Cardiac cats not fazed or intimidated in Texas

Reese Basinger earned the winning decision from the circle.

David Hood · Senior Writer · Friday, May 23 2025

Not lightning, delays, an early deficit, or a great Texas program could stop Clemson Thursday night.

No. 11 Clemson used a four-run sixth inning to defeat No. 6 Texas to take game one of the Austin Super Regional Thursday night, 7-4, propelling the Tigers to within one win of the program’s first appearance in the Women’s College World Series.

The game was delayed – after just four pitches – for around 90 minutes, and when play resumed, the Tigers fell into a quick 1-0 hole. But Clemson responded with three runs in the third and four in the sixth to earn the program’s first-ever Super Regional victory.

The Tigers even took a cue from watching Clemson’s baseball team defeat NC State in the ACC Tournament during the rail delay.

“Really proud of our team tonight. A very hard-fought battle, as you can tell by these two in their uniforms. It started off a little weird,” head coach John Rittman said. “Alex (Brown) started the game with a base hit, and then we get into a lightning delay, and you never know how your team's going to come out after that. They were nice and relaxed in the locker room, having fun, watching our baseball team get a big win against North Carolina State. So, when we came back out, we gave up an unearned run there to them in the first inning, and that’s unfortunate. But this team just has a way of bouncing back and not getting down on themselves. We've had quite a run in the last month and a half, and you just never know in a hostile environment against a really good Texas team how your team's going to respond.”

Senior second baseman Maddie Moore said the delay didn’t faze the team – the Tigers played in a driving rain against Virginia Tech in the ACC Tournament and came back from a 9-2 deficit to secure a 10-9 victory.

“From our previous games, like the ACC Tournament, we've gotten really good at playing in the rain, so we were kind of prepared,” Moore said. “There's nothing that we kind of haven't seen or dealt with this season that hasn't prepared us for every single situation possibly given to us. I think it's just that we know how to deal with the emotions, and we can kind of calm ourselves, and we all love each other, and we have fun. So, it's not really much of an issue when Mother Nature takes its course, but we know how to kind of bounce back and play the game afterwards.”

Senior infielder Alex Brown, who had three hits, said nothing seems to bother this team, especially with so much on the line.

“We were watching our baseball team in there (during the delay), so we were keeping the positive energy going and just keeping good vibes in the visitor locker room,” Brown said. “And so, we were kind of leaning on each other for the weather updates, but we already knew nothing was going to bother us. We were just so excited to play that waiting 30 minutes or an hour wasn't going to do anything, just because we were so excited.”

Not even falling into an early hole.

“We're the cardiac kids. Everybody likes to call us that, so we always seemed to be down and then come back,” Moore added. “So it's fun.”

One reporter noted that Clemson didn’t show any nerves or seem intimidated by playing Texas, and Moore had a quick answer.

“Yeah, we're really great actresses. No, I'm just kidding,” Moore said as reporters laughed. “I mean, we all work really well together and we all know that each one of us have each other's backs and so we kind of relinquish control and we play our game and we know that if we don't do well, somebody else will pick us up. And you're probably going to have a great game, and it's just a very family feeling. And so, we all know we have each other's backs.”