'Hometown hero' Lexi Winters gears up for first postseason as a Gamecock

Lexi Winters is living the dream. This is what she has always wanted to do, from the time she became a bat girl for South Carolina softball as a child.

Her parents took her to as many games as they could when she was growing up. She sat through every game at Beckham Field when the Gamecocks last hosted a regional in 2018. It didn’t matter if it was her favorite team playing or one of the other teams; she was there for every game.

She called it “a dream come true” when she got the call from head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard to come home and play for her. But what lies ahead this weekend might be the next best thing.

Winters and South Carolina will open postseason play in the NCAA Tournament on Friday. Hosting their first regional since that 2018 season, the Gamecocks will face Elon at Beckham Field (5:30 p.m., ESPN Plus).

“It’s awesome,” Winters said ahead of her third trip to the tournament and first as a Gamecock. “… Just being able to be on the same dirt as people from the past, like Coach Ash, it’s just amazing.”

It’s already been a memorable season for South Carolina, winners of 40 games in Chastain Woodard’s first year. The Gamecocks find themselves not just a regional host but in a position to play a super regional in Columbia next weekend as a top-eight seed if they advance.

Stay on top of all things Gamecocks for just $1 for 7 days—lock in this special offer today!

Winters has played a big part in leading the turnaround in her first season with the team. After following Chastain Woodard and transferring from Charlotte, the junior catcher has hit .325 with five homers and 45 RBI this year, a significant jump from her numbers with the 49ers.

Offensive improvements are clear, but behind the plate, her defense remains consistently good. Not many players have run on the 2024 American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. So far, she’s thrown out eight runners in 13 stolen base attempts.

“I’ll shout it from the rooftops that Lexi Winters is the best catcher in the country. She’s so good at what she does,” Chastain Woodard said. “She’s the backbone of our defense, she’s the backbone of our pitching staff. We couldn’t have a better one. She’s one of the best defensive catchers in the country.”

Winters has also been responsible for working closely with South Carolina’s pitching staff, which owns a collective 3.16 ERA. Starting in all 55 games, she previously caught Sam Gress and Kadie Becker from their time together at Charlotte. The other pitchers — Jori Heard, Olivia Kotowski and Nealy Lamb — were all new to her when she arrived last summer.

“Just taking the time out of practice, free time, open days of just being able to work with them in the bullpen, creating the relationship, kind of figuring out how they work, things that they like, cues, sayings,” Winters said of working with the pitchers.

“That’s kind of just what I focus on, and just paying attention to the priority at hand, which kind of helps me slow down the game a little bit, which is a priority before every pitch is making sure the pitcher is balanced and in the right mindset, everything they need to do.”

Winters has earned a thumbs up from Chastain Woodard, who has seen firsthand how much she’s grown over the years.

“She’s really worked on her craft early,” Chastain Woodard said, “like freshman, sophomore year, of just really mentally, growing up a lot, learning how to play a game at this level, and then just receiving and just how good she is with her glove behind the plate and her communication with the pitcher and umpire.”

The job is not over yet, though. South Carolina is vying to make it to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since 1997. If that’s going to happen, Chastain Woodard knows Winters, the local product from Lexington, will be critical to going on a deep postseason run.

“I just could not be more excited that she’s here,” she said. “She’s a hometown hero, and she’s having an opportunity to finish her career in the garnet and black. It’s really special.”

Visit The Insiders Forum, our exclusive Gamecocks-only, no-trolls message board!