Willems powers South Alabama softball past FGCU, 5-1

Original source (on modern site) | Article images: [1]

Sasha Willems' first home run of the season opened the scoring on Saturday night for South Alabama in the NCAA Softball Gainesville Regional. Her second punctuated a 5-1 victory over Florida Gulf Coast and pushed the Jaguars into the championship round.

South Alabama (34-19-1) faces top-seeded Florida (48-12) beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The Jaguars would have to win twice to advance to an NCAA Super Regional for the first time in program history.

"Today was a really long day, tough day," South Alabama coach Becky Clark said. "To bounce back from the loss and then you were battling the rain delays and all that goes along with that and then having to sit — it was really long day for us. So I'm proud of them for coming back and bouncing back and giving us a chance to play again (Sunday)."

South Alabama recovered from a 9-1 loss to Florida earlier in the day, a game that included a nearly 3-hour weather delay. After Florida Gulf Coast (38-22) eliminated Florida Atlantic with a 3-2 victory in Saturday's second game, the Jaguars and Eagles took the field just after 9:30 p.m. local time.

Willems, who had not homered since March of 2023, finished with a pair of long balls on Saturday night and drove in three of her team's five runs. The senior from Sydney, Australia, said she was relaxed at the plate vs. Florida Gulf Coast.

"I was struggling in the box a little bit," Willems said in her postgame interview on ESPN+. "I wasn't hitting with a lot of power and so I was like, 'You know what, let's go back to my roots. Let's take some time, feel my hips, feel my eyes narrow. And I just let loose today. It's gonna be my last game of the season if we don't win, so I may as well just swing hard and hope for the best."

In addition to Willems' heroics, the Jaguars again got an outstanding pitching effort from senior Olivia Lackie. The right-hander went the distance in the circle, allowing a run on seven hits and a hit batter, with five strikeouts, to run her record to 25-9.

Like her team, Lackie rebounded from a rough performance in Saturday's first game. The complete game was her 25th of the year and lowered her ERA to 1.53.

"I keep just saying with her, she's a winner," Clark said. "When you've got to win, put a winner on the mound. It's her senior year, so she wants to keep playing as long as possible, and she's earned the right to be out there.

"… You're in a 'end your season if you don't get it done' situation. So I'm gonna put her out there and let her go until she can't."

Willems drove a 3-2 pitch from FGCU starter Allison Sparkman over the center field wall with one out in the second to give South Alabama a 1-0 lead. It was not only Willems' first homer of the season, but the first Sparkman had allowed all year.

Here's video:

"She's been a grinder for us and a work in progress (offensively)," Clark said of Willems. "As a senior, you're happy to see her have that moment in a regional tournament. So that was pretty cool."

The Jaguars went up 2-0 in fifth, when Brooklyn Bockhaus singled, stole second and took third on a throwing error. One out later, Florida Gulf Coast tried to get the runner at home on Marley Sims' infield grounder, but Bockhaus easily beat the throw.

The Eagles finally put together some offense in the bottom of the fifth after Avery Viancos and Riley Oakes delivered back-to-back one-out singles. Nikki Gibson bounced a single up the middle with two outs to score Viancos and make it 2-1, but South Alabama second baseman Odalys Cordova made a brilliant play to preserve the Jaguars' lead.

Lying flat on her back behind second base, Cordova lobbed a throw home to Willems, who got Oakes in a rundown. She was eventually tagged out by Sims, the Jaguars' shortstop, to keep it a 2-1 game.

Neither team scored in the sixth, then South Alabama put the game away in the top of the seventh. Mackenzie Brasher led off with a bunt single, then took second on Sims' bunt and third on Welch's fly out.

Gabby Stagner lined a single past shortstop to make it 3-1, then Willems blasted another 3-2 pitch over the left-field wall for a four-run Jaguars lead. Lackie set the Eagles down with three groundouts in the bottom of the seventh to close out the win.

Here's video of Willems' second home run:

So now South Alabama must deal again with mighty Florida, the No. 3 national seed. The Jaguars played the Gators close for most of Saturday's early game, before the host team piled on six runs in the top of the fifth to win by mercy rule.

Clark said she was still considering her game plan for facing Florida — potentially twice — on Sunday.

"We're in 'survive and advance' mode," Clark said. "We just survived and so we advanced and we'll figure that out (Sunday). Obviously, they're a very good ball club. We played them close today. It was close until it wasn't.

"I thought we were aggressive today; we competed. I was pretty frustrated (after Friday's 1-0 win over Florida Atlantic) because I didn't think we were very aggressive. I didn't think we competed. I thought today we came out and set the tone.

We just couldn't tack on and we couldn't sustain it. So we'll come out tomorrow and play ball, play it one pitch at a time and see what happens."

The Gainesville Regional is available streaming live via ESPN+.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.