Scouting South Carolina softball vs Central Florida, path through NCAA Tournament regional

COLUMBIA — After a historic performance in the SEC Tournament, South Carolina softball earned its first at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament since 2019.

The Gamecocks (37-20) are the No. 3 team in the Tallahassee Regional hosted by Florida State (50-8). They will face Central Florida (39-19) in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament on Friday (7 p.m., ESPN2), and the Seminoles will play Marist (29-28) on the other side of the bracket Friday (4 p.m., ESPN+).

The winners and losers of Friday's games will face each other Saturday, and there will be an elimination game in the last game of the day Saturday. The championship will be Sunday, with the team coming out of the losers' bracket having to win twice.

Here's what you need to know about South Carolina's path through the Tallahassee region:

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What to expect from Central Florida

The Knights are coming off of their second consecutive American Athletic Conference Tournament title, where they dominated Tulsa in five innings in the championship game. After a four-year NCAA Tournament drought from 2017-20, Central Florida reemerged on the national stage with a super regional appearance in 2022. The team is led by ace pitcher Sarah Willis, who was named AAC Pitcher of the Year. She ranks No. 25 in the nation with a 1.46 ERA, and opponents have a .181 batting average against her.

UCF has faced multiple Power 5 opponents this season with mixed results: The Knights played six SEC teams but only beat Mississippi State, the lone team in the conference that did not make the NCAA Tournament. They have one win over a team currently ranked, a 3-1 victory over No. 21 Wichita State, though they dropped the other two games in their series.

Gamecocks' history in Tallahassee

The last time South Carolina reached the NCAA Tournament in 2019, the Gamecocks also played in Florida State's regional and were eliminated by the Seminoles in the final. That year, South Carolina lost to South Florida in their first-round matchup but emerged as the winner of the loser's bracket after beating USF 2-1 in a rematch. Florida State largely cruised through the region with double-digit wins over Bethune-Cookman in the first round and USF in the second, but the Gamecocks put up the best fight with a 7-6 in the final.

South Carolina was also placed in the Tallahassee Regional for three consecutive seasons from 2014-16. Florida State took out the Gamecocks in the region final for the first time in 2016, and were eliminated short of the final by Central Florida in 2015 and South Florida in 2014.

Scouting the rest of the bracket

The Gamecocks obviously have a history with Florida State, the No. 3 overall seed, and any path out of the regional will likely have to go through the Seminoles. Florida State has reached the super regional in eight of the last 10 years and has advanced out of every regional it has hosted except one in 2009 since the super regional system was instituted in 2005. The Seminoles are led by ACC Pitcher of the Year Kathryn Sandercock, who ranks No. 11 in the country for strikeout-to-walk ratio, and No. 12 in ERA with a 1.16.

If South Carolina loses to UCF in the first round, they're likely to play Marist next. The Red Foxes won the MAAC Tournament championship for the first time since 2016, upsetting No. 1 seed Canisius in back-to-back games to secure the title. Marist is 0-4 against Power 5 opponents this season and has yet to play a ranked team, so the other three teams in the bracket are not likely to struggle against the Red Foxes.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: NCAA Softball Tournament: Scouting South Carolina's path in regional