South Carolina softball reloads roster for 2026 campaign after historic season
Opening day of the 2026 season is right around the corner for South Carolina softball.
Head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard and the Gamecocks are hoping to build positive momentum off of one of the best seasons in program history in 2025.
Last year, South Carolina was picked to finish last in the SEC but finished with a 44-17 record and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals for the third time in program history. The Gamecocks were one out away from advancing to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since 1997 but lost the series to UCLA.
“I definitely think it haunted all of us for a little bit of time,” Chastain Woodard said recently of the loss. “But now I think it’s in a really healthy place. We’ve been removed enough from it to really, I think, take away the lessons that were learned and the momentum that has carried from the recruiting season back last summer for us as a staff, into our fall recruiting season. … I think you can feel the momentum.”
Heading into the 2026 season, South Carolina is ranked No. 14 in ESPN’s preseason rankings. The Gamecocks have returned several players from their run a season ago but are faced with replacing a few impact starters.
South Carolina added 14 new players to its roster for 2026. Of those, 10 come via the transfer portal and four are true freshmen. It sounds like the Gamecocks had their pick of the litter, though, as Chastain Woodard said plenty of portal players were “knocking on our door.”
The portal additions are: pitchers Emma Friedel (Kennesaw State), Julie Kelley (Kentucky), Josey Marron (Mississippi State), infielders Alyssa Hovermale (Florida) Lexie Shaver (Kennesaw State), Tate Davis (Ole Miss) and Sage Scarmardo (Purdue), utility players Precious Bross (Georgia) and Tori Ensley (NC State) and catcher Jamie Mackay (Ole Miss).
Meanwhile, two outfielders (Dakota Potter and Kai Byars), a utility player (Ansley Bennett) and a pitcher (KG Favors) make up the new true freshmen.
Chastain Woodard said her staff was recruiting the transfer portal before the 2025 season even ended. South Carolina wanted a “good mix of transfers” and increased its total players on the roster from 21 last year to 23 entering 2026.
“We needed a lot of players,” Chastain Woodard said. “If you really evaluated the roster and the climate of the sport, in our sport specifically, our roster is getting bigger. Whereas a lot of rosters in college are getting a little smaller, we were kind of in a different boat. So our roster got bigger. We needed a lot. We did lose some really key players last year.
In her first year at the helm, Chastain Woodard succeeded by finding talented transfers who were relatively unproven at the SEC level.
Take Arianna Rodi and Quincee Lilio, for example. Rodi was an all-conference player at Charlotte and found even more success at South Carolina, becoming the first player in program history to win a Rawlings Gold Glove Award. Lilio saw limited action in three years at powerhouse Oklahoma but burst onto the scene in 2025 and led the Gamecocks with a .359 batting average.
Chastain Woodard is leaning into that model in 2026 in hopes it reaps similar results.
“A lot of the talent we brought in is unproven at this level, maybe inexperienced is a better word than unproven,” Chastain Woodard said. “These are players that we know have a lot of talent that at their previous institution, for one reason or another, just didn’t get a lot of opportunity on the field. … I think that worked really well for us last year. That leans on our development system, which we’re really big on. We believe we’re going to bring players in and make them better.”
The transfers (and other players on the roster, for that matter) will be tasked with replacing key contributors from last year’s South Carolina team.
The Gamecocks will be without players including third baseman Ella Chancey, shortstop Brooke Blankenship, right fielder Abigail Knight and left fielder Emily Vinson, who all played between 59 and 61 games for USC last season. Chastain Woodard hopes players like NC State transfer Ensley and Ole Miss transfers Davis and Mackay can bring some extra pop to the lineup.
“I think holistically, our offense is bigger, we’re faster, and we’re definitely more powerful,” Chastain Woodard said. “… We want to be categorized as more of a passive offense at the end of the day, so that’s a fine line when you have a ton of power in the order. So we’ve tried to balance helping our players make really good swinging decisions with so much power in the order this year.”
In the pitcher’s circle, South Carolina will be looking for a new ace. The Gamecocks relied heavily on Sam Gress, who has since graduated and is coaching at JMU. She pitched 150 innings and earned an All-SEC nod.
South Carolina will have a deeper and “more dynamic” pitching staff this season, carrying seven pitchers on the roster. Jori Heard, who threw 140 innings and had a 2.79 ERA last season, has taken over as the “alpha” in the room, Chastain Woodard said. The Gamecocks also see potential in Friedel and Marron.
“You lose a lot in Sam Gress, not just pitching, but you lose a lot when someone like that walks out of your program,” Chastain Woodard said. “So we knew that those were big shoes to fill, and we just want a big pitching staff. …I think that Jori looks better than she’s ever looked right now, definitely on a mission. I think from a leadership, kind of alpha standpoint, she’s definitely taken over Sam’s role internally.”
South Carolina softball opening day 2026
- Who: South Carolina vs. Virginia Tech
- Where: Carolina Softball Stadium at Beckham Field in Columbia, South Carolina.
- When: Thursday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m.
This story was originally published January 23, 2026 at 8:00 AM.
