Shortstop Samie Garcia went 4-for-4 against Presbyterian College Saturday
The South Carolina softball team would not be overshadowed by the USC baseball team in its home games this weekend.
Rain canceled the Friday opener against Elon, but the Gamecocks had no problem starting a day off-schedule in the Gamecock Invitational. They took the weekend with a 4-2 win over George Washington after beating Appalachian State and Presbyterian College 7-4 and 8-1, respectively, on Saturday.
The win against Presbyterian was the most impressive of the Gamecocks’ three weekend games. Seven players crossed home plate for USC and four different players drove in runs. The Gamecocks scored a run in every inning but the first and were one run shy of applying the mercy rule to PC.
“I thought our defense played very well today, holding the other teams to low scoring games,” said head coach Beverly Smith. “Offensively we did a great job getting our leadoff runners on and making things happen from there.”
PC didn’t fare quite so well on defense, allowing 12 hits, six earned runs and two more runs off an error. The Blue Hose also used two pitchers during the course of the game.
South Carolina, on the other hand, would receive a strong performance out of freshman pitcher Katelyn Howser. Howser pitched a complete game, allowing one run on two hits and striking out 10. This was the first double-digit strikeout game for Gamecock softball since February of 2010. Howser’s day wasn’t completely perfect however, as she would walk eight batters, one shy of the school record for walks in a game.
“I thought it was good that she threw a complete game and she had a lot of strikeouts that were nice,” Smith said. “She had way too many walks though. She left way too many people on and she is better than that.”
Offensively the Gamecocks were led by junior shortstop Samie Garcia, who went 4-for-4 to improve her team-high average to .457. As leadoff hitter, she would also drive in the first run of the game in the second inning and add with a stolen base in the fourth.
“I just made a conscious effort to be aggressive and really focus,” Garcia said. “Whenever I lead off an inning I always try to just get on top of the ball and it just really worked out for me today.”
Garcia showed great resilience at the plate as well. She was called out on two of her at-bats and had both outs overturned by illegal pitches by PC. When given a second opportunity, Garcia produced base hits both times.
“We just really focus on one thing and really work on hitting the ball up the middle as much as we can,” Garcia said. “I think when you do that, it will all come together in the games.”
Garcia wasn’t the only one to hit perfectly against PC. Junior catcher Shelby Gonzales went 2-for-2 with her first career home run in the fifth inning and another RBI single in the sixth. Third basemen Evan Childs, a senior, went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer in the fourth. Senior centerfielder Lauren Lackey also turned in a productive day. She went 3-for-4 with a run scored.
“If one person gets on top of the ball and lines it out it will become contagious,” Garcia said. “When everyone jumps on the bandwagon you’ll see good thing happen.”
South Carolina (10-3, 0-0) will hope to take their weekend momentum into tonight’s double-header against Charleston Southern (9-4, 0-0).