For the second time in this year’s NCAA tournament, and the third time this season, Utah was defeated by South Carolina on Sunday.
This time, the loss to the Gamecocks meant the end of the season for the Utes — it was their second of two losses to South Carolina in the double-elimination tournament.
Sarah Ladd, who pitched six shutout innings yesterday in the 1-0 win over Morgan State, started Sunday afternoon’s contest. The Gamecocks struck right out of the gate in the top of the first inning, loading the bases on two singles and a walk, and Aniyah Black cashed in, opening scoring with a grand slam over the left field wall.
Ladd would finish the inning, including two flyouts, but would be replaced by Mariah Lopez to start the second inning. As she has done all tournament, Lopez gave the Utes a chance, pitching six innings with no earned runs, but Utah’s offense struggled again.
The Utes managed to score just one run, which came in the sixth inning on a RBI ground out by Sophie Jacquez, scoring Abby Dayton, who doubled earlier in the inning, from third.
Utah had other chances to score during the game — they loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning with two outs, but couldn’t get a run across the plate after Karlie Davison popped up. In the third, Haley Denning hit a double, but was caught stealing third base. The Utes would only advance a runner past first base once after that, on the Dayton double in the sixth inning.
South Carolina starting pitcher Jori Heard pitched four innings, allowing four hits and no runs, and Alana Vawter finished the job with one run on one hit over three innings.
Lopez’s final line was six innings with one hit, one earned run, six strikeouts and four walks.
The Utes finish the season with a 35-22 overall record and their second NCAA tournament appearance in as many years after getting hot in April and May — including a run to the Pac-12 championship game — following a slow start to the season following last year’s College World Series appearance.
“it’s tough to stay in that top eight. I mean, the peaks and the valleys are real,” Utah coach Amy Hogue said. “The mountain top does that up and down thing. So do teams. You don’t just stay there. There’s ups and downs and what this team accomplished this year, especially late in the season, showed a whole lot about what their talent level is.”