Two-out magic continues as South Carolina takes Super Regional opener

Going into this weekend, South Carolina’s focus has been more on itself rather than on UCLA. That’s been its strategy all year, which didn’t mean there wasn’t any preparation for the opponent on the other side.

The Gamecocks knew what they were facing with UCLA’s Kaitlyn Terry in the circle. A left-handed pitcher with a good rise ball to complement her changeup. So when head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard saw this in her scouting report, she knew success was possible.

“If you kind of look back at our offense, some of the tougher things that we have faced are actually down,” Chastain Woodard said. “So I thought we were going to hit her well, just because of what she presents, and we’ve hit rise well.”

Chastain Woodard’s confidence would be proven right as No. 8 South Carolina scored five runs off Terry in the first two innings en route to a 9-2 win in game one of the Columbia Super Regional on Friday. It moves one win away from clinching a Women’s College World Series berth for the first time since 1997.

All five of those runs came with two outs, something that’s become a trend for a team that has been calling itself the Two-Out Bandits. It started in the first inning when Lexi Winters sent a 3-2 pitch over the centerfield wall for a two-run homer.

Winters, who drove in another run later in the sixth, said she had tickets for 22 people, made up of family and friends, at Friday’s game. The Lexington native went 2-for-3 with three RBI on the day.

“Just being able to look up into the stands and see all my family and all my close friends from growing up, and then getting to look down and see my current family with the team, and just seeing them all there for me, it’s just amazing,” Winters said. “I’m just so grateful for the opportunity to be back here and just take it one day at a time and enjoy everything I can.”

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The two-out rally continued after Brooke Blankenship won an 11-pitch at-bat with an RBI double, putting up a three-spot right out of the gate. Then, in the second, Arianna Rodi brought home a pair of runs with a two-out single into left center. After knocking Terry out of the game after 1.2 innings, the Gamecocks (44-15) had all of the early momentum.

UCLA eventually got itself going in the fourth with two runs off Jori Heard, who lasted 3.2 innings in her first start this postseason. But once Sam Gress came in from the bullpen, the Bruins went through a challenging rest of the afternoon at the plate.

Gress, who tossed 8.2 shutout innings in two regional starts, kept UCLA scoreless in 3.1 innings of work. The sixth-year pitcher allowed four hits and struck out two with one walk on 70 pitches to earn the win in the circle.

“We really wanted to be able to leverage Sam in higher moments in the game, and usually those are later in the game,” Chastain Woodard said on why Gress pitched out of relief rather than start. “So, just to be able to bring Sam in at the right opportunity, I felt like it was the move for game one.”

South Carolina wasted little time getting those runs back as Abigail Knight ripped a two-run double into the gap with two outs in the fifth. In four games so far this postseason, 19 of the offense’s 25 runs have been in two-out situations. This included a streak of 18 two-out runs being scored, which lasted until the sixth, when the team’s final two runs came with one out.

“I think we have production all the way through, and then you have more than one pitcher that can get it done. I think the equation of that ends up in Oklahoma,” Chastain Woodard said of the offense. “… I don’t know if you can buy that kind of feeling this time of the year, that the weight of the world, or, you know, the weight of the game, is not on your shoulders. So I think it’s huge, and it’ll be the reason we go (to the WCWS).”

Regardless of how the runs have crossed the plate, they’ve given the Gamecocks the edge going into a potential clinching game on Saturday.

“We get to go into tomorrow and play with no pressure on our backs at all,” Rodi said. “We’re gonna go out there and play South Carolina softball. So I think it was crucial to win that first game. It puts us at a really good advantage.”

Up next: South Carolina can advance to the Women’s College World Series with a win in game two against UCLA. First pitch on Saturday is at 1 p.m. on ESPN.

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