Everything Ashley Chastain Woodard said after South Carolina's win over Charlotte

South Carolina head softball coach Ashley Chastain Woodard met with the media following the Gamecocks’ midweek 10-1 run-rule victory over Charlotte on Tuesday night.

Here’s everything she had to say.

Opening Statement

“I thought it was a great night for us. You know, any time you can end it early, you know, you have a lot of offense going your way. It was going to be a great night for (Tori Ensley). Five RBI on the night, and I just thought, holistically, it was a great start to the week after coming back from California. You know, we were really tested toe-to-toe out west, felt like we played in World Series caliber games, lost a couple of those by one run. So, there’s a lot of emotions, a lot of learning through that, and traveling back home. And I think it was just nice to get back here and get a win.

“We’ve got a lot of games this week, so it was really nice to kick off the week with a win. We talked before the game about just stacking the days as best as we can this week heading into the weekend. But really proud of Tori, really proud of the whole team. I thought we played really well. Made a lot of really good defensive plays, Emma Friedel looked great in the circle with five K’s. So, holistically, really proud of the team and excited to get the week kicked off with that kind of game.”

Last year, you guys went to Charlotte to play them, run-ruled them in six (innings), this time around, you run-rule them in five. Just, what’s it like to host your old team, the experience of having them here, and getting back on the right track?

“Yeah, I think for me, it was more about getting the team on the right foot. I mean, that place will always mean a lot for me, especially personally. You know, I met my husband there, and he still is the head baseball coach there, and there’s a lot of really great in that department. Emotionally, for me, I’ve moved on a long time ago. So, for us, it wasn’t about the people in the other dugout. It was playing the game the way that we knew we were capable of. And so that was more for me what it was about, and I just really was excited to give Emma the ball, specifically. She threw really well against St. Mary’s to close out the Mary Nutter Classic and wanted to get her back out on the field as quick as possible, just to continue to push her in the right direction, especially as we’re inching here up to conference play that is upon us. So, I thought it was a great win for us. I mean, Charlotte is a good team. They have a good program. THey have a great offense. And so I thought that, you know, it was a good test for Emma and Jori (Heard) to go out there and get some good hitters out.”

The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina softball!

(Charlotte transfer) Audrey Wilson played pretty sparingly (for South Carolina) last year, but she’s hitting cleanup and was on base a couple of times today. Were you involved in getting her there at all? And also, what do you just see from her from an outside perspective now?

“No, I was not involved with getting her into the program after she decided to transfer from here. So I had no involvement with that. Super happy for her. Glad she’s at a place where she can play every day. You know, did not put much thought into anything other than kind of, you know, what does she look like right now in the box, how are we going to beat her? So, that was kind of the only thought that I had going into it, but happy for her, she found somewhere she can play every day, and no, I was not involved with her going back there.”

You said you learned a lot about your team just out west, a lot of tough games, hard competition. What do you think you really learned, specifically?

“Well, I think we learned how to come back and win from behind, because we hadn’t really been able to do that yet this year. We typically, from the start of the year, have been good with a lead, if we have the lead, like we have it, and we can sustain the lead and win the game. I think really what we wanted to see is a lot of fight and grit, maybe when things aren’t going our way. You know, we got punched in the face with the UCLA walk-off in Game 4 of the Mary Nutter Classic, which was a heartbreak for us in the moment. 20 minutes later, we were throwing the first pitch of the next game against St. Mary’s, who wins their league and is a top-100 RPI team. So, that wasn’t like an easy walkthrough win for us at all. So, I think going down 2-0 to them early, I had to really get the group together in the middle of the game, and we had to really let go of what happened just minutes before with UCLA and just kind of the wounds that probably opened up for a lot of people, or reopened, I should say.”

“So, I think we just learned a lot about how to come together, grit out a win when things don’t feel great and things aren’t going our way. And that come-from-behind, like, type of mentality never died, like pushed through til the end. I mean, we need that. We’re going to need that in conference starting next weekend. So I think leaving that was probably the biggest highlight for me. But if you look at the Oregon game or the UCLA game, those are the games that you see played in the World Series. We lost both of those by a run; we had opportunities to win them. We were right in the game the entire time. So I just think it’s good, holistically, for the program to feel what it’s like to be in those moments. And, you know, I have to believe that we’re going to be in those moments throughout conference, the Regional, the Super Regional, all the way to the World Series.”

“So just for the team to feel that and be in that moment … and there was 12,000 people there at the tournament. I mean, we had the nightcap against UCLA, I mean, there was a ton of people there. So just the atmosphere in general felt very much like postseason. And to see, you know, Nealy Lamb, and Jori Heard, and Emma Friedel, and you know, all of our arms, to be able to go in the circle pitch with poise in that environment is going to serve us really well down the stretch.”

Become part of The Insiders Forum on GamecockCentral. Start for $1, and get a complimentary year of The Athletic included with your membership.

After tomorrow, there’s another big handful of stretches of games at home, leading up until conference play. What are you looking for in your team, specifically, between now and then as you approach those meaningful conference games?

“A lot of wins. Yeah. You know, we want to be really good at playing in our house. We want to be really good playing here at home and in our element in front of our fans. So, we go on the road tomorrow, obviously, to Winthrop. We’ll practice here Thursday and then right back at it for a double-header (for) two of the days of the weekend and playing five total games. So, yeah, it was a quick turnaround day-to-day, and it’s good to put them in that adversity to push through. And then next week we have a full week of practice before we open up with Texas. And then, like you said, we’re home a lot in the month of March, which, lucky us, I mean, we love being here. We love being in our atmosphere, and so we’re really looking forward to that stretch.

“But I think I’m looking for a lot of wins, you know, and honestly, as we start conference play, we kind of turn the page to a new chapter of the season. I don’t want our team to all of a sudden start doing a lot of things differently. I mean, we’ve been in some really good games thus far to prepare us for the start of conference, so I don’t want them to completely change and change the approach, and, you know, get tense and tight. Just more of, ‘Okay, we’re ready for this next chapter,’ which is conference play.”

The Insiders Forum: Discuss South Carolina softball!