Gamecocks sweep Liberty Sunday to win Columbia Regional
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) – For the first time in 11 years, the Gamecocks have reached the Super Regionals of the NCAA Tournament, finishing a Sunday two-game sweep of Liberty with a 5-0 victory Sunday night.
Following Carolina’s loss to the Flames Saturday afternoon, Beverly Smith’s team had to win three-straight elimination games to advance past Regional round action. The process began with a dramatic 5-4 walk-off victory over Hofstra Saturday night via Krystan White’s two-run homer. USC then shut out Liberty in their pair of Championship Round games Sunday thanks to 14 scoreless innings thrown by Dixie Raley and Cayla Drotar.
Following their 2-0 win and a half hour wait between contests, the garnet and black got on the board first with two on in the bottom of the second. Kenzi Maguire’s grounder was bobbled on the catch, trying to force Tiara Duffy out at second base, allowing White to race home.
South Carolina’s offense then exploded to score four insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth via a White RBI double, a Mackenzie Boesel two-RBI triple, and a Drotar RBI single.
In their previous five-straight postseason appearances, USC had never reached further than the Championship round of their regional. It’s their first trip to Supers since 2007 and just their second trip to this round in program history.
UPDATE: 11:30 p.m. Sunday
The ninth-seeded Gamecocks will travel to Tempe for a Super Regional showdown with eighth-seeded Arizona State. The Sun Devils swept all three of their games in their opening round of postseason play, capping off a clean run with a 9-0 victory over Ole Miss Sunday night. Winner of the best of three series will earn one of eight spots in the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
It will be the second-straight season the Gamecocks travel to the state of Arizona for the NCAA Tournament. USC was eliminated in the Tuscon Regional Championship round by host Arizona in 2017.
