South Carolina tops Mississippi State to roll into SEC softball tournament semifinals
The South Carolina softball team is into the SEC tournament semifinals for the first time since 2002.
The third-seeded Gamecocks beat No. 11 seed Mississippi State, 3-1, in a Thursday afternoon quarterfinal game in Columbia, Missouri. USC (44-13) will take on seventh-seeded Arkansas (39-14) in a 3 p.m., Friday, semifinal. ESPNU will televise the game. The Gamecocks took two of three from the Razorbacks in early April.
Cayla Drotar on Thursday tossed a complete game, allowing one run on four hits. The Hartsville native faced the potential tying run in the seventh, but she got Cayln Adams to pop out. Drotar improved her record to 20-5. She helped herself with a sacrifice fly in the third inning.
Freshman Alyssa Kumiyama went 1-for-3 with a solo home run. Her blast, an opposite field shot to right, gave Carolina 60 homers on the season, tying a school record.
"We definitely have decided that we play our best ball when we're loose," USC coach Beverly Smith told the SEC Network. "So you saw some of that in the dugout, everybody staying loose.
"The other thing we talked about last night was just doing your job and you don't have to do any more than that. And I think our team did a great job of everyone just taking care of their job on the field. (Drotar) did it for us on the mound, (Kumiyama) did it for us at the plate, but I think the team really bought into that: Just do your job, nothing more, nothing less."
SEC tournament
Thursday's quarterfinals
Game 5: South Carolina 3, Mississippi State 1
G6: Arkansas 8, Georgia 3
G7: No. 4 seed Tennessee vs. LSU, 5 p.m., SEC Network
G8: No. 1 seed Florida vs. Alabama, 7:30 p.m., SEC Network
Friday's semifinals
G9: South Carolina vs. Arkansas, 3 p.m., ESPNU
G10: Winner Game 7 vs. winner Game 8, 5:30 p.m., ESPNU
Saturday's championship
Winner Game 9 vs. winner Game 10, 8 p.m., ESPN2
This story was originally published May 10, 2018 at 2:18 PM with the headline "South Carolina tops Mississippi State to roll into SEC softball tournament semifinals."