South Carolina hiring former Gamecock as next head softball coach
South Carolina is expected to hire Charlotte head softball coach and former Gamecocks pitcher Ashley Chastain as its next softball coach.
The hire is expected be approved during a board of trustees meeting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
In five years at Charlotte, Chastain compiled a 154-96 record, leading the 49ers to the program’s first-ever outright regular season conference championship in 2023.
That also included the first at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament in program history.
Chastain and the 49ers followed that up with more success in 2024 tallying a 39-18 overall record, a second straight trip to the tournament, and a share of the Conference USA regular season championship.
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Prior to her coaching career, Chastain pitched for three seasons at South Carolina and finished 11th in career relief appearances for the Gamecocks. She led the team in starts, innings pitched, and ERA during her junior season. She was a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. She served as a graduate assistant coach for South Carolina following her playing career. In 2012-13 she served as the pitching coach for the German National Team.
Chastain served as the pitching coach at Ole Miss, Michigan State and the College of Charleston. She helped the Ole Miss Rebels to the NCAA Super Regionals and was named the 2019 Softball America Pitching Coach of the Year.
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With the Rebels, she helped the team advance to the NCAA Super Regionals in 2019 with a 41-20 record, boasting a 2.29 team ERA and a .238 opponents’ batting average. The Rebels won the NCAA Oxford Regional, allowing only seven runs over five games, to advance to the Super Regionals. In 2018, Ole Miss posted a 32-25 record and advanced to the NCAA Regionals with a 2.80 team ERA.
The Rebels posted 24 shutouts over Chastain’s two seasons. In 2019, the Rebels had the fifth-lowest ERA and third-most strikeouts in the SEC. Her staff included newcomer Molly Jacobsen, a junior college transfer who earned Second Team All-SEC and Second Team NFCA All-South Region honors. In 2018, one of Chastain’s stars, Kaitlin Lee, became the second Rebel ever selected in the NPF Draft (4th round, Aussie Spirit).
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Chastain was an assistant pitching coach for one season at Michigan State, helping the Spartans to a 34-24 overall record and a run to the Big Ten Tournament semifinals and the National Invitational Softball Championships (NISC). The Michigan State pitching staff lowered its team ERA by nearly a run and a half from the previous season.
Chastain was the pitching coach for three seasons at the College of Charleston and helped the Cougars to a 99-68 record during that span. In her final season with the Cougars, College of Charleston had a 35-23 record while the pitching staff posted the eighth-lowest opponent batting average (.242) in school history. She produced four All-Colonial Athletic Association players and three NFCA All-Region stars in her three years.
Chastain’s Charlotte bio heavily contributed to this report.
