Feb. 7, 2008
The South Carolina softball team made large strides in 2007 in becoming a force on the national level again. The Gamecocks rebounded from their first losing season since 1984 to post 38 wins and garner a postseason bid for the first time since 2003. This year’s squad hopes to continue its climb up the ladder in the Southeastern Conference and go a step farther in the NCAA Tournament, to the Women’s College World Series.
The expectations are high for 2008. Eight starting position players return from last year’s group along with an outstanding pitching staff that ranked in the SEC top five in team earned run average a year ago.
Of course, returning players is not enough. The group, led by seven seniors, is hungry to leave behind a storied legacy as the team that turned South Carolina softball back into a player on the national scene.
Catchers
The lineup that NFCA Hall of Fame head coach Joyce Compton includes eight returning starters but has one big hole to fill from last season. Gone is catcher McKenna Hughes, who led the squad in home runs and runs batted in during a historic season when she broke the program’s career (21) and single-season (11) long-ball marks. Her 38 RBI accounted for 25 percent of the team’s output in 2007. Possibilities abound on who could fill that role among the freshmen, but the leading candidates are P.J. Fulmer, Cassie Gogreve, Laura Mendes and Jill Semento. All four had storied high school careers and could fill in the run-producing gap left behind by Hughes.
Fulmer, Gogreve, Mendes and Semento are all competing to take over Hughes’ spot behind the plate. Fulmer, from nearby Blythewood, is a two-time AAAA all-state performer at Spring Valley High School. Gogreve hails from South Pasadena, Calif., where she earned All-Rio Honda League accolades as a junior. Mendes, from the softball hotbed of south Florida, led her Palm Beach Gardens squad to back-to-back state titles while hitting .484 as a senior. Semento, another Florida product, was a first-team Florida Sports Writers Association 3A All-State selection as a junior and senior and hit .609 with 10 doubles, six homers and 27 RBI last year. All four are capable receivers.
Infielders
The Gamecocks return a veteran infield that committed only 17 errors among the returning starters. Senior third baseman Becky Martinez and sophomore shortstop Lindsay Walker will hold down the left side of the infield.
Walker is the second-leading hitter returning, after batting .267 and adding 20 RBI, second-best on the team a year ago. Martinez ranked second on the squad with seven sacrifices while hitting .221 in SEC play.
Jacqueline Wetherbee returns at first base, where she provided perfect defense during the SEC season. Wetherbee also hit three home runs and ranked third on the squad with 18 RBI. The junior could step up and fill in part of Hughes’ spot as a middle-of-the-lineup threat.
Second base will be the lone spot with competition. Lisa Longo held down the keystone for most of the season, but she will be challenged by the returning Chrissy Schoonmaker. Both are versatile enough to contribute elsewhere on the diamond. Longo hit .217 during SEC play a year ago, while Schoonmaker could add a little pop to the lineup as well. The redshirt senior, who missed all of the 2007 season with a neck injury, stands tied for 18th on Carolina’s all-time home run charts.
Many players are capable of filling in at any spot on the infield. Longo has played some first base, while Schoonmaker has also drawn starts at the hot corner. Junior Ashton Payne played some at second base and shortstop a year ago, while Semento could also see some time in the infield.
Outfielders
There will likely be two givens in the Gamecock outfield this spring. Senior Jessica Josker and Payne project as starters, though their positions are not set in stone. Payne ranked as Carolina’s second-best hitter by average with a .308 mark in 2007. Her five triples were the most for a Gamecock since 1999. Josker, meanwhile, will look to regain her earlier form when she hit .363 with three home runs and 26 RBI as a freshman.
Josker did rank second on the squad a year ago with 11 doubles and 16 walks. Josker seemed to have found herself at the plate in the NCAA Tournament, hitting .333 with two doubles, three runs and five RBI.
A trio of players could be penciled in for that final spot in the outfield. Sophomore Adele Voigt started 63 games last season in left field and could earn the starting spot again. An excellent fielder, she made some highlight-reel catches in 2007.
Senior Whitney Wierzbicki could also compete for a spot this season. The slap-hitter from Beaufort, S.C., drew 11 starts last season and will challenge for playing time in center field this year.
Mendes could also get a look in the outfield, either in center or right field.
Sophomore Cagney Davis and freshman Sarah Conwell adds depth to this group. Davis scored 12 runs in 2007 while being used mainly as a pinch runner. The Cayce, S.C., native Conwell helped Brookland-Cayce to the AAA state title in 2003 and the lower-state crown in 2004.
Pitching
The top two starters from 2007 return for the Gamecocks this season. Seniors Melissa Hendon and Kate Pouliot pitched well from the circle last year and will get the chance again against some top competition. Hendon was a strikeout machine, mowing down 277 hitters a year ago, ranking fourth in the SEC with that number. That ranked sixth on Carolina’s single-season K’s chart. Her 265 inning pitched stood third last season in the SEC, but hopes are that she will not have to duplicate her stamina this spring.
Pouliot ranked sixth in the SEC with a 1.48 ERA and held hitters to a .201 batting average, eighth-best in the league in 2007. Pouliot made impressive strides last year and will be given the opportunity to perform and put her name among the program’s best in the record books this season.
The pitching load could be shared a third way this season for Carolina. Krystle Robinson comes back after an arm injury took her out of action in late February. The Valdosta, Ga., native picked up two wins before the injury put her on the shelf. The former Georgia AAAAA all-state pitcher could prove valuable for Compton and her staff this spring.
Schedule
The Gamecocks face a tough slate year in and year out, and this is far from an exception. Four SEC squads are ranked among the nation’s top 15 to start the season, with three of those in the top 10. Before Carolina gets to the league schedule, however, they will already have been tested. Five of USC’s opponents in the first three tournaments are among the preseason top-25. Overall, 18 teams that played in the 2007 NCAA Tournament appear on Carolina’s schedule.
The first weekend at the Florida Atlantic Kick-Off Classic will be tough, as No. 12 Michigan looms on the second day. But the Gamecocks cannot look past the host Owls, who they face on Friday night. Joan Joyce’s squad has made numerous tourney appearances over the years and won the Sun Belt Conference tournament, just a year before the league qualified for an automatic bid. UMass, last year’s Atlantic-10 winner, also takes on Carolina on Saturday.
After a mid-week home opener against Western Carolina, the Gamecocks will head west for the UNLV Louisville Slugger Desert Classic. All five opponents in Sin City made the NCAA Tournament in 2007, including perennial powerhouse and No. 14 UCLA. Saturday’s schedule is daunting as well, with a date against No. 5 Oklahoma preceding a rematch of last season’s Columbia Regional final competitors Carolina and No. 20 Oregon slated for Feb. 16.
The USF Louisville Slugger Tournament will be challenging as well, as No. 17 Georgia Tech will open the weekend’s action for the Gamecocks. Colonial champ Hofstra is also among the opposition for USC in Tampa.
The Garnet and Black host the Carolina Classic to kick off March, as the Gamecocks welcome Gardner-Webb and Bucknell to Beckham Field. A battle for Carolina will be the last test for the Gamecocks prior to the SEC slate, as the team heads to Chapel Hill for a single game against the Tar Heels of North Carolina.
The SEC lid-lifter comes at home for Carolina against Arkansas, while the Gamecocks travel to Georgia for the second weekend of conference play. Defending SEC champ Tennessee comes to Columbia for a mid-week doubleheader before South Carolina heads to the Sunshine State for the third time to face Florida. From Gainesville, the Gamecocks head to Kentucky to battle the Wildcats in a three-game set.
April begins with an out-of-conference battle with the Big South defending champion Winthrop. Auburn comes to Beckham Field for a three-game series, with SEC-TV on hand for the game on April 6. The final mid-week game for Carolina comes in Conway, as the Gamecocks face the Chanticleers of Coastal Carolina.
The league slate gets rough for the last four weekends. Mississippi State comes to Columbia to start the final month of action. A trip to Tuscaloosa to battle No. 4 Alabama comes next for the Gamecocks, followed by another trip, this time to Oxford to battle the Rebels of Mississippi. The regular season concludes with a series against No. 9 LSU at the friendly confines of Beckham Field. From there, Carolina will likely go to Baton Rouge, La., for the 2008 SEC Softball Tournament, where the Gamecocks look to capture the crown for a third time.
