Ashley Chastain Woodard gives fall ball update on GamecockCentral Takeover Hour

South Carolina softball coach Ashley Chastain Woodard joined the GamecockCentral Takeover Hour on 107.5 The Game on Thursday to give the latest on her team as they work through fall ball.

Check out a transcript and audio from the appearance here.

Q: Obviously, last year was a lot of fun following your team at the success that that y’all had. And obviously when you don’t win the championship overall, it’s obviously going to be a level of disappointment as you go into the off season. But how’s how things been in the months since as you kind of marinate on what was a very successful first year overall?

A: Yeah, well, you know, we had a fantastic season and obviously a pretty heartbreak finish there in the Super Regional here at Beckham. And, you know, just the feeling and the taste in your mouth of being one out away from the World Series and not being able to get the job done, I have to believe that that experience and everything that we went through throughout that season is just laying the foundation of a lot of success to come and, you know, the lessons learned and the experiences that you want to pass to the new players.

And there’s a ton of excitement within the program right now. There’s a ton of excitement about the new faces that we have. And we have a lot of new faces. I think the transfer portal window for us was already open when season was ending last spring, last semester. So we were actively recruiting players from the portal, you know, and making sure that we built the roster up in the offseason in the summer.

So that was kind of our focus, celebrating the success we had, obviously learning from the experience of being so close and not making it and then picking the right people to move the program forward and continue to have a lot of success and then, you know, be able to land the plane in Oklahoma City next June is the ultimate goal.

So, we went to work of picking the right people and got a lot of transfers in, and we are in fall practice already. I can’t believe that it’s almost October, but, just very much right now in fall practice and’it’s a very similar field to last year of just bringing a lot of new people together and integrating them into this community and into the program. So, we are in the thick of. I think yesterday at practice I called it the dog days of fall of team practice every day.

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Q: I imagine one of your keys to the season and probably goals for the fall is to start to try to figure out what it’s gonna look like at shortstop and third base, the experience you guys are gonna have to replace there to just very good players there last year. So what can you just tell us about maybe the competition, the latest you’ve seen within those competitions at those two key spots?

A: Yeah, I definitely think that’s the biggest question mark for us, is figuring the left side of the infield out. We’re fortunate enough to return the right side with (Karley) Shelton and (Ari) Rodi, so their veteran experience and their leadership with also Lexi Winters behind the plate, I think is aiding in the fact that we lost Ella Chansey and Brooke Blankenship So far, the shortstop position is really competitive and I think it’s just an absolute battle.

We have two great players that are competing for that spot right now which is sophomore transfer Tate Davis from Ole Miss, who is a really great player out of high school. She has a cannon of an arm, she has a ton of range, she just doesn’t have a ton of experience playing the position at this level yet. She’s from South Carolina, up in Greer, both of her parents went to law school here at Carolina, so she’s a Gamecock and always has been.

So I think Tate Davis is a face that people are really going to attach to and really just love in the program and she’s a ball player, she takes her training really serious, and I’ve really enjoyed watching her just kind of integrate into our system and our program, and she’s competing really well at that spot. We played PC this past Sunday in a fall exhibition and I really liked what I saw from her.

And then the other player is returning sophomore Shae Anderson, who did not get a lot of experience playing the spot last year because of Brooke’s talent and being a senior, but she did step into the role and she started against I believe it was Texas Tech our bye weekend last year. Shae Anderson played that spot all weekend because Brooke was out with an injury for a few games.

So you know, Shae doesn’t have a ton of experience at the spot but we do know she can play the position at a really high level. She’s from the west coast, you know, was in the program last year and and played a role but you know, wasn’t an everyday player for us. So I think she’s really hungry to win the spot and the two of them are just fantastic.

They push each other. There’s a lot of competition going on there. But if you come to the field and watch us practice, watch a scrimmage or a fall game, you’re going to see both of them. Tate Davis and Shae Anderson really going after the position. Both having a lot of success right now offensively, which is obviously a big piece of the puzzle.

Third base, we’ve got several people over there right now. We’ve got long term veteran in the program in Gamecock Natalie Heath, who was really an offensive player for us last year, but she’s gotten better and better defensively.

And we brought in Alyssa Hovermale from Florida, who is from the west coast, really highly recruited out of high school, went to Florida this past year, dealt with some injury. She’s healthy now and is doing really well. I think she made some great plays at third base against PC on Sunday and is doing really well at practice every day.

She, you know, Lou has, we call her Lou, that’s her nickname. But Lou’s got just a really good presence about her. She’s calm, she’s kind of collected. She’s got really great communication skills in that position and has a really quick transfer. I don’t think her arm is quite as strong as we want it to be, maybe in the future or maybe as an Ella Chancey. But her transfer is really quick and she’s really accurate, so that’s going to play for the position.

And then we also have Sage Scarmardo, who was a transfer from Purdue, who has a lot of experience playing the position at the Power 4 level. She’s from Texas and is just, you know, a great player for the program and someone that’s going to compete for the spot. So we’ve got a lot of players over there right now that are just getting a ton of reps and, you know, it’s really competitive at practice.

Q: Coach, Chris here. Thanks for taking time to join us today. I know you can’t go into specifics with unsigned players, but some things are happening in recruiting, obviously. How are you feeling just generally about how things are going on the trail right now?

A: Things are going really well for us. We’re very much focused right now on high school recruiting. That’s the fall for us. We’ve had contact with the ’27 class now. We’ve gotten eight 2027 commits in the past month. Most of those, actually all of those eight commits have been on campus spent the weekends with us. Been to the football experience, which is unlike any other. When they step into Williams-Brice I think their heart just falls in love with South Carolina.

So we’ve had a lot of really great experience. We’ve committed a lot of four stars and even I think we committed one three star so far. But she’s just I think going to have a really high ceiling and she’s from the midwest.

So really excited about it. We’ve got a couple really good arms in that class, a couple left handed arms which we desperately need on our staff moving forward and so really excited about it. And we’re in the hunt right now, in the conversation with some of the top prospects in the country. Really competitive.

We’re competing against a lot of really just championship programs in our league, outside of our league, for the same players, and I like our chances on some of those. Some local talent, some talent from different parts of the country. So I’ve been really pleased. I think our success has us really faring well for us in this recruiting season.

Q: I remember last year, you know, Ari Rodi talked about how there was a player led meeting that changed everything for you guys in the fall. What have you noticed so far early on about this group and the way they’ve been able to kind of mesh together?

A: Yeah, I like what I see so far. I mean we’re still very early in the fall. We were week two of team practice. So you know we’ve got a lot of inner squads and a lot of games and a lot of just experience in front of us.

We’re going on a fall retreat here in a couple weeks and just a lot more time to be spent. But I can tell you I really enjoy being around this group. I think we’ve got great leadership and Lexi Winters and Ari Rodi, Quincee Lilio, and even Karley Shelton, if you show up to our practices, you’re going to start to hear Karley Shelton’s voice more than you have in the past.

I think they’re really taking on those leadership veteran roles, and we believe player-led teams are always more successful than you know, it just always coming from the coaching staff. So I think they’re bonding really well. They all seem really happy. They’re all really healthy right now.

You know we haven’t faced a ton of adversity, which is always the true test of what you built and the foundation that you have. But I really enjoy this group and I think that’s saying a lot because we lost a lot of really great talent and a lot of really great players that I had coached for many years in the past. So you know, I’ve been really pleased and my heart I think is very full with joy of just, you know, the players that we brought in and what we’re creating right now in the offseason.

Q: Coach, we appreciate it as always and know it seems like the season’s a long way away for a lot of us but I think we’ll blink and’ll be here before we know it and certainly wish you guys the best luck in the fall and can’t wait to see year number two coming up in the spring.

A: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And yeah, we’ve got a lot of scrimmages and games coming up, so if anyone wants to come to Beckham, the gates are open. We’d love for you to come check out the new team.

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