran leadership more than ever as the Tigers enter the postseason, beginning with the ACC Tournament, which will commence on May 8 in Brighton, Mass. Clemson has secured the No. 2 seed in the tournament, so it will have a bye until the quarterfinals on Thursday when it plays the winner of the No. 7 Virginia and No. 10 Louisville matchup.

If someone told Brockenbrough and McCubbin four years ago that they would one day be roommates and postseason teammates at Clemson on their way to the ACC Tournament, they might not have believed it.

But, as McCubbin said, “the stars are aligned.”