South Carolina Softball: Gamecocks make NCAA Tournament, will play this weekend

South Carolina softball coach Bev Smith has her Gamecocks back in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in a row after not making it to the postseason since 2019 prior to last season.

The Gamecocks experienced a bit of an up-and-down year as they spent part of the 2024 campaign ranked in the top-25, had 9 wins over ranked opponents, but finished with just an 8-16 record in SEC play. Still, because of the difficulty of the team's schedule, South Carolina softball did enough to earn a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Carolina will travel to Durham, North Carolina to participate in a Regional hosted by the Duke Blue Devils. As the 2-seed, the Gamecocks will match up with the 3-seeded Utah Utes, a team that USC beat 9-1 early in the year when both teams were ranked in the national polls. Duke will take on the Morgan State Bears on the other side of the Regional.

On Saturday, May 18th, the winners will play, and the losers will face off in the second round of games in Durham. The Regional will finish up on Sunday, May 19th.

Like South Carolina, Utah has 34 wins heading into the NCAA Tournament. Also like Bev Smith's team, the Utes were ranked early in the year before a tough stretch of play during the Pac-12 schedule pushed their record below .500 in conference play. Both teams are talented enough to challenge Duke for the Regional title.

The Gamecocks' opening game against Utah has been set for Friday, May 17th at 12:00 PM EST. The contest will be broadcast on ESPNU and will be streamable on the ESPN app. Every game of the tournament will be shown somewhere on the ESPN family of networks and will be streamed on the ESPN app.

You can see the entire 2024 NCAA Tournament field here.