South Carolina softball drops tough road series against Arkansas

South Carolina softball had a tough test this weekend. The Gamecocks had to travel to Fayetteville for their seventh ranked series in a row. In the end, the home Arkansas Razorbacks took two out of three in the series.

Here’s how the weekend went in the top-10 matchup.

Game One

Things didn’t start well for the garnet and black. The Hogs run-ruled the Gamecocks 10-2 in six innings. The defeat was the second run-rule loss of the year for Ashley Chastain Woodard’s team.

Jori Heard started the game in the circle but didn’t have her best command. Despite that, she limited the damage to just one Arkansas run through 2.1 innings pitched. Sam Gress and Kadie Becker struggled in relief, and the Razorbacks poured on the runs.

Offensively, the Gamecocks couldn’t get much going. With just three hits for the game, USC also struck out nine times. That bad combination resulted in two manufactured runs, one on a fielder’s choice, and another on a delayed double steal. Carolina had just one hit after the first batter of the second inning.

The tough start to the series could have led to a bad weekend, but the two remaining games proved to be competitive.

Game Two

South Carolina softball got into a hole early on Saturday (combined with Friday night, they’d been outscored 13-0 in their last four frames). Building off of their dominant win in the opener, Arkansas quickly shot out to a 4-0 lead. However, the Gamecocks bounced back into form to score the final five runs to win 5-4.

Despite the early deficit, the Gamecocks kept fighting. Carolina strung together four hits in the third inning, resulting in two runs. Then, in the fifth, slugger Arianna Rodi smashed a three-run bomb to center that put USC ahead.