Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Just ir USC first baseman Buddy Caldwell 7 stretches for throw to nip Georgia 7 Southern Pase runner in action this week. Baseball a top sports Crucial conference baseball games, two big relay track meets, another golf tournament and a tennis match with arch-rival Clemson highlight this week's spring sports action for USC. Coach Bobby Richardson's baseballers, after splitting with tough small college power Georgia Southern in a two game set Monday and Tuesday, take on Atlantic Cnast Cnn ference foes Clemson and Wake Forest on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The Gamecocks defeated the Deacons, 5-3 in ten Pitching has carry the loac Gamecocks, wit of 2.19 contrit toward an 12-8 to date. Southpa leads the squa E RA, while rel Houston has st an earned run Robinson is 2-0, 1, while ace L has had his re: with losses in outings. In the hittin the team battirl Butch Anderso leads the w, Butch Anderson Gaeoktt pair of blows ov when sophomore second baseman Tommy Moody, hitting .318, was knocked out for the season with a broken leg against Duke and fresh outfielder John Gambrell, a soeed ster with a .293 mark, pulled a hamstring and may be hampered for several games. Coae4 )ohn West's trackmen, rocking along with a 44dual record after biasting North Carol 940-55 in Chapel HIll Saturday, ready themsd, frrelay action after running against N. C. State in Raleigh Tuesday. The Gamecck thinelads will split up over the weekend with participation scheduled for both _ the famed Penn Relays In Philadelphia and the North Carolina Reaysu in Chapel Hill. -Mike McCright tiUme 7he Gamecocks won Monday but lost in 7uesday's game. nd track schedule innings last Saturday, after losing two one-run decisions to Duke in a Friday double header and are now 2-3 in the conference. The Saturday affair against Wake Forest is scheduled for 1:30 at the Rex Enright Athletic Center diamond. The Gamecocks' meeting with the Tigers in Clemson will be the first meeting of the season bwzen the two qds. ClemSn, reaching its peak after some rough early going, took three straight from nationally ranked Florida State last weekend. continued to) I for the '71 Sa team ERA uting heavily overall record w Bo Robinson with his 0.50 ef hurler Phil il not allowed Eddie Bolton 1 arry Erbaugh :or d fall to 4-2 g department, g average has while*~senior3 rn's .317 mark my. But the ' ck suffered a Jo M Culh er the weekend The Gamecocks, who defeated Clemson earlier in the week, dominated the running events against both foes. Hurdlers Billy Novo and Joe McCulloch both ran lifetime bests in the 440 hurdles, Novo setting a school record with his 53.2 against the Tigers and McCulloch winning the event in 54.4 versus the Tar Heels. In the other spring sport areas, Coach Dick Metsn's golfers, who were fIfth in the first half of the ACC tournament held In Aiken last weekend, enter the Chris Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Ga., this weekend. In tennis, the netmen of Coach Ron Moser take on tough Clemson here Friday. The Tigers took an 8-1 decision earlier-. - - --. .--. .--. .- . .-- . .-- . . Bats plague USC; splits two game set By CHARLIE SENN Sports Writer Hitting problems continued to plague Carolina's baseball team in a two game series with Georgia Southerr as the Gamecocks managed a split with the small colle& power winning 8-5 Monday, and losing 3-1 Tuesday. Pinch hitters came througn in the first game for coach Bobby Richardson with a four hit, five run eighth inning to erase a 5-3 Eagle lead. The second game, however, saw stranded base runners as the big RBI men failed to come through. ANDERSON LEADS RALLY Butch Anderson, the Gamecocks most consistent hitter with a .317 average, led off the rally in Monday's game with a double to center field. Singles by Donnie Churchwell and Eddie Hill sent Eagle pitcher Tommy Arden to the bench. Billy Petoskey upped his hitting average with a single off reliever Ken Matthews and an error combined to score four Gamecocks in the inning. Pat Lassonde received credit for the victory in relief of starter Larry Erbaugh and Phil Houston recorded a save by taking over in the ninth. Eddie Bolton's fine pitching performance in Tuesday's game was overshadowed by the Gamecocks' lack of hit ting and his 12 strikeouts went for nothing. BOLTON 'COMING ALONG' "Eddie got off to a bad start at the first of the season, said Richardson, "but he's coming along real well now." Georgia Southern jumped off to a 1-0 lead and hung on Ltil Anderson blasted a seventh inning homer over the center field fence. The Eagles came right back, however, with two runs to take the 3-1 lead that ended the game. Coach Bill Spieth of Georgia Southern seemed happy with the split his team earned with Carolina, but a bit perplexed. "AnytIme you can split with a team, especially the good ones, you're fortunate. We've done a lot of it this year. In fact, we've split with every team we've played except two that we came out on top In 2-1 series. "Of course we wanted to take both games, last year we won the two games at home but we feel good about the four game series.'' RICHARDSON NOT SATISFIED Richardson was somewhat less than satisfied with his team's performance. Carolina's hitting average has risen somewhat but is still not up to the young coach's pectations. ''We aren't being agressive with the bat and our big men haven't been coming through as they should. At the first of the year we were doing a lot of hitting and running but our hitters have been missing. ''To stay in the conference race we have to get our running game going again or start hitting better. ''What it all boils down to is that we have a good defense, as good a pitching staff as any in the conference, but our hitting isn't aggressive." Richardson is far from despondent, though. ''We are fortunate to have most of our conference games ahead of us and I keep thinking that everyone's hitting will break out soon." Our Sandashv SHOP FOR Ipog c