Everything Ashley Chastain Woodard said previewing South Carolina's Super Regional matchup with UCLA

Ahead of South Carolina softball’s Super Regional matchup with UCLA this weekend, head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard spoke to the media on Thursday. Here’s everything she had to say.

Opening statement

“Obviously, we are really excited about the weekend, and I think that goes maybe without being said. But really looking forward to the competition. Both programs are really historic. Both programs have a lot of history. UCLA has been a perennial championship program for decades in our sport. A lot of respect for them.

“I think that if you really look at the story of this team, all year, we have been underrated and kind of seen as the underdog a lot of times throughout the year in the matchups that we’ve had. And so, whatever story is out there about us being the underdog or, you know, maybe the favor goes towards UCLA, we don’t pay much attention to that stuff, because I think we’ve been in that scenario all year. So we’re focused on ourselves and just really good preparation all week for UCLA coming into town. They’re good. Every team at this point that’s left, all 16, are really good. I think if you look at the statistics, you know, we’re actually eerily similar in walks to strikeouts and fielding percentage. It’s really close in a lot of categories. So it should be some really good softball this weekend.

“We’re excited to be here at home with the home field advantage, playing in front of the best fans in the country. So we’re excited for the coasts to collide here and welcome UCLA to the east.”

Is there anyone at UCLA you could compare to that you played this year in terms of their pitching staff or anything like that?

“The staff and I have been digging into them since early in the week, and we have made comparisons. We made comparisons to LSU, feeling like just kind of holistically as a team, they have a lot of lefty enters in the box, you know, kind of an LSU feel, if you will. From a pitching side, they’ve got three arms that have started a lot of games for them. So thinking back, I mean, I think they’re comparable to an LSU or to an A&M. That’s kind of the two teams that we felt like they had some similarities to, at least that we played this year, because there were elite teams in the league we didn’t get opportunity to play.”

You guys have such an advantage to host a Super. How important has it been to balance rest this week being at home and also staying locked into the task at hand?

“Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, we value recovery, and we preach that to these guys. I think they take really good care of themselves. To be honest with you, I think they’re two feet in on really all aspects of being professional. So we put a heavy emphasis on nutrition and sleep and recovery. We’ve tried to keep practice very efficient. I think Tuesday, we were out here in the middle of the afternoon, our kind of normal block, and I think the temperature on the field was over 100, so then we made the smart decision Wednesday to move practice to the morning. So, we practiced yesterday morning was a lot cooler for us. And honestly, knowing that the weekend is going to be a lot cooler this weekend than the middle of the week. So we put ourselves in the heat some and the cooler temperatures this week. We try to keep practice from a minute standpoint, a little bit shorter, maybe two and a half hours instead of three full hours.

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“And also, these guys work on their own, as much as I beg them to just take the reps they need and be good with that. I mean, they’re in the cage all the time, hitting and doing things on their own, and on top of that, they’re also in the weight room. So we have not wavered in being in the weight room throughout the season. That’s something we highly value. So they’ve been in the weight room multiple times this week as a team, and probably also on their own. So I trust them. I know that they’re getting good sleep and eating well. We’ve had a lot of team meals together because we’re out of school, so we share a lot of meals together throughout the week. So we feel good about the recovery, combined with the work that we’ve done at this point.”

Ashley, this UCLA team has some of the best individual offensive producers in the country. From a defensive and pitching standpoint, what do you want to see from your squad this weekend to kind of keep as many runs off the board as you can?

“Yeah, I mean, I think a couple of thoughts that we’ve kind of dug into all week. We need to play clean defense; that’s always the goal. We’ve been really good at that all year. So we can’t give them extra outs. We need to be able to get out of innings even with runners in scoring position and can’t give them extra things. Our park is way different than theirs. Obviously South Carolina, just the geographical aspects of the field and where we are on sea level versus where they’re at in LA. I mean, it’s a very different environment. So I think for us, I think it’s going to be, and I don’t, I try not to predict too much, so here I am. But I think for us, it’s going to be playing the doubles the right way. When we want to be in the doubles, when we’re going to be in a position to throw them out at the plate. That kind of thing, I think, is going to be key for us.

“So I think as a staff, we just need to make really good decisions on where the defenders need to be. Given the situation, the game will tell us that. Jody and Katie shift the infield and the outfield as the game goes on, because I call the game. So I think we’ll do a good job of that. And I think we have an advantage because they haven’t seen Sam, they haven’t seen Jori. I mean, this is a fresh matchup, and we’ve had no history with them. Neither one of those arms has played them. So I think that works in our favor as well. Sam is a righty pitcher, but the way her ball moves in, her ball flight, she’s like our lefty, we completely like match her up as a left-handed thrower, even though she’s right-handed. So I think with all the lefties in the order, we want to make sure we have Sam in the right scenarios in the game when the game is leveraged at the highest points for this matchup specifically, which might feel a little different than it did last weekend in the regional.”

The Super Regional this weekend is sold out. How much did a packed ballpark help you guys this past weekend? And how important is it going to be this weekend against UCLA?

“I think it’ll be a key factor. I do. I don’t know much about, you know, UCLA came out of the PAC, so I don’t know what the PAC atmospheres were like for them, and I don’t know what the Big Ten atmospheres were like for them this year, but I can tell you, it’s not like an SEC atmosphere. And so just putting them in this environment with, I mean, we’re gonna have standing room only. We sold out, I think, in eight minutes, which is unbelievable. And we’re so thankful for everyone coming this weekend to the event.

“So I think it works in our favor. There was so much energy in the stadium all three days last weekend. For us, that really just propels us. I mean, it makes moments feel different for us in the game, and it really affects the feel of the entire atmosphere for us in the dugout, I know for sure. So we’re really excited about that, and I do think it will play a factor for the weekend.”

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