The South Carolina Gamecocks, ranked 13th nationally, are set to compete in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic from February 19-21 in Cathedral City, California. The team will play five games at Big League Dreams Sports Park and face three opponents currently ranked in the top 25 and another receiving votes in the latest NFCA poll. Their schedule includes matchups against Washington, No. 10 Nebraska, No. 18 Oregon, No. 9 UCLA, and Saint Mary’s.
All tournament games will be available for streaming with a FloSports subscription.
South Carolina enters the event with a record of 7-2 under head coach Ashley Woodard, now in her second season. Key players include Tate Davis leading batting average at .481, Karley Shelton leading RBIs with 14 and sharing home run leadership with Arianna Rodi at two each. Julie Kelley leads pitchers with an ERA of 0.78 while Emma Friedel has both the most strikeouts (14) and wins (2).
Their first opponent is Washington (7-3), coached by Heather Tarr. The Huskies have won their last three meetings against South Carolina and lead the all-time series 6-4.
Next on the schedule is Nebraska (6-4), led by Rhonda Revelle. Nebraska leads their series history against South Carolina 5-2.
Oregon (5-4), coached by Melyssa Lombardi, also holds a winning record over South Carolina at 4-2.
UCLA (7-3), under Kelly Inouye-Perez’s direction, leads its series versus South Carolina by a wide margin at 14-2.
Saint Mary’s (5-3) will meet South Carolina for the first time; Sonja Garnett is their head coach.
This marks only the second appearance for South Carolina at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic; they previously went 3-2 in their debut in 2015.
The Gamecocks are recognized among national leaders in several statistical categories this season: they rank fourth nationally in walks and on-base percentage as well as ninth in scoring and batting average. They are also among the top twenty teams for total runs scored, times hit by pitch, RBIs per game, shutouts recorded, and doubles per game.
Individually, Quincee Lilio and Arianna Rodi are tied for fifth nationally with an average of 1.33 walks per game; Lilio is also fifteenth nationally in on-base percentage (.657). Karley Shelton recently went four-for-four against Kennesaw State—the first such performance since May of last year—and Tori Ensley finished just shy of hitting for the cycle against Winthrop while driving in six runs.
Arianna Rodi was named to this year’s Top 50 Watch List for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year and has received preseason accolades from D1Softball as one of its top overall players and first basemen nationwide. Both Rodi and Shelton were highly ranked at their positions by Softball America as well; Lexi Winters was recognized among catchers while Ansley Bennett appeared on multiple freshman watch lists alongside Kai Byers.
Non-conference success continues to be a hallmark for South Carolina softball—they have posted a .794 win percentage outside SEC play over nine years—while notching notable victories over prominent programs including UCLA, Texas Tech, Utah, Arizona State, Florida State, California, Virginia Tech among others. The team plans to play twenty-eight non-conference games this season with most scheduled at home venues.
Historically against ranked opponents since joining Division I competition in earnest nearly thirty years ago,the Gamecocks have struggled but achieved some successes, especially during neutral-site tournaments like this week’s event.
South Carolina has played more than two thousand seven hundred games across fifty-three seasons,accumulating more than seventeen hundred wins. The program has reached thirty or more wins ten times over twelve full seasons while consistently performing well at home fields.
For additional updates about South Carolina softball visit GamecocksOnline.com or follow official social media channels.
