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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, March 28, 2003 T^k r\ ~r"k rri Oi *game schedule CONTACT US VJI |U/f I 'VJ WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Auburn, 2 p.m. Friday I I II ^ I l MEN’S TENNIS at Auburn, 2 p.m. Friday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I \ / I I I k I BASEBALL vs. Vanderbilt, 7 p.m. Friday E-mailusatgamecocksports@hotmail.com V/ M V, -' SOFTBALL at Auburn (DH), 1 p.m. Saturday « USC sweeps Lady Razorbacks BY BRAD SENKIW THE GAMECOCK The USC softball team swept a series on the road this week at Arkansas (16-21,4-11 SEC) after get ting strong pitching; the team al lowed only four runs in the three games. After taming the Lady Razorbacks 5-2 and 6-1 in Tuesday’s doubleheader, the Gamecocks (22-7, 6-2) finished off the sweep with a 5-1 win on Wednesday. Game 1: USC 5 - Ark. 1 The Gamecocks were in control early and rode Stacey Johnson’s strong pitching to a 5-1 victory. Johnson (9-4) pitched a complete game while allowing only two runs, none earned, on four hits and three strikeouts. Heather Schlichtman (6-8) recorded the loss and gave up all five runs on six hits. Meghan Cornett, who went 1 for-2 with two RBIs, got things rolling for Carolina in the second inning when she hit a double to right field that scored Danielle Quinones and Ashley Smith. Jodi Fittro put the game away in the fifth inning with a three-run home run to left field. Debralee Troesh also contributed with a 2-for-4 hit ting performance. Arkansas’ only two runs came a half-inning later, when Julie Young and Blaire Woodward scored on three Gamecock er rors. Game 2: USC 6 - Ark. 1 USC kept its timely bats going in the second game of the double header as Amber Curtis went 3 for-4 with an RBI and Cornett added a 2-for-3 game and two RBIs. Nancy Crane chipped in with a 3-for-3 hitting perfor mance. Melanie Henkes (11-2) got the win as she pitched three innings and allowed only one earned run. Aleca Johnson relieved Henkes in the fifth to close the game out and record her second save of the sea son. Johnson struck out seven of the nine batters she faced. Carolina struck early once again with two runs each in the second and third innings. Cornett connected on a two-run home run, her first of the season, in the second inning, and Crane scored on an error, while Quinones brought Curtis home in the third. Arkansas picked up its only run in the fourth before Curtis’ RBI double and an RBI single from Fittro in the seventh. Game 3: USC 5 - Ark. 1 Carolina got Troesh’s seventh home run of the year and a strong relief appearance from Aleca Johnson to win all three games of the series. Stacey Johnson start ed the game but after hitting two consecutive batters in the second inning, was pulled. Aleca Johnson then took over and allowed a solo shot by Long and nothing else. Johnson pitched the remaining 5 1/3 innings and had five strikeouts to retire 16 of the final 17 batters she faced. Troesh led the way, going 2-for 4 with three RBIs while Curtis went 2-for-4 with a run scored. Troesh’s home run got the Gamecocks on the board in the fifth inning, and USC added two more runs in the seventh on Arkansas errors. Long’s home run came in the bottom of the seventh, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Gamecocks from capping their eighth win in nine games. USC now looks ahead to this weekend, when the team travels to Auburn for a three-game series against the Tigers. Auburn (16-16,8-8) is in third place in the SEC Western Division and defeated Alabama FILE PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK USC’s Meghan Cornett tags out LaDonia Hughes of LSU In a game earlier this season. Corbett earned a two-run home run, her first of the season, in a game against Arkansas on Tuesday. Birmingham 5-2 on Wednesday for its sixth-straight victory. Auburn swept Ole Miss last weekend after taking two of three from Arkansas. The Tigers are led offensively by Sara Dean, who is batting .306 with four home rims and 13 RBIs, and Ashley Griffin, who is hitting .330 with nine RBIs. Although Paige Jones is hitting .164 in only 61 at bats, she leads the team in RBIs (17) and is tied for home runs (4). The series begins Saturday with the first game of a double header at 1 p.m. and Sunday’s fi nale, also at 1 p.m., in Auburn, Ala. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@kotmail.com Tennis continues dominance over Clemson with close win tftf Clemson 3 (18-7) use 4 (13-2) BY MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK The rivalry between 18th ranked South Carolina and Clemson has always been a high ly competitive one, and nothing proved that more than when the two schools faced off on the courts of USC’s Sam Daniel Tennis Center on Wednesday. Carolina (13-2) prevailed 4-3 over the Tigers (18-7), thanks in part to earning a critical point in dou bles play. “It is great to get a win against Clemson, no matter what sport you play them in,” USC head coach Kent DeMars said. “We knew they were a very good team coming in with 18 wins. A couple of our guys were out of the line up today, but we proved to be the better team. We are tickled to death to get this win.” The afternoon looked as if it would begin in Carolina’s favor, but Clemson made sure that the Gamecocks didn’t get the doubles point too easily. The Tigers’ pair of Nathan Thompson and Jarmaine Jenkins won the first doubles match 8-5 over Tom Eklund and Marcus Westman, but USC took the other two. Despite having commanding leads in the second and third dou bles matches, USC relented a bit, yet hung on for the wins. Seth Rose and Ben Atkinson had a 6-2 lead over Damiisa Robinson and John Boetsch, but the Tigers came back before bow ing out 8-6 to Rose and Atkinson. USC’s Angelo Niculescu and Geraldo Knorr led Clemson’s Sander Koning and Brett Twente 6-1 before the Tiger duo tied the match at eight apiece. Niculescu and Knorr took the tiebreaker to win 9-8, earning the Gamecocks a point that would later prove critical. DeMars said he thought the final dou bles match was a turn ing point in the over all competition. In singles play, the Gamecocks had a bit of difficulty against the Tigers. Rose had one of the less-com petitive singles matches, and he won easily over the Tigers’ Thompson, 6-3, 6-2. Niculescu dropped the second singles contest 4-6, 3-6 to Koning, as Clem6on kept the match close. USC began to take the upper hand as Westman defeated Jenkins 6-1,3-6,7-6 in third singles. Westman had a 4-1 lead in the final set FILE PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK Geraldo Knorr, pictured, and Angelo Niculescu won the third doubles match over Clemson. The doubles point proved critical in USC’s victory. I when Jenkins made a comeback but pulled it out in a tiebreaker. Eklund clinched the victory in fourth singles, defeating Robinson 6-2,7-6. The second set went back and forth before Eklund won the tiebreaker. Clemson won the fifth singles match over Atkinson and the sixth over Knorr. The win marked USC’s eighth straight victory over the Tigers, the longest active winning streak over Clemson. Carolina leads the overall series 39-30. On tap for the Gamecocks this weekend is a pair of matches, the first on Friday at 29th-ranked Auburn, followed by a contest against 16th-ranked Alabama. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Gamecocks drop fourth in a row with defeat by Paladins tit use 5 (16-9) Furman 7 (11-11) 7 BY TRAVIS BOLAND THE GAMECOCK The USC baseball team (16-9,1-5 SEC) dropped its fourth straight game Wednesday night in a 7-5 loss to the Furman Paladins (11 11). The Gamecocks and the Paladins played in front of more than 1,022 fans at Greenville Municipal Stadium. Furman was led by catcher Derek Norman, who went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, and Patrick Griffin, who won his third game of the season tm_~ J ;_a—i, n 1 n l-3 ™ X 11V X U1UUXI1U IW11 (XXV/ 1VUVX the bottom of the first, when Nick Wajda scored the first of his three runs on a Dominick Frankey sin gle. The Gamecocks got the run back in the top of the second in ning when Landon Powell scored on a Justin Harris groundout. The Paladins took the lead for good in the fifth by scoring four runs to push their lead to 5-1. Sam McClain hit a bases-loaded single to plate two runs, followed by RBIs from Norman and Stephen Hildreth. USC began a comeback in the sixth inning when Michael Campbell doubled, scoring Bryan Triplett and Hank Parks and cut ting the Paladin lead to 5-3 Norman answered with a two-run double of his own in the bottom of the inning, pushing the lead to 7-3. The Gamecocks tried to come back again in the seventh, when they loaded the bases with only one out. Brian Buscher, who has ex tended his hitting streak to 14 games and has reached base safely in 24 of 25 games, hit a sacrifice fly that scored Jon Coiitlangus. A Powell single then brought home Steven Tolleson, but Paladin re lief pitcher David Mitchell shut down the rally, striking out Campbell to end the threat. Tom Mastny came on in relief for the Paladins in the eighth and retired the final six batters of the game to earn his first save of the season. The loss was the fourth straight for the Gamecocks and the first to Furman since 2001, when the Paladins beat the Gamecocks 5-4 in Columbia. _j _ _ _ t 1UUUU uutt UXIUIO tonight,” USC head coach Ray Tanner told The Greenville News. “We opened the door for them a lit tle bit, and we failed to get the big two-out hit, two-strike hit.” Forrest Beverly took the loss despite pitching 41/3 innings, giv ing up two runs on two hits. The Carolina bullpen pitched 3 2/3 in nings, giving up five runs on eight hits while walking three. The Gamecocks will try to get back in the win column when they return home to face the Vanderbilt Commodores (13-10,2-4) this week end. Friday's series opener is scheduled for 7 p.m., with USC’s Steven Bondurant going against Jeremy Sowers. Saturday’s game begins at 4 p.m., and Sunday’s starts at 1:30 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com CLUB CORNER Racquetball Club Racquetball Club President Brook Bristow and Club Treasurer Ben Edwards repeat ed as USC doubles and team tournament champions in the intramural tournament this past weekend. The club would like to . congratulate them. If you are interested in being added to the club challenge lad der, send an e-mail to r acquet@gwm. sc. edu. Bodybuilding Club The Bodybuilding Club would like to remind everyone that Wednesday is the deadline to ap ply for the Mr. and Ms. USC com petition to be held April 12. Entry forms are in the rack in the front lobby of the Blatt P.E. Center. You can also send an e mail to hg@sc.edu and request an entry form electronically. Ultimate Frisbee Club There is a new Ultimate Frisbee Club Team at USC. It was started earlier this year and has traveled to a few tourna ments so far. This past weekend, the Gamecock Ultimate team trav eled to Georgia Southern University for a tournament, and USC won its division. The club is currently recruit ing anybody interested. No expe rience is necessary. Males and fe males are encouraged to try it out. Practices are Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 to 11 p.m., and there are pickup games ev ery Sunday at 2 p.m. For more in formation, contact Bryan Vasser at Vasser@mailbox.sc.edu or 544-0315. Send your club's news to gamecocksports @hotmail.com to appear in Club Corner. 4 BRIEFLY A Carolina to play Auburn, Alabama The 37th-ranked USC wom en’s tennis team will play Auburn and 20th-ranked Alabama this weekend at home. These are the last home match es for the Gamecocks, with three remaining matches on the road. Carolina (11-5, 4-2 SEC) has won four of its last five matches and 18 in a row against SEC Western Division teams coming into the weekend. Auburn (9-5, 2-4) trails the all-time series against the Gamecocks .15-1, and has dropped the past 11 meetings with USC. Alabama (14-3,5-1) leads the SEC Western Division and trails the Gamecocks 8-4 in the teams’ all-time series. USC won its fifth straight match over the Crimson Tide in last year’s 4-3 decision. Carolina will honor three se niors on Sunday. Admission is free. Friday’s match against Auburn starts at 2 p.m., and Sunday’s meeting with Alabama begins at 2 p.m. at the Maxcy Gregg Tennis Facility. Bradley takes third in preliminaries USC men’s swimming and diving team member Andy Bradley finished in thifd place on the 1-meter board in the pre liminary competition at the NCAA Championships. Bradley, who has earned All American honors, will compete in the finals of the 1-meter board and finished with a score of 325.00 in the preliminaries. Last weekend, women’s divers Lauren King and Tracey Richardson, who competed at the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championships, joined Bradley with All-American honors. Jennifer VanAssen was also named an All-American for USC in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle competitions. Tamas Szucs also competed at the NCAA Championships and finished 34th in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:24^57.