Senior year cut short, Gamecock softball quartet return for ‘unfinished business’
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, canceling South Carolina softball’s 2020 season and ending the team’s drive for an eighth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, four players were left with a choice.
Kenzi Maguire, Lauren Stewart, Mackenzie Boesel and Cayla Drotar had spent years with the program. They were there in 2018 when the Gamecocks advanced to a Super Regional for the first time in a decade. They had appeared in more than 650 games with the Garnet and Black. But as seniors, they were on the verge of moving on, starting the next chapters in life.
With the NCAA’s decision to grant athletes an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic, though, they could come back. And in the end, that’s what all four did, giving coach Beverly Smith a core group of veterans with more than 15 seasons worth of collegiate softball experience. Maguire in particular has been with the program for six years now — more than half of Smith’s tenure at USC.
What drew them all back for one final ride, starting Friday at Beckham Field against North Carolina?
“For me, it was a very easy decision,” Stewart said. “The (2020) season ended so abruptly, and I knew that we just had so much more unfinished business that we had to do. So we still have our goals that we put in place our freshman year, and just getting the opportunity to be able to come back for our senior year was huge, and I just knew I wanted to do that from the get-go.”
When last season came to a halt, the Gamecocks had climbed the rankings to No. 15 in the coaches and Softball America polls. They were 17-6 and hoping to make a run to an NCAA Super Regional for the second time in three years — and perhaps the program’s first Women’s College World Series in more than two decades.
“I was coming back in the fall anyways to finish my master’s degree. So I was like, what’s one more semester?” Boesel said. “Let’s lengthen it out so I can finish how I wanted. I didn’t want to end in the middle of March. I wanted to go all the way through June. So it was a pretty simple decision for me, and once I got the OK from the NCAA, I was ready to be back here.”
For Drotar in particular, the opportunity to come back was special after she suffered a concussion in the sixth game of the season, forcing her to miss several weeks that could have been her final opportunities to play.
“The concussion process took super long, longer than expected, so that was also a bummer for me. So as I was getting back into the process of coming back and actually going through the protocol to be back on the field with my team, the day that I actually got to come out here and pitch to some batters and practice again was the same day that they canceled the season,” Drotar said. “So it was a lot of emotions in my head, just like, ‘what the heck is going on?’ just seeing if we were going to be even able to have another shot at having another season. And I just remember, I was just so upset. And you know, I just felt kind of blank at the moment.”
The NCAA’s decision, Drotar said, was “a good opportunity” to come back and finish the right way.
The only “question mark” to come back, as Smith put it, was Maguire. And that wasn’t for lack of desire. She needed multiple surgeries during the offseason to fix some injury issues and took time to decide if she was physically capable.
“It was just figuring out what my body can handle,” Maguire said. “I’m very competitive, so I didn’t want to miss out on competing for one last year, especially with this group of girls. ... But just trusting the doctors here, trusting coach Bev, that they have my back and that if I can do it, I will, and if I can’t, I’ll still be a part of the team.”
That core quartet will complement a group of 10 freshmen joining the Gamecocks — the largest group of rookies Smith has signed in her time at USC. That blend of youth and experience has gone smoothly thus far.
“It’s been really fun to watch our graduates really be the mentors for this group,” Smith said. “I think it’s great that our freshmen get to experience playing with these old ladies ... it’s been fun to watch the mentorship that’s gone on during practice.”
As has become the standard for Smith’s program, the team is expected to contend for the NCAA tournament and more — in the four sets of preseason top-25 rankings released, the Gamecocks were in all of them, as high as No. 18.
“I think from the offensive side, we’ve really added a lot more team speed, we’ve added more lefty hitters. I think we’re gonna have some more options from the offensive side,” Smith said. “On the mound is probably one of our strengths, we’re deep. We have the seven pitchers on the mound. And I think that’s going to bode well based on our schedule this year, it looks a little bit different with a lot more doubleheaders.”
USC SOFTBALL
Preseason rank: No. 18 in Softball America, No. 18 in ESPN.com/USA Softball, No. 19 in USA Today coaches poll, No. 25 in D1Softball.
Opening Weekend tournament: 5 p.m. Friday vs. North Carolina.
1:30 p.m. Saturday vs. Louisville
4 p.m. Saturday vs. North Carolina
12:30 p.m. Sunday vs. Louisville
3 p.m. Sunday vs. UNC Greensboro
Season schedule note: The Gamecocks are slated to play in four tournaments to start the year, including two at home, before playing series against six ranked opponents, including five in the SEC.
3 players to watch: Redshirt senior infielder Kenzi Maguire, senior outfielder Katie Prebble, senior right-handed pitcher Kelsey Oh.
Beckham Field capacity: Limited to 400.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
