
Softball Kicks Off 2025 Season Thursday Night
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina softball team begins a new era under first-year head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard Thursday (Feb. 6) when the Gamecocks kick off their 2025 season at 6 p.m. against Virginia. The game is the first of the Gamecock Invitational that continues all weekend and will also feature East Carolina, Providence, Saint Francis, and Toledo.
SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS 0-0, 0-0 SEC
COACH: Ashley Chastain Woodard | 1st Season
RETURNING AVG LEADER: .349 | Carlie Henderson
RETURNING RBI LEADER: 14 | Karley Shelton
RETURNING HOME RUN LEADER: 1 | Karley Shelton
RETURNING ERA LEADER: 1.88 | Jori Heard
RETURNING STRIKEOUT LEADER: 67 | Jori Heard
RETURNING WINS LEADER: 9 | Jori Heard
VIRGINIA CAVALIERS 0-0, 0-0 ACC
WHEN: Feb. 6 | 6 p.m.; Feb. 7 | 2:30 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY: South Carolina leads 32-5
LAST MEETING: South Carolina 7, Virginia 1 | Feb. 11, 2024 | Columbia
COACH: Joanna Hardin | 9th Season
PROVIDENCE FRIARS 0-0, 0-0 BIG EAST
WHEN: Feb. 8 | 3:30 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY: South Carolina leads 3-1
LAST MEETING: South Carolina 11, Providence 3 | Feb. 17, 2012 | Miami, Fla.
COACH: Kelsey Christensen | 2nd Season
SAINT FRANCIS RED FLASH 0-0, 0-0 NORTHEAST
WHEN: Feb. 8 | 6 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY: First Meeting
LAST MEETING: South Carolina 3, SFU 1 | May 20, 2017 | Tucson, Ariz
COACH: Beth Krysiak | 2nd Season
EAST CAROLINA PIRATES 0-0, 0-0 AMERICAN
WHEN: Feb. 9 | 3 p.m.
SERIES HISTORY: South Carolina leads 21-3
LAST MEETING: South Carolina 3, ECU 0 | Feb. 9, 2018 | Miami, Fla.
COACH: Shane Winkler | 4th Season










LEADING OFF
- The 2025 season is the 52nd season for the Carolina Softball team.
- The Gamecocks received votes in the two main polls to start the season by NFCA/USA Today and by ESPN/USA Softball.
- A new era of Carolina softball begins as Ashley Chastain Woodard was named the head coach on June 11. She is the 11th head coach in program history.
- The former Gamecock (2009-11) spent the last five seasons at Charlotte where she had a career record of 154-96.
- Chastain Woodard was named the No. 2 head coaching hire by D1Softball.
- Carolina’s roster features 15 newcomers and six returners for the 2025 season.
- Newcomer first baseman Arianna Rodi was named a Softball America First Team All-American and NFCA First Team All-Region.
- This preseason she was named the No. 86 overall player by D1Softball and the No. 7 first baseman.
- Newcomer pitcher Sam Gress was named NFCA Second Team All-Region last season.
- Gress was named the No. 30 pitcher entering the season by D1Softball.
- This preseason Shae Anderson was named to Softball America’s Freshman Watch List.
- Newcomer catcher Lexi Winters was named the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year
- Newcomer pitcher Nealy Lamb was the Big South Freshman and Player of the Year last season.
- The roster features 21 total players, with nine different states represented.
- For the first time in program history every game will be televised on the ESPN family of networks and digital platforms.
- Carolina made its 24th NCAA Tournament appearance last season, advancing to the Durham Regional Finals. It was their 9th in the last 11 years.
THE GAMECOCKS
- Carolina comes into the 2025 season looking to fight back after advancing to the Durham Regional Final, before falling to eventual WCWS participant Duke.
- The 2025 squad will look to build on that momentum, as they’ll just nine underclassmen (three sophomores and six freshmen).
- The Gamecocks welcome six freshmen to the program (Shae Anderson, Mya Flindt, Olivia Kotowski, Chloe Lackey, Nia McKnight, Audrey Wilson).
- Carolina will have four left-handed batters available in the lineup. It had seven in 2024, 2023 and 2022, nine in 2021, five in 2020, seven in 2019, eight in 2017 and six in 2016. Of the seven left-handed batters, only Carlie Henderson is listed as a slap hitter.
- Five South Carolina and five Georgia natives help make up the Gamecock roster. They’re the most from any single state.
THAT’S…INTERESTING!
- South Carolina will have at least one student-athlete from the state of California for the 31st-consecutive year dating back to 1994. The Gamecocks have freshmen and California natives Shae Anderson and Mya Flindt, and recent 2026 signee Dakota Potter, ensuring the tradition continues for years to come.
- Carlie Henderson isn’t the first in her family to achieve at a high level in sports. Her grandpa, Billy Shaw, played football at Georgia Tech and went on to play offensive line for nine years with the Buffalo Bills before being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999. Her father, Chip, played baseball at Shorter University and has been the baseball head coach at Calhoun High School for 26 years. He’s won more than 600 games with three state titles (and had eight players drafted into MLB).
- Karley Shelton is the fifth member of her immediate family to play softball or baseball in college. She joins her father and mother who both played at Charlotte, her older brother Colby is currently at Florida, and older sister Kiley is playing at Florida Atlantic.
- Arianna Rodi doesn’t just fly in her softball cleats, she can also fly on ice skates. Rodi was a dual-sport athlete in high school, winning three state championships in ice hockey as a defenseman. Her father, brother, and sister all played hockey, but Ari decided to forge her own path on the softball diamond.
- Associate head coach Katie Browder (Rietkovich) isn’t the first Gamecock in her family. Browder’s South Carolina roots run deep, as her father and sister have also donned the garnet and black. Her dad Ty Rietkovich played tight end for the Gamecocks from 1980-83 and worked on the football staff from 1984-86. Her sister Caroline (Rietkovich) Coleman was a cheerleader and is currently on Shane Beamer’s staff as the coordinator of football operations.
COMING THROUGH THE PORTAL
- The Gamecocks hit the transfer portal in the offseason, bringing in nine players that played the 2024 season at the Division I level.
- Six of them played under coach Chastain at Charlotte (Kadie Becker, Ella Chancey, Sam Gress, Abigail Knight, Arianna Rodi, Lexi Winters).
- Chancey, Rodi and Winters were named to the All-AAC First Team, while Gress was named to the Second Team.
- Nealy Lamb (Charleston Southern), Quincee Lilio (Oklahoma), and Emily Vinson (Longwood) also joined this season.
- Lexi Winters was named the 2024 AAC Defensive Player of the Year and the Conference USA All-Freshman Team in 2023. She batted .230 with five home runs and 21 RBIs.
- Rodi led the 49ers at the plate, batting .353 with 22 home runs, 55 RBIs, and 37 walks, en route to being named Softball America First Team All-American and NFCA First Team All-Region. She ranked fifth nationally in homers, 23rd total bases (134), and 27th in slugging (.788). She was listed as the No. 86 overall player entering the 2025 season by D1Softball. They also had her as the No. 7 first baseman.
- Chancey was named to the preseason Softball America Top 10 Third Baseman (#10) and proceeded to bat .316 with six home runs and 38 RBIs and led the team with four triples, while stealing eight bases.
- Knight was third on the team with a .309 batting average and was second with 25 walks and 12 doubles. She was named to the NFCA Third Team All-Region and the AAC All-Tournament Team.
- Gress led Charlotte with 14 victories and three saves in the circle, posting a 2.57 ERA with 92 strikeouts in 122 1-3 innings. She was named to the NFCA Second Team All-Region and the First team in 2023 while being named the 2023 Conference USA Newcomer of the Year. She was listed as the No. 30 pitcher entering the 2025 season by D1Softball.
- Becker was 1-1 with a 4.02 ERA in 15 2-3 innings in the circle. She was named to the AAC All-Academic Team.
- Vinson played three years at Longwood where she was earned the NFCA’s Rawlings Gold Glove Award in 2023. Last year, she led the team with nine stolen bases and was third with 25 RBIs and six doubles, while batting .269.
- Lamb joins Carolina after being the first player in the history of the Big South to be named Big South All-Freshman, Freshman of the Year, Pitcher of the Year and First-Team All-Conference in the same season. She led the Big South Conference with a 1.78 ERA and tied for the lead in saves (4), while being second with five shutouts on the season. On the year, she was 12-9 with 10 complete games over 137 2-3 innings, striking out 130 while only walking 53. She held opponents to a program record .176 batting average.
- Lilio comes to the Gamecocks after winning three National Championships with Oklahoma. Last season she played in 41 games and made 47 appearances in 2022. She is a career .211 hitter with 14 RBIs and 22 runs scored. Coming out of high school she was the No. 5 player in the class by Extra Inning Softball and No. 13 by Softball America.
IT’S GOOD TO BE HOME
- It’s technically the fifth time in the last six season, and the second straight, they have opened the year at home, however the 2022 the tournament was cancelled due to weather.
- For the fifth straight season, South Carolina will play over 30 home games.
- Carolina will host 37 home contests, including the Gamecock Invitational, Garnet & Black Invitational, and Carolina Classic.
- Outside of tournaments they will also host a three-game series against Texas Tech, along with mid-week games against: North Carolina, Youngstown State, Coastal Carolina, Clemson, Wofford, Charleston Southern, Winthrop and Furman.
- They will play just five true non-conference road games, three of which come during a weekend series at Duke. The schedule also includes 12 road SEC games.
NEW COACHES IN THE DUGOUT
- Ashley Chastain Woodard was named the 11th head coach on June 11, 2024.
- She returned to South Carolina after serving as head coach for the Charlotte 49ers for the last five seasons, where she led her teams to a 154-96 overall record (61.6 percent), a 65-32 conference mark (67.0 percent) and two NCAA post-season berths.
- In 2024, Charlotte had a 39-18 overall mark, a 21-6 record in the American Athletic Conference and the program’s first conference tournament championship, advancing to the NCAA Regionals for the second year in a row. The 49ers reached as high as 15th in the NCAA RPI and were ranked 27th in the final RPI before the NCAA Tournament selections.
- She pitched three seasons for the Gamecocks and finished 11th in career relief appearances for the Gamecocks. She led the team in starts, innings pitched, and ERA during her junior season. She was a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll. She served as a graduate assistant coach for South Carolina following her playing career. In 2012-13 she served as the pitching coach for the German National Team.
- A 2011 graduate of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in history, she earned her master’s degree in secondary education from Carolina in 2012.Her husband Robert is the head baseball coach at Charlotte.
- Ashley Chastain Woodard won’t be the only new face in the dugout for the Gamecocks this season. She brought over several members of the coaching staff from Charlotte, in addition to a new pitching coach.
- Associate head coach Katie (Rietkovich) Browder has spent the last 10 years in the college coaching and has SEC ties throughout her career. She is the offensive coordinator and works with the infielders. She spent the 2024 season on Chastain’s staff at Charlotte, while also making stops at Ole Miss (2016-18, 2021-23), Minnesota (2019-20), and Savannah State (2015). She played at Georgia from 2010-11, where she was a part of its run to a third-place finish at the 2010 Women’s College World Series.
- Browder’s South Carolina roots run deep, as her father and sister have also donned the garnet and black. Ty Rietkovich played tight end for the Gamecocks from 1980-83 and worked on the football staff from 1984-86. Her sister Caroline (Rietkovich) Coleman was a cheerleader and is currently on Shane Beamer’s staff as the coordinator of football operations.
- Jody Davidson spent five years on staff as Charlotte, three as an assistant coach and two years as a volunteer assistant coach. He primarily works with the outfielders. His coaching was key in Bailey Vannoy being named a two-time Conference USA Player of the Year and an NFCA Second Team All-American. In 2024, he guided outfielder Abigail Knight earn NFCA All-Region Third Team honors.
- Zack Parsons serves as the pitching coach. He most recently was on the coaching staff at Murray State, starting as a graduate assistant in the fall of 2020 before being promoted to assistant coach in 2022. Under Parsons, the Murray State pitching staff reached unprecedented heights. Over the last four seasons, Racer pitchers recorded the four lowest ERA’s in program history. The team set multiple program records during the 2022 season, most notably a program record 1.46 ERA, which also ranked second in Division I that season. MSU also posted a program-best .194 opponent batting average, 1.22 walks per seven innings, and strikeouts per seven innings with 6.37. Parsons was instrumental in Hannah James being named the Ohio Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year in 2022. Under his coaching, James would go on to earn National Fastpitch Coaches Association First Team All-Region honors in 2023, in addition to All-Missouri Valley Conference First Team and MVC All-Tournament Team honors. She was also named to the NFCA All-Region Second Team in 2022.
- Kassidy Krupit was named the softball director of player development and analytics Krupit is a former Gamecock who spent the 2024 season on head coach Ashley Chastain’s staff at Charlotte as a graduate assistant. Krupit played for the Gamecocks from 2020-2022 after transferring from Baylor. She graduated in May of 2022 Magna Cum Laude with her bachelor’s degree in sport and entertainment management. She transferred to Charlotte for the 2023 season as a graduate student and earned First Team All-Conference USA and NFCA First Team All-Region honors. She earned her master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Charlotte in May.
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
- South Carolina is 243-103 (.702) at Carolina Softball Stadium since being built in 2013. That includes a 4-1 record at home while hosting an NCAA regional at Carolina Softball Stadium at Beckham Field.
- Prior to 2021, South Carolina had not lost double digit games at home in seven years and has won 20 or more eight of the past nine seasons.
- Since 2016, South Carolina has consistently ranked among the nation’s leaders in attendance. Since that time, excluding the 2021 COVID season that limited attendance, they have never finished lower than 15th in average or cumulative attendance.
- In 2024, Carolina ranked 7th in the nation in total attendance and 14th in average attendance. They were 9th and 11th in 2023, 7th and 13th in 2022, 7th and 11th in 2020, 10th and 13th in 2019, 11th and 13th in 2018, 10th and 11th in 2017, 12th and 15th in 2016.
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS IS NOTHING NEW FOR SC
- South Carolina is 272-73 (.788) over the past nine years in games outside the SEC. Notable wins include Clemson, Boston U, Utah, Texas, Penn State, Houston, Arizona State, North Carolina, Florida State, California, Virginia Tech, USF, Long Beach State, Hofstra, Liberty, and UCF.
- Carolina will play 33 non-conference games in 2025, 28 of which will be played at Carolina Softball Stadium.
CAROLINA HOSTS TOURNAMENTS… AND WINS A LOT
- Carolina is an amazing 43-6 over the past seven seasons in the Gamecock Invitational. The 2021 tournament was canceled due to weather.
- The Gamecock pitching staff has shined in the tournaments. In the games during that span, Carolina pitching staffs have allowed three or more runs 12 times. On the flip side, nine games have ended as shutouts.
- Including the Carolina Classic and Black & Garnet Challenge, the Gamecocks are 80-9 in their past 89 home tournament games.
SOUTH CAROLINA HISTORICAL RECORD
- South Carolina has played 2,636 games in its softball history, going 1,693-936-7 (.644) in its 51 years of history.
- Carolina has posted 30 or more wins in nine of the past 11 full seasons.
- Carolina has protected home well, also, with 17 or more victories coming in friendly confines each of the past 10 full years.
For the latest on South Carolina Softball, visit GamecocksOnline.com or follow the team’s social media accounts on Twitter @GamecockSoftbll, Facebook /GamecockSoftball, and Instagram @GamecockSoftball.