History.
For the first time ever, South Carolina softball will host a Super Regional. The Gamecocks are one step away from the Women’s College World Series after sweeping through the Columbia regional, beating North Florida 8-0 in a five inning run-rule win to cap the weekend off.
“I don’t know if I have words to be honest,” head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard said. “I’m just really proud of everyone that is involved with the program. It takes a village to do something like this. It’s a special group, and I’m really excited that we’re going to be right back here a week from now.”
Pitching and defense was the formula all season, and once again made the difference in front of a packed house at Beckham Field. The usual duo of Sam Gress and Jori Heard were phenomenal again, allowing three hits in five shutout innings. Heard only pitched one frame, but it was a 1-2-3 outing to give her 26 outs on 27 batters faced for the weekend.
The defense behind both pitchers was flawless again, as the rock solid Gamecocks — 10th nationally in fielding percentage with just 32 errors all season — did not commit an error the entire weekend.
Once again they took advantage of a North Florida error to get the offense going, this time when Ella Chancey’s two-out grounder in the fourth inning turned into an error on a bobble at second base. Chancey stole second base and scored on Brooke Blankenship’s RBI single, Blankenship came around to score on Abigail Knight’s RBI single, and the floodgates opened.
“We had been hitting a lot of balls hard,” Knight said. “Hits are contagious. Brooke right in front of me made me feel good about getting a run in. It takes some pressure off. I was looking hard middle, and I got hard middle on the inner half.”
South Carolina ended the game early with six runs in the fifth, prompting wild celebrations from both the stands and the dugout. The magic moment came when Emma Sellers knocked Knight home with a single, the eighth and final run required to clinch the game, the regional and the opportunity to play the most consequential home games in program history next weekend.
Since the NCAA moved to its current format in 2005, the Gamecocks had won two regionals prior to Sunday. In 2007 they went to Northwestern for their Super Regional, and in 2018 they had to go out to Tempe to take on Arizona State with the Women’s College World Series berth on the line?
This time? The road to Oklahoma City will run through Columbia.
“I’ve spent a few years here now and grew up watching this program,” Blankenship said. “I remember them playing in the Super Regional at Arizona State in ‘18 I think. Just to be a part of that now, and being the first to host a Super Regional here is absolutely amazing.”
No matter what happens next, this sun-splashed afternoon in Columbia felt like something of a revival for the program. Every seat was full, the stands were packed with former players — Chastain Woodard said she heard from program legend Tiff Tootle after the game — and while the turnaround will not be complete until they play their last game, it is certainly obvious.
A program lacking energy and success with just one winning season in SEC play in two decades has, in less than 365 days, become a community gathering spot for Gamecocks past and present.
“It means a lot just to have the influence and the platform that we have,” “Just to kind of re-energize everyone’s thought process around the program. So many of those people have shown up every year.
“I hear from so many people that played in the program or are involved in the program after every time we play. I have a hard time answering all my text messages.”
Before the regional started, Chastain Woodard spoke about her memories of being a student at South Carolina when the baseball team won back-to-back National Championships. The energy, the environments, what it did for the school.
“I was lucky to be here in ‘10 and ‘11,” she said. “Just to have the feel behind the program that people are really excited about what we’re doing and putting a lot of wind in our sails, it’s all very full circle and very nostalgic for me.”
Inarguably, the softball program has had a similar impact.
Their season could still end the same way, too.
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