Krystan White Saves The Season With Home Run
May 19, 2018
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina softball’s senior Krystan White saved the 2018 season with a dramatic walk-off home run to lift the Gamecocks to a 5-4 win over Hofstra on Saturday at Carolina Softball Stadium at Beckham Field. Facing a two-out situation with Jana Johns on base and the Pride leading 4-3, White blasted her second career walk-off home run to send the Gamecocks to the regional championship against Liberty on Sunday.
The win comes after the Gamecocks dropped the first game of the day to Liberty in a 3-1 loss. Carolina will be the visiting team in tomorrow’s first game at 4:00 PM ET on ESPN3 and will have to beat Liberty twice to move on past regional play.
South Carolina (47-15) came into the game against Hofstra facing elimination, and pitcher Sophie Dandola who pitched a perfect game just moments before to keep the Pride’s season alive.
The Gamecocks took an early 2-0 lead in the first thanks to Cayla Drotar‘s two-run home run to make it 2-0 Carolina through one.
Drotar continued the scoring effort in the bottom of the second as she drew a two-out walk with bases loaded to score Tiara Duffy and extend the Carolina lead to 3-0 through two.
Slowly but surely Hofstra battled back with its season on the line, as well. The Pride had home runs in the fourth and fifth innings to cut the Carolina lead to 3-2 through five innings. Hofstra eventually took a 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth with two runs.
White’s amazing ball sent to the nets beyond the wall in leftfield came on a 2-1 count and two outs.
In total the Gamecocks finished with six hits from five different batters.
Dixie Raley (13-4) earned the victory in the circle, going one inning with no runs and no hits to give the Gamecocks a chance down the stretch.
The win came after a tough 3-1 loss at the hands of Liberty to start the day.
Liberty led from start to finish as the Gamecocks attempted a comeback in the seventh as Johns brought home a run, but it wasn’t enough as Liberty pulled out the victory.
Notes
- With tonight’s win, Carolina moved to 47-15 on the year. This is the third-straight year the Gamecocks have reached the championship day of regional action.
- How about Jana Johns‘ start to regional play. The freshman is batting .375 with a team-best three RBI and a .500 on-base percentage. She notably drew the two-out walk to send Krystan White to the plate tonight.
- As a team in regional action, the Gamecocks are batting .234 with a .352 on-base percentage and two home runs, both of which came in tonight’s game against Liberty.
- The walk-off hit was Carolina’s third of the year and second for White.
Up Next
No. 9-seeded South Carolina softball will return to action tomorrow on championship Sunday to face Liberty at 4:00 PM ET on ESPN3. The Gamecocks would face Liberty again 30 minutes after the conclusion of that game if they win.
