Super start: South Carolina upends UCLA in NCAA softball series opener
South Carolina softball is now one win away from punching its ticket to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
The No. 8 seed Gamecocks beat No. 9 UCLA 9-2 on Friday in Game 1 of the NCAA Tournament super regional series. Head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard and her team earned the victory in front of a sold-out crowd at Carolina Softball Stadium. This is South Carolina’s first win in a super regional.
South Carolina now has two opportunities to win one more game in the best-of-three series. The teams play again at 1 p.m. Saturday.
“It’s a big win. When you feel in your bones that you’re one win away from the World Series, I don’t know if I can put words to it,” Chastain Woodard said. “We’re just so excited. I thought we played really well, and that’s what we talked about all week, is that we’re just going to play really well at this point in the year, because everyone’s good.”
Two-Out Bandits strike again
Right fielder Abigail Knight nicknamed the Gamecocks the “Two-Out Bandits” last weekend after South Carolina beat North Florida in the regional finale by scoring all of eight its runs with two outs.
Like clockwork, the Two-Out Bandits were working their magic Friday afternoon.
In the bottom of the first, South Carolina catcher Lexi Winters got the Gamecocks on the scoreboard with a two-run home run. Winters came up to the plate with two outs, a runner on base and proceeded to work into a full count before blasting a ball over the wall in dead center to give South Carolina a 2-0 lead.
“I was looking for a strike over the heart of the plate and just something I could get a good barrel to,” Winters said of her approach. “I knew we had a runner at first, all I was trying to do is put the ball deep into the field and let (Quincee Lilio) run around.”
Brooke Blankenship kept the rally alive in the first. She doubled down the right field line to bring home Ella Chancey (who reached after being hit by a pitch) to make it a 3-0 game.
The following inning, South Carolina found itself working some more two-out magic.
Gamecocks first baseman Arianna Rodi came up with two out and brought in two runners with a single, giving South Carolina a 5-0 lead.
Rodi’s two-RBI single prompted UCLA to take its starting pitcher, Kaitlyn Terry, out of the game.
After two scoreless innings, the Two-Out Bandits made another appearance in the bottom of the fifth inning. Knight came to the plate with two outs and doubled into right center, bringing home Blankenship and Chancey and giving South Carolina a 7-2 lead.
South Carolina added more in the sixth inning, but this time the Gamecocks didn’t need the help of the Two-Out Bandits. Winters added another RBI to her total on the day (3) with a single, then Chancey did the same with a sac fly to give the Gamecocks a 9-2 lead.
“We’re not playing to not lose, we’re playing to go to OKC, and I think that’s exactly what we did today,” Winters said. “We grabbed all the momentum when we could, and if we felt anything kind of shifting, we went ahead and took it back. So I think that’s exactly what we’re going to do tomorrow.”
The runs in the sixth ended a streak of 18 consecutive runs South Carolina scored with two outs.
Heard starts, Gress finishes
Junior pitcher Jori Heard started in the pitchers circle for the Gamecocks on Friday afternoon.
Heard kept one of the best offenses in D1 softball under wraps in the beginning of the game. In her first three innings of work she kept UCLA scoreless and allowed just one hit while striking out two batters.
UCLA got to Heard in the top of the fourth. The Bruins were able to tally three hits off Heard and left her responsible for two runs in the inning, making it a 5-2 game.
Chastain Woodard swapped once ace for another and replaced Heard with Sam Gress, who got the final out of the inning in the fourth. Typically Gress is swapped for Heard in games, but Chastain Woodard said she wanted to save Gress for higher-leverage moments late in the game.
Gress kept the Bruins off the board for the rest of the game. She allowed four hits and struck out two batters in 3.1 innings of work. Gress even showed off her All-SEC Defensive Team skills with a diving catch in the top of the sixth inning.
“Sam has so much grit,” Winters said. “She’s going to do everything she can to win, to make the play, to give the team the momentum and the energy. That’s exactly what she did with that play, and I think that just propelled us forward for the rest of the game.”
Columbia Super Regional softball schedule
All games played at Carolina Softball Stadium. TV or streaming details listed where available. Full bracket can be seen here.
Game 1: South Carolina 9, UCLA 2
Game 2: South Carolina vs UCLA, Saturday at 1 p.m. (ESPN)
*Game 3: South Carolina vs UCLA, Sunday, time TBD (TV TBD)
*if necessary
This story was originally published May 23, 2025 at 3:30 PM.
