Carolina Earns First SEC Victory With Win Over Ole Miss
March 16, 2018
COLUMBIA, S.C. –No. 17 South Carolina opened up SEC play with a commanding 7-3 win over No. 23 Ole Miss on Friday at the Ole Miss Softball Complex. Carolina took an early 5-0 lead it wouldn’t surrender thanks to four runs with two outs in the fourth to help the Gamecocks to their first win over a ranked opponent in 2018.
Alyssa VanDerveer led the way at the plate for Carolina, going 4-for-4 with two RBI. Mackenzie Boesel also shined going 2-for-4 with two RBI. Kenzi Maguire accounted for two more Carolina RBI as she finished the night 1-for-4.
Cayla Drotar (12-1) earned the victory in the circle, going all seven innings allowing just one earned run while striking out two.
“This is a great way to start off SEC play,” head coach Beverly Smith said. “I liked seeing our kids come out and be aggressive at the plate. I thought we attacked good pitches. We were consistent at the plate all night.”
South Carolina (23-3, 1-0 SEC) took the momentum from the start as Drotar pitched three-straight scoreless innings to start the game and shut the Ole Miss (14-8, 0-4 SEC) offense down.
Carolina started the scoring effort in the fourth, as Krystan White’s SAC fly with one out gave the Gamecocks a 1-0 lead. From there, Maguire and Boesel RBI-hits brought home four runs with two outs to make it 5-0 Carolina after four.
The Rebels attempted a comeback effort in the fifth with three runs, only one of which was earned, but Drotar re-gained her momentum as she posted a scoreless sixth inning to make it 5-3 Carolina after six.
Carolina showed it wasn’t content with five runs, as VanDerveer brought home two more with an RBI hit in the seventh to make it 7-3 Gamecocks before Drotar shut the Rebels down one last time in the bottom frame.
Notes —
Carolina earned its first victory over a ranked opponent with the win over Ole Miss on Friday.
This marked the second-straight year Carolina has earned the first win of an SEC-opening weekend on the road. The Gamecocks also did so last year at Tennessee.
Carolina will go for the series win over Ole Miss tomorrow. This would be Carolina’s first SEC road series win since the Gamecocks took down No. 22 Georgia in Athens, Ga., last year. This would be the second-straight time the Gamecocks took the series in Oxford.
Head coach Beverly Smith moved to 250-181 following the victory. She is the second-winningest coach in school history.
Up next — Carolina goes for the series win against No. 23 Ole Miss tomorrow at 5:00 PM ET on SEC Network Plus. Live stats will be on gamecocksonline.com and updates will be provided on Twitter.
