South Carolina softball smashed expectations in 2025 — and raised them for future
South Carolina softball’s season had been nothing short of a fairy tale this year.
Unfortunately the magic ran out.
The Gamecocks were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on May 25 after falling to UCLA 5-0 on in game three of the Columbia Super Regional. The loss ended South Carolina’s season at 44-17 and sent UCLA to the Women’s College World Series. Had the Gamecocks won, it would’ve been their first appearance at the WCWS since 1997.
“I just have so much gratitude for the year and the season,” an emotional Ashley Chastain Woodard said. “Ending a season is never easy and you work really hard to play as long as you can. I just am filled with so much gratitude and so much pride. I’m just so proud of the program, I’m so proud of the players and just this first year of laying the foundation of who we’re going to be from here on out. It was really special.”
The loss will sting for a while, but there’s plenty to be celebrated.
Chastain Woodard, a former Gamecock herself, was brought home to overhaul a program that had seen some success in recent years but failed to make a mark in the postseason in nearly a decade. When South Carolina was picked to finish last in the SEC, it seemed like Chastain Woodard was up against Herculean odds.
Nevertheless, the Gamecocks persisted.
They opened the season with a 20-0 record, tying the for the best start in program history.
Then South Carolina got to SEC play and cobbled together a 13-11 record in one of the toughest college softball conferences. It was just the second time in 22 years the Gamecocks recorded a winning record in conference play.
“I said from the beginning that I wanted to get the league from the bottom to the middle,” Chastain Woodard said. “I felt like if we could get ourselves up in the middle of the league standing that we’d have a chance to host. Obviously that came true for us. So I thought that was a huge step in the right direction.”
All that regular season success earned the Gamecocks a national seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“(This season) set the expectations for us,” South Carolina catcher Lexi Winters said. “I think it has transformed the way that people look at South Carolina and all we can do is build off of it.”
Suddenly the team picked to finish last in its conference was in the national conversation and hosting a regional for the first time since 2018.
The Gamecocks breezed through the Columbia Regional, sweeping the competition and only allowing two runs in the process. Just like that, South Carolina was playing in just its third super regional ever and its first since 2018.
In Game 1 of the series, when South Carolina shellacked No. 9 UCLA 9-2 to open the Columbia Super Regional (its first win in a super ever), it felt like you could mark down a trip to Oklahoma City and the WCWS on your calendar with a Sharpie.
The confidence Gamecock fans felt at the conclusion of Game 1 built to a crescendo as South Carolina headed into the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 2 with a 4-1 lead.
Then the momentum shifted.
UCLA scored four in the final frame last Saturday and capped off the Bruins’ comeback with a two-out walk-off home run.
South Carolina was unable to get anything going in Game 3 in the season-ending loss, leaving the Gamecocks with an unfortunate reality: They were a single out away from advancing to the WCWS for the first time in nearly 30 years but couldn’t finish it off.
“It’ll stick with me for a long time that we came (up) short, I can tell you that,” Chastain Woodard said. “I can say that I will hold on to that for a while.”
But there’s plenty to look on for the bright side. Chastain Woodard exceeded all outside expectations in year one, though she’ll be the first to tell you that USC expected to make it this far.
She broke the program record for first-year wins, her team set various statistical program records and she’s built a rock-solid foundation for the program going forward.
“I’m grateful to lead this program,” Chastain Woodard said. “Really proud of where it’s at and really excited about the future. When you lay a foundation like this one, you’re really excited for what’s to come.”
It won’t all look the exact same next year though. South Carolina will lose a lot of experienced veterans, specifically two sixth-years, four seniors and a redshirt senior from this year’s squad. Of those players, six were in the starting lineup (Ella Chancey, Brooke Blankenship, Abigail Knight, Emma Sellers, Emily Vinson and Sam Gress) for the Gamecocks in their final game.
USC plans to be active in the transfer portal, Chastain Woodard said, and a season like this year puts the program in the minds of recruits who likely wouldn’t have considered South Carolina before.
“It has an opportunity to really bring in some great players from other places. ... There were recruits all in the stands all weekend,” Chastain Woodard said. “I have to believe that it will be a game changer for the quality of player that we’re able to talk to and that we’re in the conversation with.”
Moral victories only go so far for players, coaches and fans. But what South Carolina accomplished this season isn’t just a moral victory, it’s a legitimate step in the right direction for the long-term success of the program.
Chastain Woodard is excited for the future. South Carolina’s fans should be too.
“I just love this place so much,” Chastain Woodard said. “In the process of building the team and the wins and the losses, I don’t know, I fell back in love with this place. I’m just really excited for the future. I really am. I think that the respect that we earned on a national level in softball, I think, is really a big deal for me.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2025 at 8:55 AM.
