South Carolina softball opens NCAA Tournament with win over Elon
South Carolina softball started off the NCAA Tournament with a win Friday night.
The Gamecocks beat Elon 5-2 to stay in the winners bracket for the remainder of the weekend.
South Carolina, the No. 8 national seed in the tournament and hosting a regional for the first time since 2018, is now set for a matchup with North Florida at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Elon opened the game with three straight singles, the last of which brought home a run to make it 1-0. South Carolina pitcher Nealy Lamb responded by striking out three straight batters after giving up the early run.
The Gamecocks returned the favor in the bottom of the first. South Carolina scored three runs and took a 3-1 lead after two hits. Lexi Winters brought in two runners after reaching on an error. Brooke Blankenship brought Winters home with an RBI double.
“Obviously a great night for the Gamecocks,” South Carolina head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard said. “The crowd was awesome. I thought the atmosphere was wonderful. We got off to a slow start a little bit there in he first and the second, but I thought the offense looked really good in the bottom of the first. I think right away, we stayed confident and we trusted the plan.”
Elon cut into South Carolina’s lead in the top of the second. Greta Hessenthaler doubled into right with two outs, bringing home a runner in the process to make it 3-2. The run ended Lamb’s outing in the pitching circle. She finished with two earned runs and five hits in 1.2 innings pitched.
“It’s a big stage and Nealy is still really young,” Chastain Woodard said. “… We’re asking Nealy to do something that she’s never done before, so there’s just going to be a little bit of growing pains, I think, along the way with her. But we believe in her. And I even went in the locker room, I think the first thing I said was, ‘Hey, we got you, we’re going to keep calling your name. You got to give us some innings through the postseason,’ because we’re better with her than without her.”
South Carolina jumped back out in front courtesy of power bat Arianna Rodi in the bottom of the third inning. Rodi sent a change-up over the wall in center field for a two-run home run that gave the Gamecocks a 5-2 lead. The homer was her 17th of the season and all South Carolina needed on offense for the rest of the night.
“Rodi doing Rodi things,” Chastain Woodard said with a smile.
Jori Heard took over for Lamb in the top of the second and proceeded to put together a nearly perfect outing.
Heard limited Elon to just one hit for the remainder of the game, retiring 16 of the 17 batters she faced. She finished with six strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched.
“Jori’s 5.1 innings, six strikeouts, obviously one hit, no runs scored was the performance we needed from her,” Chastain Woodard said. “We’re going to challenge her to have those performances the rest of the way. I thought she looked really sharp and really good.”
Columbia Regional schedule
All games played at Carolina Softball Stadium. TV or streaming details listed where available. Full bracket can be seen here.
Game 1: North Florida beats Virginia 2-1
Game 2: South Carolina beats Elon 5-2
Game 3: North Florida vs South Carolina (Saturday at 1 p.m.)
Game 4: Virginia vs Elon (Saturday at 3:30 p.m.)
Game 5: Winner of Game 4 vs loser of Game 3 (Saturday at 6 p.m.)
Region final: Winner of Game 3 vs Winner of Game 5 (Sunday at 1 p.m. on ESPN2)*
*if necessary, second game of regional final will be played Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 8:11 PM.
