Nealy Lamb ready to go for 'bigger and better' at South Carolina after strong freshman campaign
After the season she had, Nealy Lamb knew she wanted something “bigger and better” for herself.
In her first year of college softball at Charleston Southern, Lamb had a campaign for the ages. The right-handed pitcher went 12-9 with a conference-leading 1.78 ERA, pitching five shutouts and recording four saves in the process. She finished with 130 strikeouts in 137.2 innings pitched.
As a result, Lamb became the first player in Big South history to be named Big South All-Freshman, Freshman of the Year, Pitcher of the Year and First-Team All-Conference in the same season.
Unsurprisingly, teams took notice and were quickly looking to recruit her when she entered the transfer portal. But when South Carolina came calling, it was a done deal.
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“I was still kind of early in the process, trying to keep my options open,” Lamb told GamecockCentral. “And then Carolina reached out and I was like, ‘Okay, never mind, this is where I want to go.'”
Lamb, a Cades, S.C. native, made her commitment to the Gamecocks official on Wednesday night. It’s a massive pickup in the early stages of head coach Ashley Chastain’s first year in Columbia.
“The SEC has always been a dream of mine,” Lamb said. “I grew up in South Carolina going to football, basketball, softball games. My mom’s actually an alumni from USC. So I’ve always grown up a Carolina fan. And then with the whole coaching change, I was actually a big fan of all of their coaching staff. So everything fell into place for me, honestly.”
For Lamb, she said her best attribute as a pitcher is her height. And it makes sense why that would be the case as she stands at 5-foot-11.
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“Definitely my height. That’s definitely an advantage going to a bigger school,” Lamb said. “I think I have some pretty good spin on my ball. I have some good confidence on the mound. Very much like a good presence I would say. I don’t really get shaken up easily. I try to pretty much stay solid through the whole game.”
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But she also credited her family pushing her for why she found early success as a freshman.
“With my parents, they’ve always been big sending me to lessons and all of that. So I kind of just really put everything into that. And it just all fell right in place,” Lamb said. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting any awards. I just thought I had a pretty good season and I was thankful for it. But it ended up working out for me.”
Now at South Carolina, Lamb is hopeful she can get off to a good start next season and build off what she did last year. More so than that, she’s just happy to be staying home.
I’m really excited to compete represent my state,” she said. “Honestly, I just can’t wait to get out there and show them that Gamecock softball is a force to be reckoned with.”
