Beverly Smith praises Alana Vawter, South Carolina's transfer additions this season
Transfers have been a significant addition for South Carolina during this season in softball. That includes several players, such as fifth-year pitcher Alana Vawter who spent the first four years of her career at Stanford.
Beverly Smith spoke about the Gamecocks’ portal additions during an interview at a break in the inning amidst their matchup in the Durham Regional against Utah. That praise started with Vawter who her coach thought had played well in just over four innings of work.
“She’s doing a great job,” said Smith. “She lives down in the zone, mixes changes really well. I think we’re doing a really good job keeping them off time so she’s just a true professional on the mound.”
Through 4.2 innings, Vawter has posted three strikeouts and at a 2.02 ERA. Those have come from 45 strikes that she has thrown out of 69 pitches. She has given up two hits, though, with one run able to get home for the Utes.
That comes after four seasons with the Cardinal in the Pac-12 where Vawter was one of the top pitchers in the country.
Vawter is only one of those transfers, though. Several others have played in the rotation for the Gamecocks this season, which Smith appreciates having seen their impact over the year.
“Absolutely. I think it’s kind of the way of the world now, right. You get an opportunity to add life into your program and you’ve got spaces you need to fill,” said Smith. “I always say that the players – this is your experience. It’s your four years. What do you want it to look like? For everybody, it looks a little different.”
“We’ve been grateful for the transfers that have added to our program,” Smith said.
At the bottom of the fifth, South Carolina holds a 2-1 lead over the Utes at Duke Softball Stadium. Still, in order to close it out, it’ll take a full team effort, including those from those transfers, in order for the Gamecocks to advance to tomorrow’s game in the winner’s bracket.
SEC earns berths for all 13 teams in 2024 NCAA Softball Tournament
The SEC is a premier conference in college athletics for a reason with success in sports across the board. That was proven again with the latest achievement by their ladies out on the diamond in softball.
With the announcement of the field for the 2024 NCAA Softball Tournament, all 13 teams from the Southeastern Conference, which is the most from this year’s field, made it into the bracket. That includes half of the berths for the Regionals and three teams earning the right to host Super Regionals.
No. 3 Tennessee (40-10), No. 4 Florida (46-12), and No. 7 Missouri (43-15) will all host throughout the opening rounds. LSU (40-15) just missed out on that opportunity as the No. 9 overall seed.
The Tigers will only host their opening regional along with four other programs. Georgia (39-16), Arkansas (36-16), Alabama (33-17), and Texas A&M (40-13) will also have regionals on their home fields during the opening weekend as well.
From there, the remaining five teams will be going on the road throughout the softball tournament.
Ole Miss (31-25) is the highest seed of the group with them heading to Lafayette to face Baylor. Kentucky (30-22) will go to Stillwater to play Michigan, Mississippi State (33-18) will travel to Stanford to face Cal State Fullerton, South Carolina (34-22) will go one state over to meet Utah in Durham, and Auburn (27-19-1) rounds it out in going to Tallahassee to match up with UCF.
Vanderbilt does not have a softball team as part of their athletic department.