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Fighting back tears, Ashley Chastain Woodard 'fell back in love' with South Carolina softball
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- Fighting back tears, Ashley Chastain Woodard 'fell back in love' with South Carolina softball
COLUMBIA — Ashley Chastain Woodard spent three seasons as a player for South Carolina softball with no idea that she'd change the program for the better as a coach a decade later.
Chastain Woodard was hired in June to replace Bev Smith after 14 seasons, a move made by athletic director Ray Tanner three months before his retirement.
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As a pitcher for South Carolina from 2009-11, the Gamecocks never made the NCAA tournament.
The Gamecocks were picked to finish last in the SEC this season but proved the voters wrong.
South Carolina earned the No. 8 national seed and hosted a super regional for the first time in school history.
The season ended for the Gamecocks (44-17) on May 25 with a 5-0 loss to UCLA (54-11) in Game 3 of the Columbia Super Regional. UCLA advanced to its 33rd Women's College World Series.
"I just love this place so much" Chastain Woodard said while fighting back tears. "In the process of building the team, the wins and the loses, I fell back in love with this place. I'm just really excited for the future and I think the respect that we earned on a national level in softball is a big deal."
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South Carolina won the super regional opener 9-2 on May 23 and the Gamecocks were one win away from their first WCWS appearance since 1997.
Despite a 4-1 lead in the seventh against the Bruins, South Carolina fell 5-4 on a two-run walk-off home run to force a deciding game.
Chastain Woodard said she believed the players flushed away the emotional aspect of the Game 2 loss, but just didn't have the offensive production in Game 3.
As a coach, it's a balancing act between reflecting on all she did this year (which included setting a program record for the most wins for a first-year coach) but also recognizing how close South Carolina was to the WCWS.
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"It's hard," Chastain Woodard said. "I think the game is so much bigger, our purpose this year was so much bigger. Everything we did, the success that we had, it will stick with me for a long time that we came short, I will hold onto that for a while but I really want to evaluate the year and see at the end of the day, what are the things that kept us out of Oklahoma ... you have to move on in some ways, but you also have to learn from the full year, I have so much gratitude and pride for the success that we did have."
Infielder Arianna Rodi set the single-season program record for home runs (17) and walks (49) and as the Gamecocks broke the single-season record for RBIs (342), runs (363), walks (256), doubles (98) and tied the record for sacrifice flies (26).
Chastain Woodard will lose ample talent, including star pitcher Sam Gress, five of her starting nine in the batting order, the left side of her infield along with two outfielders so recruiting and filling gaps with transfers will be top of the agenda this offseason.
Junior catcher Lexi Winters said the season set the expectations for the program, transformed the way that people look at South Carolina and all the Gamecocks can do is build off of it.
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"The ability to do what she did in a conference that is respected," said UCLA coach Inouye-Perez, now in her 19th season. "The way they play ball, they did a great job preparing, executing so top down, it starts with a head coach ... your first year is always a challenge so to be able to get to this point so quickly says nothing but great things about what this program can do."
FRIDAY: South Carolina softball vs UCLA score: Gamecocks take Game 1, need one win to make WCWS
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Ashley Chastain Woodard reflects on South Carolina softball's success
