Portal gamble leads Vinson home to S. Carolina softball

When Emily Vinson wrapped up her junior season at Longwood last year, she had no plans to leave the Farmville, Virginia college in search of greener softball pastures.

Vinson was coming off the best offensive season of her career and her defensive prowess a year earlier had earned her a National Fastpitch Coaches Association Rawlings Gold Glove Award, given to the nine best defensive players in all of D-I softball.

Nowadays in college athletics, a mid-major player coming off a career year is typically a prime candidate to be plucked away by a high-major program in the transfer portal. But Vinson loved Longwood, so that wouldn’t be the case.

“My last game at Longwood, we lost. I had no intention of leaving. It was kind of like ah, OK, look forward to next year type of thing,” Vinson said.

Then Ashley Chastain Woodard was hired as South Carolina’s new head softball coach, and Vinson – an Elgin, South Carolina native who played high school ball at Lugoff-Elgin – decided to take a gamble.

She was going to enter the transfer portal with the intention of going home. But it was South Carolina or no one else.

“I had that conversation with (Longwood coach Megan Brown), and it was more like, ‘I’m not going in the portal fishing for a bigger opportunity,’ ” Vinson recalled. “It’s been my dream to play for South Carolina and play at home, so that’s basically what I’m going in for. It’s South Carolina or bust. Like, I’m either going to South Carolina or I’m staying at Longwood and there was nothing really in between that I was interested in.”

Vinson and the Gamecocks’ new leader crossed paths in the Big South when Chastain Woodard was the head coach at Charlotte, so the two were familiar with each other. Vinson said she knew Chastain Woodard had what it took to get South Carolina softball back on track.

“I feel like when you play against somebody you get the true version of them, and you see a lot that you don’t get to see if you’re just going through the recruiting process with that person,” Vinson said. “So I had a really interesting perspective there. And then I knew that she’d do a lot of good stuff here, and I knew that she’d turn the program around.”

Chastain Woodard said Vinson was “obviously” the best player on Longwood’s roster and was impressed that she entered the portal just on the chance South Carolina would take her.

On Aug. 19 of last year, Vinson announced her commitment to South Carolina.

“I always say all the time that I’m really blessed that I left a place that I loved and came to a place that I loved,” Vinson said.

The move fulfilled a lifelong dream of being able to play for the Gamecocks, and Chastain Woodard looks back fondly on the decision to add Vinson to the roster.

“I think it’s one of the best decisions I made last summer, to be honest, looking back at it,” Chastain Woodard said. “She gives us so much heart and so much perspective. She doesn’t take a day, a second, really, for granted of being here. She put all of her eggs in one basket, and it worked out for her, so I’m grateful to her that she did that.”

Vinson is one of the five players who make up the local contingent on South Carolina’s roster this year. The pride those local players have for the Gamecocks is what sets South Carolina apart from other teams, Vinson said.

“The cool thing about this team is that we have a couple of those guys: Emily Vinson, Lexie Winters, Nealy Lamb,” Chastain Woodard said. “… Those guys grew up coming to these games. They grew up coming to this stadium. I have pictures of Emily with (mascot) Cocky and she was small, just thirsting to wear the uniform, (for) someone to give them a chance to be a part of the program.”

Each time she puts on the uniform it doesn’t feel real, even as the regular season is nearly over, Vinson said.

Vinson has been a staple of South Carolina’s outfield this year. She’s played in 49 of the Gamecocks’ 50 games this year. Vinson’s offensive numbers don’t pop off the page (she’s hitting .194). She’s more known for her defensive ability, as evidenced by her home run robbery against Clemson that made the ESPN “SportsCenter” Top 10 plays, and her .962 fielding percentage.

She’s had her moments at the plate, though, including a three-hit game and her second home run as a Gamecock last week against Auburn. Chastain Woodard said Vinson is beginning to get hot at the end of the year, something she describes as “lightning magic in a bottle … you can’t put a price tag on.”

“Obviously my role in the team isn’t to hit home runs, it’s definitely for defense,” Vinson said. “But to be able to produce at the plate and just get on base for (utility player Quincee Lilio) and the top of our lineup like that, it’s going to help us be in a better position to be successful down the stretch.”

Vinson’s time at South Carolina is beginning to wind down. South Carolina’s final home series against Alabama started Thursday with a 13-1 loss. The battle between the No. 14 Gamecocks and No. 18 Crimson Tide has SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament seeding implications.

South Carolina’s seniors will be honored Friday during the series for Senior Day. Vinson joked she’s in denial about it being senior day already.

“I don’t want to say I ever gave up on the dream of being here, but as I got through my college career, it just kind of kept dwindling and dwindling – the chances of being here,” Vinson said. “So just a lot of gratitude to get to spend one last year here, still graduate on time, still have a lot of fun, get to play and just do a lot of the things that I always dreamed of doing in school. It was cool that it was my last year. Kind of like a full circle moment, like a big bow on my career.”

Michael Sauls: mcsauls