South-Carolina
South Carolina prepares for third execution since September
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina is preparing to execute the third inmate to be put to death since September as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn’t find lethal injection drugs.
Marion Bowman Jr.’s execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday at a Columbia prison. Bowman, 44, was convicted of murder in the shooting death of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of a car.
Bowman has maintained his innocence since his arrest. His lawyers said he was convicted on the word of several friends and relatives who received deals or had charges dropped by prosecutors in exchange for their testimony.
Bowman, who has been on death row more than half his life, was offered a plea deal for a life sentence but went to trial because he said he was not guilty.
Bowman’s death would mark the first execution in the U.S. in 2025. Twenty-five executions were carried out in the country last year.
South Carolina paused executions for 13 years in part because state officials could not obtain lethal injection drugs. The General Assembly passed a shield law, and prison officials were able to find a compounding pharmacy willing to make the pentobarbital if its identity wasn’t made public.
Bowman is not asking Gov. Henry McMaster for clemency. His lawyer, Lindsey Vann, said Bowman didn’t want to spend more decades in prison for a crime he did not commit.
“After more than two decades of battling a broken system that has failed him at every turn, Marion’s decision is a powerful refusal to legitimize an unjust process that has already stolen so much of his life,” Vann said in a statement Thursday.
No governor in the previous 45 executions in South Carolina since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 has given mercy and reduced a death sentence to life in prison without parole.
Bowman was convicted in Dorchester County in 2002 of murder in the killing of 21-year-old Kandee Martin in 2001. A number of friends and family members testified against him as part of plea deals.
One friend said Bowman was angry because Martin owed him money. A second testified Bowman thought Martin was wearing a recording device to get him arrested on a charge.
Bowman said he sold drugs to Martin, who was a friend of his for years and sometimes she would pay with sex, but he denied killing her.
Bowman is Black like the other two inmates executed since the pause ended. The final appeal from his lawyers said his trial attorney had too much sympathy for his white victim. The South Carolina Supreme Court called the argument meritless.
One other concern raised by Bowman’s lawyers is his weight. An anesthesiologist said he fears South Carolina’s secret lethal injection protocols don’t take into account Bowman is listed as 389 pounds (176 kilograms) in prison records. It can be difficult to properly get an IV into a blood vessel and determine the dose of the drugs needed in people with obesity.
Prison officials used two doses of pentobarbital given 11 minutes apart in the previous execution, according to autopsy records.
Before the 13-year pause, South Carolina was among the busiest states for executions.
The state Supreme Court cleared the way to restart executions in July. Freddie Owens was put to death by lethal injection Sept. 20 and Richard Moore was executed on Nov. 1.
The court will allow an execution every five weeks until the other three inmates who have run out of appeals are put to death.
South Carolina has put 45 inmates to death since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, it was carrying out an average of three executions a year. Nine states have put more inmates to death.
But since the unintentional execution pause, South Carolina’s death row population has dwindled. The state had 63 condemned inmates in early 2011. It currently has 30. About 20 inmates have been taken off death row and received different prison sentences after successful appeals. Others have died of natural causes.
South-Carolina
Why South Carolina softball, Ashley Chastain Woodard believed a super regional was possible
COLUMBIA — It took a moment to sink in — then suddenly, celebrations erupted as an eighth run meant South Carolina softball advanced to a super regional for the first time since 2018.
First-year coach Ashley Chastain Woodard and the No. 8 seed Gamecocks (43-15) beat North Florida 8-0 in a run-ruled five-inning game on May 18, after beating the Ospreys 3-0 on May 17 and Elon 5-2 on May 16 in the Columbia Regional.
They will host either No. 9 seed UCLA (52-10) in a super regional at Carolina Softball Stadium. The Gamecocks are 34-5 at home.
South Carolina was voted to finish last in the SEC but now the Gamecocks are just two wins away from advancing to the Women’s College World Series, which would be the program’s first since 1997.
Chastain Woodard, who was a pitcher for the Gamecocks from 2009-11, was hired from Charlotte and brought six players with her, including star pitcher Sam Gress, infielder Ella Chancey and home-run leader Arianna Rodi. The 2025 roster is a hodgepodge of Gamecocks who stayed through the coaching change after last season, former 49ers and other transfers.
Sixth-year outfielder Abigail Knight, a transfer from Charlotte, said looking at the roster and the 2025 season, the Gamecocks had two choices.
“Either use this time as a rebuild and use this time to grow or we could go get it right away,” Knight said. “Nobody wanted to waste any time, just tip-toeing into the season, we wanted to go get it. There’s no time like the present.”
Chastain Woodard has set a program record for the most wins for a first-year coach.
“She’s the best that I’ve ever played behind,” Knight said. “What an honor it is to follow her into battle.”
Heading into the regional final, South Carolina had to win just one game against North Florida. The Gamecocks had a game-changing two-out rally in the fifth inning where they scored six runs. In the regional, 12 of the 16 runs scored by South Carolina came with two outs.
After the win on May 17, Chastain Woodard admitted that last summer she told her team a regional appearance was attainable for this group. Now, this next achievement isn’t a surprise either.
“I think anything is possible,” Chastain Woodard said. “I have a ton of belief in the players, in the ones who stayed and the ones who came in. I knew it was definitely possible … a top-8 seed, you look around at the conference, you look around at the game right now and man, that’s really hard to do … it’s special, these are moments and weeks you’ll never forget.”
Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
South-Carolina
Is LSU baseball a worthy top-8 seed in the NCAA tourney? 5 takeaways from South Carolina series
The Tigers lost the series opener on a walk-off wild pitch on Thursday, 6-5, but bounced back with an 8-1 win on Friday and a 7-3 victory on Saturday.
Here are five takeaways from LSU’s seventh series victory in Southeastern Conference play.
Is LSU worthy of a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament?
The Tigers finished the regular season with a 42-13 overall record, a 19-11 record in SEC play and a tie for third place with Vanderbilt for the best record in the toughest conference in the sport.
LSU is also No. 8 in RPI after Saturday and No. 7 in KPI following Friday’s games — KPI is another results-based rating system used by the selection committee. It’s gone 20-11 against Quads 1 and 2, and has more wins than all but six teams against Quad 1.
Thursday’s loss to South Carolina may have affected the Tigers’ chances of being the No. 1 team in the country in next week’s polls. But the defeat hasn’t altered the fact that this team deserves to host a regional and super regional at Alex Box Stadium.
How much does the SEC Tournament matter for LSU’s NCAA tourney seeding hopes?
A win or two in Hoover as the No. 3 seed will only help the Tigers’ odds of earning a top-eight seed in the NCAA Tournament. But even if they lost to No. 6 Auburn, No. 11 Mississippi State or No. 14 Texas A&M on Friday, it’s still hard to imagine them not earning that coveted bid in the NCAA tourney.
Besides LSU’s strong metrics, the perception around the Tigers’ play throughout the second half of this season has been strong. They entered this week as the No. 1 team in the country according to every poll and have won four of their last five series in SEC play.
There’s a strong argument to be made that a team’s spot in the NCAA Tournament should be based on merit alone. But since the selection committee is made up of human beings and not robots, national perception and how well a program is playing lately play a big role in determining a team like LSU’s fate as a top-eight seed.
Jake Brown’s strong play against righties
The sophomore outfielder started just one game this weekend, but Brown mashed the ball when he got his opportunities to dig into the batter’s box against South Carolina.
The Louisiana native went 5 for 8 with a home run and two doubles against the Gamecocks. He came off the bench on Thursday and Friday — both nights where South Carolina started a left-hander on the mound — before going 3 for 5 at the plate on Saturday.
Like with junior Ethan Frey against left-handers, Brown has clearly found his stroke versus righties. Trying to find playing time between those two and senior Josh Pearson will be something to continue to monitor as LSU heads into the postseason.
Given Pearson’s playoff history and experience, the Tigers will need all three of them to contribute in June in order to get to Omaha.
Evaluating the weekend for LSU’s top pitchers
It wasn’t a perfect series for LSU’s top arms.
Sophomore left-hander Kade Anderson allowed just one earned run in 6⅔ innings, but freshman right-hander Casan Evans, junior right-hander Zac Cowan and junior right-hander Anthony Eyanson struggled to varying degrees throughout the weekend.
Cowan was hit hard for the third time in three weeks on Thursday, allowing three earned runs and four hits in 1⅔ innings. He also walked a batter and hit another before allowing the walk-off run to score on a wild pitch in the ninth inning.
LSU had a two-run lead in the eighth when he entered the game.
“I don’t know if they were mistake pitches or they put good swings on it,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said, “but you’ve got to give them credit.”
Evans and Eyanson didn’t scuffle nearly as much, but neither were at their sharpest against the Gamecocks.
Evans walked a batter and barely threw more than half of his 27 pitches for strikes on Friday, and Eyanson admitted on Saturday that he didn’t have his best stuff, eventhough he only gave up two earned runs.
Eyanson walked three batters and only had five strikeouts against the lowly Gamecocks.
“I was waiting for an outing like that to happen where I didn’t have my best stuff and just had to mentally grind,” Eyanson said.
The top of the order gets going
LSU’s attack is at its best when freshman Derek Curiel, junior Daniel Dickinson and junior Jared Jones are clicking on all cylinders. And that was on display this weekend, especially on Saturday.
It was a big weekend for Dickinson and Jones. Jones went 6 for 13 with three home runs, moving to third on LSU’s all-time homers list on Friday. Dickinson was 5 for 12 and blasted a homer on Thursday and Saturday.
Curiel, LSU’s leadoff hitter, joined the party on Saturday after going 0 for 8 with a walk through the first two games of the series. He bounced back with a 3 for 5 performance in the series finale.
“I just tuned some things up, made some adjustments mentally,” Curiel said, “and just locked back into my plan and just had fun.”
South-Carolina
South Carolina softball’s 6th-inning surge vs North Florida carries Gamecocks to regional final
COLUMBIA — South Carolina softball, the top seed of the Columbia Regional and the No. 8 national seed, defeated No. 3 seed North Florida 3-0 in the NCAA tournament, on May 17.
With the win, the Gamecocks (42-15) advance to the regional final on May 18 (1 p.m., ESPN2).
It was a pitchers’ duel through five innings, with the wind an additional factor at Carolina Softball Stadium. After missing a two-run home run by a foot in the fourth inning, senior Ella Chancey stepped up to the plate in the sixth with two outs. She doubled to right field then an error at the plate allowed Chloe Lackey to score the game’s first run.
Emma Sellers, with the bases loaded and still two outs, singled to bring home two more to make it 3-0.
The Osprey (46-14) had star pitcher Allison Benning battling veteran Sam Gress for the Gamecocks. Gress allowed six hits, zero runs and threw four strikeouts in 4.2 innings. Jori Heard relieved Gress, following up her May 16 performance with another quality game. Heard allowed no hits and no runs in 2.1 innings.
South Carolina softball live score vs North Florida
The Gamecocks score the game’s first runs in the top of the sixth. North Florida had no hits and no runs to close the sixth, giving South Carolina a three-run lead heading into the top of the seventh.
South Carolina leaves two on in the fifth.
Ella Chancey was just a foot away from a two-run home run. North Florida leaves one on and it’s still 0-0 heading into the fifth.
Emily Vinson makes a diving catch for South Carolina to get the first out of the inning, then North Florida leaves two on.
Gamecocks go three up three down. The Ospreys’ runner gets called for leaving early, ending the inning.
Arianna Rodi with a two out single but South Carolina didn’t get anything more. The Ospreys load the bases but leave three on.
What time does South Carolina softball vs. North Florida start?
- Date: May 17
- Time: 1 p.m. ET
- Location: Carolina Softball Stadium at Beckham Field in Columbia, South Carolina
What TV channel is South Carolina softball vs. North Florida on today?
- TV: N/A
- Streaming: ESPN+ on the ESPN app
South Carolina softball starting pitcher
Sam Gress is starting for the Gamecocks. She has a 3.12 ERA, 12 wins and 94 strikeouts.
North Florida softball starting pitcher
Allison Benning, North Florida’s star is starting. She has a 1.49 ERA, 25 wins and 174 strikeouts.
NCAA softball schedule
Here is the latest college softball schedule and NCAA Tournament bracket update.
NCAA Tournament Columbia Regional softball schedule
May 17
Game 3: North Florida vs South Carolina, 1 p.m., ESPN+
Game 4: Virginia vs. Elon, 3:30 p.m., TV TBD
Game 5: loser of G3 vs. winner of G4, 6 p.m., TV TBD
May 18
Game 6: winner of G3 vs. winner of G5, 1 p.m., ESPN2.
Game 7: winner of C6 vs. loser of G6 (if necessary), 3:30 p.m.
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Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin
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