In a resurgent season under first-year coach Ashley Chastain Woodard, everything is worth celebrating for South Carolina softball. Every milestone is a brick in the wall, every accomplishment further proof of concept on what has already been a memorable year.
South Carolina, ranked No. 9 nationally by D1Softball this week, secured its latest triumph on Sunday night at Beckham Field with a 1-0 win over Kentucky, clinching the series. The victory improves South Carolina to 34-11 overall and 9-8 in SEC play, the first time since 2020 the Gamecocks have spent a day over .500 in college softball’s toughest conference.
It also marks the first time since 2018 the Gamecocks have won four conference series in a season, as Chastain's squad added Kentucky to Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss on the list of opponents South Carolina it has swiped at least two games off.
And if that seems like a cherry-picked stat or an oddly specific mark in the grand scheme of things, it is anything but.
Especially in the early stages of building a program.
“It means a lot, and we definitely celebrate that kind of stuff,” Chastain Woodard said. “This league is the best, it’s the best competition. Any win, any series win, we like to celebrate it. It means a lot as we’re trying to move this program forward. It means a lot to the department, it means a lot to us, it means a lot to our recruits and our future recruits, it just helps. We’re having a lot of fun.”
This particular win was familiar for this group, a scrappy, gritty performance with the thinnest of margins. South Carolina won its ninth one-run game of the year and fifth in SEC play thanks mostly to its pitching. Nealy Lamb and Sam Gress combined to throw a two-hit shutout, allowing singles in the first and seventh innings with nothing in between.
Lamb had to pitch out of a first inning jam after the single paired with a walk and a fielder’s choice put two Kentucky runners in scoring position, but a nice stop on a comebacker and a throw home allowed her to cut down a run at the plate, and the Wildcats never got that close to scoring again. Gress came in for the final seven outs and secured the win, a far cry from yesterday’s 14-1 run-rule victory.
“I love the pressure situations,” Gress said about pitching in a 1-0 game. “I love getting out there to compete in any way that I can.”
The lone run crossed in unusual fashion, but it was always going to have to be something of that nature on a night where the offense only recorded one-extra base hit. With runners on second and first and one out in the fifth, Karley Shelton hit a hard grounder to second. Kentucky second baseman Emory Donaldson made a diving stop and a flip to her shortstop for an out. But by the time the out happened, South Carolina’s Emily Vinson had already made the turn from third and scored ahead of the throw home, coming all the way around from second base on a fielder’s choice.
“Not that I remember,” Vinson laughed when asked if she had ever scored from second on a fielder’s choice. “Being at second with the top of our lineup up I know there’s always a chance I can score from second, whether that’s a ball in the gap or a ground ball up the middle like tonight.”
South Carolina will go for the sweep at 7 p.m. Monday live on SEC Network, then look to carry the momentum into its final two conference series at Auburn and against Alabama.
“We’re just at that time of year where you start to talk about regionals and national seeds and what’s on the line for us as a program,” Chastain Woodard said. “I think internally just trying to keep them day-to-day is what we try to do, and I think they’re doing a really good job of that.”
It’s that time of year, and for the first time in a while, South Carolina is a factor.
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