One out away. One pitch away.
Devastation.
South Carolina softball was one out away from its first trip to the Women’s College World Series since 1997, leading UCLA in game two of the Columbia Super Regional at Beckham Field. But the Bruins ripped off four runs, capped off by Jordan Woolery’s two-run walk-off home run, to force a decisive game three.
“Obviously it hurts,” head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard said. “Really disappointed that we couldn’t get the job done there at the end. I know these guys are really disappointed. We’ve got to find some way to move on from it. We’ve got to flush it and come back ready to play tomorrow. Obviously UCLA figured out a way to beat us at the end.
“I think we made a few mistakes that really cost us throughout the game.”
The details are as gut-wrenching and devastating as you will find in any sports loss, not just in softball or at South Carolina. Just like they did in game one of the series, the Gamecocks dictated terms nearly all day. South Carolina struck first on a Lexi Winters RBI single, added two more when Winters delivered a bases loaded knock in the fifth, and maintained a three-run advantage into the seventh inning.
For pretty much all of the 13 innings played to that point of the series, the Gamecocks had the upper hand. There still, even now, has not been a single pitch thrown with UCLA leading a game.
But pitcher Jori Heard issued a rare lead-off walk, and the floodgates opened. Kaitlyn Terry hit an RBI triple, Savannah Pola kept the game alive with a two-out RBI single, and it set the stage for Jordan Woolery to hit a walk-off two-run homer, ripping Gamecock hearts out while sending a small pocket of blue and yellow above the visitors dugout into mass hysteria.
“We talked before the game that no lead is ever enough,” Chastain Woodard said. “We want to score a lot, we want to keep going and keep going. Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to bat last, and that was the situation that we were in.”
Now for South Carolina, the question will be all about the response. This series is still hanging in the balance. The objective to win two out of three games is still in play, and would have been whether the Gamecocks lost 5-4, 5-0 or 15-0 today. All year the Gamecocks have responded from tough losses. One of the characteristics of this team was its tendency to lose the first game of an SEC series and respond with a victory the next day, something it did five times.
But this will be the most extreme test of all, the biggest mental block yet.
“It really tests who you are,” Chastain Woodard continued. “This kind of feeling, this adversity tests who you are as a team. It’ll test my leadership for them tomorrow. It’ll test everything about who we are, and that’s just postseason and that’s how it goes.”
From a glass half full perspective, there is still a lot to like here for South Carolina. The Gamecocks have been the better team for nearly the entire season, outscoring the Bruins 13-7 so far. They have seen all three UCLA arms now after Taylor Tinsley pitched a complete game Saturday, and had some success at the plate against all three. They haven’t lost back-to-back games since April 25-26 at Auburn, and have only lost back-to-back games at home once all season.
And of course should tomorrow’s game reach a similar point, South Carolina will get to bat last and end the game on its own terms.
I think we should have a lot of confidence going into tomorrow,” Chastain Woodard concluded. “We’ve seen multiple of their arms, we saw Tinsley a whole game today. I think we’re going to have a lot of confidence in the game plan, and we should. We’ve played really well other than the last bottom of the seventh for two days.”
Down, but not out. One more chance to keep it that way.
