South Carolina softball drops tough road series against Arkansas

South Carolina softball had a tough test this weekend. The Gamecocks had to travel to Fayetteville for their seventh ranked series in a row. In the end, the home Arkansas Razorbacks took two out of three in the series.

Here’s how the weekend went in the top-10 matchup.

Game One

Things didn’t start well for the garnet and black. The Hogs run-ruled the Gamecocks 10-2 in six innings. The defeat was the second run-rule loss of the year for Ashley Chastain Woodard’s team.

Jori Heard started the game in the circle but didn’t have her best command. Despite that, she limited the damage to just one Arkansas run through 2.1 innings pitched. Sam Gress and Kadie Becker struggled in relief, and the Razorbacks poured on the runs.

Offensively, the Gamecocks couldn’t get much going. With just three hits for the game, USC also struck out nine times. That bad combination resulted in two manufactured runs, one on a fielder’s choice, and another on a delayed double steal. Carolina had just one hit after the first batter of the second inning.

The tough start to the series could have led to a bad weekend, but the two remaining games proved to be competitive.

Game Two

South Carolina softball got into a hole early on Saturday (combined with Friday night, they’d been outscored 13-0 in their last four frames). Building off of their dominant win in the opener, Arkansas quickly shot out to a 4-0 lead. However, the Gamecocks bounced back into form to score the final five runs to win 5-4.

Despite the early deficit, the Gamecocks kept fighting. Carolina strung together four hits in the third inning, resulting in two runs. Then, in the fifth, slugger Arianna Rodi smashed a three-run bomb to center that put USC ahead.

Defensive miscues hurt the team’s cause early. Arkansas picked up two unearned runs in the first inning following a pair of errors, and the Hogs chased starting pitcher Jori Heard from the game thanks to the issues in the field. Thankfully for the Gamecocks, Nealy Lamb and Sam Gress combined to surrender just one run in six innings of relief work. Lamb’s work seemed to settle South Carolina down, and Gress attacked the strike zone to back up Lamb’s win with a save.

Game Three

Sunday’s rubber match didn’t go South Carolina’s way, but it was another competitive matchup. Arkansas wound up winning 5-4 in a reversal of Saturday’s score.

Ella Chancey and Karley Shelton were responsible for most of the offense on Sunday. The duo combined for four hits, three RBI, and two runs; Chancey launched her second home run of the season. The rest of the team logged just three hits, and the only other RBI came on a failed fielder’s choice.

USC pitching wasn’t bad in game three, but Arkansas’s bats managed to win the big moments. With Carolina leading 2-0, Heard issued a leadoff walk in the second. Then, Atalyia Rijo took her deep to tie the score. A weird stretch of wild pitches and passed balls doomed the Gamecocks to give up a run in the third, too. Still, they led 3-4 through three innings. Gress pitched pretty well but gave up a solo home run and an HBP with the bases loaded. Those two runs were enough, though, as Arkansas pitcher Robyn Herron withstood four hits in the last two innings without allowing anyone wearing black to cross home plate.

Next Up

South Carolina softball will return home next week. The Gamecocks play once in the mid-week before another three-game weekend series in conference play.

The mid-week contest is no ordinary mid-week contest, though. Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m., the South Carolina Gamecocks and Clemson Tigers will meet for round two of the Palmetto State’s top rivalry in Clemson. ACC Network will broadcast the game, and the ESPN app will make it available for streaming. USC won the previous meeting 6-0 in Columbia.

Then, for a Saturday-Sunday-Monday series, the Kentucky Wildcats will travel to Columbia. Coming off of three straight wins in the non-conference, UK could push back into the top-25 rankings before the series begins. Below are the game times and television/streaming information for the series.

• Game 1: Saturday, April 18th (3:00 p.m.) streamed on SEC Network+
• Game 2: Sunday, April 4th (6:00 p.m.)streamed on SEC Network+
• Game 3: Monday, April 5th (7:00 p.m.) broadcast on SEC Network, streamed on ESPN app

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