Off to best start in two decades, USC wants to bring postseason softball to Columbia
After trips to Austin, Tallahassee (three consecutive years) and Tucson, the South Carolina softball team would prefer to not be packing a bus this time next month. The Gamecocks like their Beckham Field, a place where they’ve won 18 of 19 games this season.
“We’ve been on the road for the last five years for the NCAA tournament,” USC coach Beverly Smith said Tuesday. “This year, if we can continue to do what we’re doing, it’s a reality for us. I hope that we’ll be able to be a top 16 (team) and host and be in front of our fans at our field.”
No. 11 Carolina on Wednesday beat Winthrop to improve to 34-7, continuing the program’s best start since the 1997 College World Series year and already matching their win total from last season.
Smith, the second-winningest coach in school history, has accomplished plenty in her seven-plus years with the Gamecocks. But her next step is bringing postseason softball to Columbia.
South Carolina last hosted a regional as a No. 1 seed in 2002. Smith has guided USC to NCAA regionals in each of the past five seasons, but never have her Gamecocks played at home. They lost at Arizona last season, at Florida State (2014-16) and at Texas in 2013.
Fifteen regular-season games remain before the SEC tournament in Missouri. Carolina has an RPI of 9, putting it in prime position to be selected as one of 16 hosts for the Big Dance.
Not bad for a bunch picked in the preseason to finish 12th in the SEC.
“This team has found ways to win ballgames,” Smith said. “I think that’s when I knew this was going to be a special year, because there were some games where we got outhit and won, scratched it out in the bottom of the seventh, got big wins.
“The team has found ways to win, and it’s been with different people and not one standout player. So that’s kind of when I knew it was going to be a special season, because they just were finding ways to do it.”
South Carolina is 6-2 in one-run games this season, including wins of 8-7 and 5-4 against Tennessee in late March. The Gamecocks would go on to take all three from the second-ranked Lady Volunteers, giving USC its first sweep of a top-5 opponent in the SEC era.
“I think the Tennessee series was a statement series for us,” Smith said. “We were at home, two of the games were come-from-behind in the seventh. We were behind the whole time in game two. But I think that was really a statement win for us. In the past, I think those were games that, maybe, went the other direction for us. We just didn’t have enough to finish.
“But I think our kids have never put their head down and never given in this season. And that’s rewarding to me as a coach to see that.”
Carolina’s win against Arkansas last Sunday give it its eighth SEC victory of the season, matching the Gamecocks’ total from last year. USC (8-4 SEC) travels to sixth-ranked Florida (34-7, 9-3) this weekend.
The Gamecocks have lost 35 of their past 36 games to the Gators, a two-time national champion and regular World Series contender.
“We don’t make one series bigger than another,” Smith said. “We talk about how games count as one. … We’ve got to come out with the same type of determination. We talk about getting leadoff batters on. We want to score when we have runners in scoring position. … No series or team is bigger than anything else.”
Game one from Gainesville is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday. It will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.
This story was originally published April 12, 2018 at 3:46 PM with the headline "Off to best start in two decades, USC wants to bring postseason softball to Columbia."