South Carolina Softball: Gamecocks make NCAA Tournament field after hot SEC Tournament run
By Kevin Miller
On Sunday night, Bev Smith and the South Carolina softball squad heard their names called during the 2023 Softball NCAA Tournament Selection Show, earning an at-large bid to the Big Dance for the first time since 2019. The Gamecocks were a bubble team heading into the SEC Tournament as their solid 34-19 regular season record was tarnished by a 9-15 SEC record that included three-straight series losses to end the year. However, an excellent showing in Fayetteville saw Carolina make it all the way to the SEC Tournament championship game, bolstering their resume.
The selection committee seeded South Carolina as a 3-seed in the Tallahassee regional, hosted by the #3-overall seed Florida State Seminoles. Carolina will open their tournament run in the 2/3 game against the UCF Knights on Friday, May 19th at 7:00 on ESPN2, while on the other side of the regional bracket, Florida State will take on the Marist College Red Foxes earlier that same day at 4:00 on ESPN+.
The Gamecocks have relied recently on a hot pitching staff that has given up 4 or fewer runs in each of their last seven games, including a dominant shutout of the Texas A&M Aggies in the SEC Tournament opener. Donnie Gobourne, in particular, has been stellar. The senior Gamecock did not give up a single run during postseason play. That level of pitching excellence will be needed again if the Gamecocks are to get out of a strong Tallahassee regional, especially as they would likely have to play one of the country’s top teams in Florida State.
All-in-all, twelve different SEC teams were chosen to represent the conference in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, with six of the teams serving as regional hosts. The Mississippi State Bulldogs were the only SEC team to not be selected as a participant in postseason play (Vanderbilt does not have a softball program).