Not just a sweep, but an overwhelming one.
South Carolina softball beat Kentucky 7-0 on Monday night at Beckham Field, confirming a sweep over the Wildcats with a second consecutive shutout win and very nearly a second run-rule victory of the weekend.Across the three games it was a combined score of 22-1, and 22 unanswered runs to end the series after Kentucky struck first on Saturday.
A six-run sixth inning put the game out of reach, confirmed the first SEC sweep of the season for the Gamecocks and moved them two games over .500 in conference play for the first time since 2018.
“Any time that you can win a series and sweep a series is really tough in our league,” head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard said. “I’m really proud, and really excited for the program.”
Once again, starting pitching made the difference for South Carolina (35-11, 10-8 SEC). After pitching 2 ⅓ innings of scoreless relief to close out yesterday’s 1-0 victory, Sam Gress went the distance in the series finale. Gress threw six innings of shutout ball with three hits allowed, pitching around a first inning triple before settling in to completely keep Kentucky at bay for the rest of the night.
Gress crossed over 100 innings pitched for the season with the start and lowered her ERA to 2.55 while picking up her tenth victory of the campaign, moving her into second place on the team only behind Jori Heard’s 14.
“We talked a little bit post-game just about how we’ve been pitching and playing such great defense, I think it’s freeing up our offense to kind of figure it out as we go,” Chastain Woodard said. “The way we’re playing on the defensive side of the ball and pitching, it’s giving us an opportunity to be relaxed and free in the box.”
For most of the night it looked like another slow game offensively. The Gamecocks scratched one run across on Kentucky starter Julie Kelley with an Abigail Knight RBI groundout in the second inning, but remained knotted in a 1-0 game the second time in as many days.
At least until the sixth inning, when the offense erupted for six runs to put the contest out of reach and confirm the sweep. Ella Chancey’s RBI triple into the right field corner was the first blow, and she scored moments later on a fielder’s choice. Knight’s second RBI of the day made it 4-0, and set the stage for the biggest blow of the game.
Yesterday, Emily Vinson was the offensive hero for South Carolina when she scored the only run of the game on a heads up baserunning play, coming around from second to score on a fielder’s choice.
This time, she was able to jog as slowly as she wanted.
Vinson crushed a three-run homer out to center field to extend the lead to 7-0, her first home run of the season.
“It’s a heck of a job she’s doing for us right now in the nine-hole,” Chastain Woodard said about Vinson. “She came up huge for us, crushed the ball right off the bat dead center which is tough to do in our park. We’re definitely more of a pitcher-friendly park here at Beckham.”
Nealy Lamb took care of the final three outs on the mound, and the Gamecocks won their third consecutive game to take momentum into the penultimate week of the regular season.
“It does wonders to be honest,” Chastain Woodard said about the sweep. “It’s like the magic pill I guess that you take, and you feel kind of like you did in February.”
South Carolina will host Winthrop on Wednesday for its midweek before traveling to Auburn for its final road SEC series of the season starting Friday.
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