South Carolina's Aniyah Black drills first-inning grand slam for early advantage in regional elimination game
South Carolina softball is off and running in its elimination game against Utah on Sunday afternoon. With the bases loaded in the top of the first inning, senior Aniyah Black crushed a grand slam over the left field fence to secure a 4-0 lead for the Gamecocks.
Aniyah Black entered the game batting a career-high .289 this season while boasting five home runs. With the grand slam, Black tied her personal single-season home run mark with six, which she recorded last year.
South Carolina previously defeated Utah 2-1 on Friday in the Durham Regional. The winner of their rematch will advance to face off against Duke at 3:30 p.m. ET.
This is South Carolina’s 24th appearance in the NCAA Tournament as a program. The Gamecocks have made the NCAA Tournament in nine of the last 11 seasons. Entering the tournament, South Carolina had played 23 games against top-25 RPI teams, ninth most in the country.
Further, the Gamecocks’ previous 18 games before the tournament were all against top-25 opponents. South Carolina has only reached the Women’s College World Series three times in program history, most recently in 1997.
Alabama HC Patrick Murphy records 1,300th career win
On Friday, Alabama softball head coach Patrick Murphy secured his 1,300th career win with a 1-0 victory over USC Upstate in the Crimson Tide’s first game in the 2024 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional. Instead of raving about his accomplishment after the game, Murphy praised his players.
“To have two freshmen [pitchers] in their first postseason starts put together performances like that was remarkable to see,” Murphy said. “Kudos to [Upstate pitcher Sierra Maness] and Jocelyn Briski. She has been doing a great job for us this year.
“In the postseason, it’s survive and advance. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1-0, 8-0 or 10-9 — you only need to score one more run than the other team. USC Upstate made a lot of plays as did our defense. Briski was awesome and Bailey Dowling came up with the key hit.”
Alabama’s pitching was excellent in the win on Friday, only giving up two hits and a walk to USC Upstate while delivering three strikeouts. Briski pitched for 6.1 innings before Kayla Beaver came in to close the game.
Alabama’s stellar defense was nothing new. Friday marked the Crimson Tide’s 15th shutout victory of the season and its third when tied after 5.0 innings. Jenna Johnson and Bailey Dowling led the way on offense, each recording two hits, their ninth and seventh multi-hit performances of the season, respectively.