Gress provides strong relief, Winters homers as South Carolina tops UCLA 9-2 in Super Regional

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Lexi Winters had a two-run home run in the first inning and drove in three runs, Sam Gress threw three-plus innings of no-hit relief and eighth-seeded South Carolina opened the Columbia NCAA Super Regional with a 9-2 rout of eighth-seeded UCLA on Friday.

Game 2 in the best-of-3 series is Saturday.

A leadoff walk came before Winters' two-out blast to center field. Then Kaitlyn Terry (18-5) hit a batter and Brooke Blankenship ripped an RBI double down the rightfield line.

Arianna Rodi roped a two-run single in the second for the Gamecocks (44-15).

Alexis Ramierez and Sophia Mujica had RBI hits in the fourth for UCLA (52-11) but Abigail Knight answered with a two-run double in the fifth and and South Carolina wrapped it up with two runs in the sixth.

Gress scattered four hits in 3 1/3 innings.