Everything Ashley Chastain-Woodard said after South Carolina's second loss to Virginia Tech

South Carolina softball head coach Ashley Chastain-Woodard spoke with local media after an 8-5 loss to Virginia Tech on Saturday night.

Here is everything she said.

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“Super disappointed, super disappointed. We could not win the game. We had the lead, went up first, and we just talked a lot as a team, and just, we’re in the middle of trying to figure out how to win together, you know, and that there’s an art to that. And every team is very different. I think this team is figuring out how to win and, you know, just, unfortunately, haven’t done that against Virginia Tech. We got two shots at them, and they were better than us.”

“So, you know, we’ve got a lot of talent. We’re trying to figure out how to get that talent to execute, whether it be in the circle. Didn’t think we pitched super well tonight, you know, and then we had a chance offensively to come back in the game with bases loaded with Quincy up and, you know, she just hit a deep fly ball that you know, didn’t score any runs. But, you know, we believe we’ll figure it out. You know, they’ll figure it out as a team. So we’re just working through that.”

“And got two games tomorrow, so kind of just thinking about Binghamton, who’s a great team, won their league last year, and, you know, gave Virginia Tech room for their money this morning, and then went through it tomorrow night. So just moving on and having a lot of conversations about what, what we can do better, how we can be better, and, you know, how we can win.”

What is the message to the team with these two games coming up?

“Yeah, I mean, we’re three games into a really long season. So as much as we hate to lose a little perspective about, we’ve got, you know, a lot of time is in front of us. I think I kind of left them with fair enough to figure out how to win together, and clean up some of this stuff we got to get better at. And it’s kind of on them, on how long that takes them to do, you know, we train them, and, you know, we’re going keep training the same way and work them really hard.”

“But I think, like today, I think they were a little tight, like, even with a lead, it kind of felt like they were, you know, just trying not to lose the lead, versus just trying to continue to play the game and to fight no matter what the scoreboard was saying. So, you know, we just got to figure out how to do that together. Last year’s team was really good at that, you know. And as I said many times going into this year now, three games into this season, I mean, last year’s team was a different team, and this year’s teams got to learn different lessons, and, you know, write their own story and create their own journey. So, but we’ll be better. I know we’re going to be better. We have a lot of talent. We just haven’t been able to really put that together at this point.”

Started Emma Friedel. Was that a lot in part to trying to get her confidence back up after a difficult night on Thursday?

“We had planned for her to open this game, no matter what happened Thursday. Really starting her yesterday against Syracuse was a little bit more of getting her back out there, getting her confidence back out, so that was a little bit more of yesterday’s plan. Today, we had planned for her to open. So we did. And I thought she threw really well, until, you know, the big home run. And honestly, like, she could have just beared down and kept getting outs. But, you know, we felt like, you know, she, you know, maybe was gonna make the moment a little too big. So we made a change.”

“And, you know, Nealy Lamb came in, and I just wasn’t her night. You know, kind of looks like Friedel did on Thursday night. So, you know, those guys, they’ll figure it out. We’re going to keep giving them the ball in different situations. They have a lot of talent, and Nealy has a lot of experience in her career, and has won a lot as a junior. So, you know, just wasn’t her night. And obviously, they’re disappointed, you know, they don’t want to pitch badly ever for their team, so they’re going to work to be better.”

“But saw a lot of arms tonight. You know, I was glad to get Julie Kelley there in the game at the very end for her to get that out that we needed. And we do have plans for Julie to throw tomorrow. And you know, you haven’t seen Ansley Bennett very much yet, and also haven’t seen freshman KG favors yet. So we’ve got some arms that we’re going to try to get in tomorrow, to get about on the field, because we’ve just got to continue to see what we have.”

You mentioned not being able to capitalize with the bases loaded in the sixth inning. What led to some of the struggles with runners in scoring position tonight?

“I thought we just couldn’t get a timely hit and that, I mean, Q[uincee Lilio] hit the ball deep, and she just hit it deep in the air. I mean, obviously she probably was trying to hit a ground ball in the middle of the score too, and keep the inning going. And she got into the ball and drove it to left. And so I just, I felt like we just couldn’t get that clutch hit to really get things going.”

“But I like what the top of the order is doing. You know, Q walks a lot. She was four for four for CPAs tonight. Ari [Rodi] still looks really good in the box. You know, [Karlee] Shelton is figuring some things out, but, you know, come through. I think she had two doubles yesterday for us. I think more of what we need to see is the bottom of the order be a little bit better. So I like the top of the word. I think the bottom of the order needs to be a little bit better in their swing decisions. And, you know, just taking what the pitcher is giving them and being able to get on base a little bit more. But we got a lot of people down there that haven’t done it yet. So this is the, you know, early in their career, and, you know, learning those lessons hard early on.”

One of those players in the bottom of the order who did have a solid night is Kai Byars. Hit a home run tonight. What have you seen from her to start her Gamecock career?

“Forgot about that. You’re so right. Well, that’s a big hit for a freshman. So really proud of her for that moment. You know, Kai’s got a lot of talent. She’s a true lefty and has a ton of power, as you saw tonight for the first time, so she’s gonna hit a lot for us. You know this, I think she’s learning so much about herself every pitch that’s thrown and every at bat she has, so there’s going to be some bumps and bruises along with that, but it was good to see her get that hit, and you know, I think she’s gonna have a big career here for us long term.”

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