The Daily Gamecock

Softball gets win at No. 12 LSU

Photo by Travis Bell, ©2013
Photo by Travis Bell, ©2013
USC

South Carolina recorded its most impressive win of the season Sunday at No. 12 LSU, giving the team their first SEC victory of the season.

Sophomore outfielder Kristen Struett grabbed the spotlight with two RBI singles and one double to help secure the win. She credits her teammates for making the proper adjustments from the previous two games.

“It was just a big step, I think, for the whole team. Obviously it was a great personal accomplishment for me, but I was just proud that I made the adjustments from the previous two games of the series and so did the rest of the team,” Struett said.

Coach Beverly Smith was also proud of the team’s adjustments.

“We dropped the first two games, and I thought that they made really great adjustments going into game three and fought for seven innings,” Smith said. “So I’m really excited for the team because we battled really tough against Alabama and didn’t get the win — so they were definitely rewarded for their efforts on Sunday.”

Smith said that Struett’s preparation helped the team as well.

“Struett does a super job making adjustments and is just really tough to get out 3 times,” Smith said. “She’s very knowledgeable about the game, but she takes a lot of information away from her at-bats, so she definitely goes in ready to make an adjustment.”

In preparation for last Sunday, Struett said the Gamecocks had made several goals to keep themselves on the right track.

“We made it a goal in batting practice to not hit a single ball out of the ballpark,” Smith said. “We wanted to make sure we hit line drives and to get the ball out of the ground because that was our main goal — and to get on base.”

With each victory, Smith encourages the players to continue to do their very best as well as to challenge them to think ahead of the game and stay focused.

“One of the things that I said to them after the game was that I wanted them to remember what this felt like, because when we’re playing our brand of softball, we can play and beat anybody in the country,” Smith said. “And I wanted them to remember that.”

The Gamecocks will take on Missouri this weekend, and Struett said she hopes they can continue improving.

“We can’t settle for winning one game of a series,” Struett said. “We need to make sure we push to win a series, get a sweep and believe that we can beat any team that we face.”


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