South Carolina’s return to FSU for NCAAs a ‘full-circle moment’ for senior Jordan Fabian

Michael Lananna
·3 min read

South Carolina softball senior Jordan Fabian still remembers the pain of 2019 — a one-run loss to host Florida State in the Tallahassee Regional.

That trip in Fabian’s freshman season was the last time the Gamecocks made it to the NCAA Tournament. As fate would have it, in her final season at USC, Fabian and the Gamecocks are going to Tallahassee again.

Fresh of a historic run in the SEC Tournament, Beverly Smith’s Gamecocks (37-20, 9-15 SEC) earned a No. 2 seed in the Tallahassee Regional and will open play against No. 3 seed UCF at 7 p.m. Friday (ESPN2), with the winner taking on either FSU or No. 4 seed Marist the next day.

It’s the team’s 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance and eighth under Smith.

“I went there my freshman year, and that was the last regional we went to,” Fabian said. “That was a heartbreaker down there, whenever we finished our season, but we’re super excited. It does feel like a full-circle moment.”

Fittingly, the fifth-year senior Fabian hit the go-ahead home run that sent USC to the championship game in the SEC Tournament. The No. 10-seeded Gamecocks became lowest seed to ever reach the conference title game — a run that surely boosted USC’s NCAA resume.

South Carolina faced its share of rough stretches this season but also showed resolved in how it bounced back, not only in the SEC Tournament but in a key series win against Florida and a sweep of Texas A&M.

“I think this team early on in the season just committed to doing things a little differently,” Smith said. “This year they committed to the extra work, they committed to the positivity and optimism that’s required in this game, and they’ve been gritty all season long.

“I just think their confidence grew during during SEC play, and I was happy to see them get rewarded with it.”

The Gamecocks don’t necessarily have one star they lean on in the batting order, instead relying on the sum of their parts. Fabian leads the team with 10 home runs and 21 steals but is batting .204. Junior Riley Blampied might be the team’s most well-rounded hitter, with a .278 average, team-leading .512 slugging percentage and seven homers.

In the circle, senior transfer Donnie Gobourne has seized the spotlight, pitching in a variety of roles and excelling in all of them. She leads the team in nearly every statistical category, including ERA (2.15), innings (120.2), strikeouts (189) and wins (13).

Behind Gobourne and veteran leadership of Fabian, the Gamecocks aim to show their gritty run in the SEC Tournament was no fluke.

“I think we just don’t lose faith in each other,” Fabian said. “We lean on each other. As you saw the SEC Tournament, it took everybody in the dugout. There was some some new star every game, and it’s because we’re a team full of stars.”

NCAA softball Tallahassee Regional schedule

Stream the games through the ESPN app

  • Game 1: Florida State (50-8) vs. Marist (29-28) — 4 p.m. Friday (ESPN Plus)

  • Game 2: South Carolina (37-20) vs. UCF (39-19) — 7 p.m. Friday (ESPN2)

  • Game 3: 1 p.m. Saturday (G1 winner vs. G2 winner)

  • Game 4: 3:30 p.m. Saturday (G1 loser vs G2 loser)

  • Game 5: 6 p.m. Saturday (G4 winner vs. G3 loser)

  • Game 6: 4 p.m. Sunday (G3 winner vs. G5 winner)

  • Game 7: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, if necessary.