Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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_Gamecock Sports_ Baseball from page B1 inning on the home run by Barbier. McBeth’s homer, a triple by Janow icz and a single by Meyer plated two South Carolina runs in the fifth inning and the Gamecocks took a 6-3 lead'in the seventh on hits by Meyer and Pack. Three LSU hits got one run back in the seventh and set the stage for the Tiger rally in the bottom of the eighth. A sin gle by Jeigensen, his third hit of the game, and a walk, followed by Cresse’s double off the left field fence, scored two runs and doomed the Gamecocks to defeat for the second straight day. LSU had 14 hits, three by Jer gensen and two each by Cresse, Barbier and Ryan Theriot. Meyer, who rejoined the Gamecocks after missing Friday’s game to attend his grandfather’s funeral, had three of South Carolina’s 11 hits. LSU 8, USC 6 A three-run home run from LSU’s Whitten climaxed a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday night to give LSU an 8-6 win. Saxon, LSU’s fourth pitcher of the night, pitched just two-thirds of an inning to pick up his third win of the season. Ju nior reliever Scott Barber, 3-1, took the loss in relief of Gamecock starter Kip Bouknight. South Carolina scored all its runs on only two hits in the third inning to take a 60 lead LSU starter Brian Tallet walked three, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch to score a run. Tallet left the game trail ing 20 with the bases loaded and one out in the third Kelly greeted relief pitcher Hunter Gomez with a grand slam home run, his 10th homer of the season. Gomez then shut out South Caroli na in the ninth inning, giving up six hits before turning the mound over to Youman after USC’s Dees led off the ninth with a double that extended his hitting streak to 14 games. LSU had narrowed the deficit to 64, on home runs by Mike Fontenot, his eighth, and Brad Cresse, his 10th. Youman struck out Pack and was re lieved by Saxon who retired the next two Gamecock batters. Cresse led off the bottom of the ninth with a base hit and continued to second base when Gamecock leftfielder Janow icz bobbled the ball. Brad Haupe singled driving in pinch runner Tommy Morel to cut USC’s lead to 6-5. Barbier singled and both runners moved up on a sacri fice bunt. Witten then hit his second home run of the season to end the game. Janowicz, Pack and Dyson had two hits apiece. 2000 NCAA Tournament offers underdoes aplenty Shannon Rooke Sports Editor And then there was one. One top-ranked team left in the NCAA Men’s Tournament, that is. So, who’s the lucky group? Michigan State, the leader of the Mid western region. When did this happen? Well, if you’ve been following the road to Indianapolis at all, you probably would have been on the edge of your seat along with the rest of us for the past month. But here’s the real question - WHY? Why is there only one national leader left? Why are annual powerhouses like Duke, Arizona and Stanford being dis missed by teams no one has really ever paid any attention to? And why is this all happening this year? The answer is probably the same rea son that all of we March Madness die hards have been screaming at our TVs (and our bracket sheets) for the past three weeks. Those damned upsets. " And this year’s tournament has been absolutely full of them. What was once a battle between a few outstanding teams has now become a war between teams that would make Cinderella’s sto ry look like a walk in the clouds. And your guess is as good as mine on this one. Let’s review, shall we? EAST Everything was going fine and Duke was expected to take it all. Again. There were some minor incidences, however. Eleventh seed Pepperdine rolled over No. 6 Indiana 77-57 in the first round. It wouldn’t get too far, though. Actually only to the next round. Then it would meet No. 3 Oklahoma State and would end its season. No, Pepperdine wasn’t the underdog to watch this time. The boys from Seton Hall stole that spot from them. After tak ing care of No. 7 Oregon, the 10th team in the region went on to dismiss Temple 67-65, who was eight spots above them in No. 2. You remember thegame. Seton Hall’s lowly backup point guard, Ty Shine, put his name in the headlines. The young ster had a career-high 26 points which in cluded the game-winning three with on ly 18 seconds left in overtime. Seton Hall proved no match for OSU and were sent home after a close two point loss in their next game. But let’s not dwell on that one. The real upset to recap occurred just this past weekend between the team that was expected to take it all and a team that was just happy to make it to the Sweet 16. I’m talking, of course, of the Duke vs. Florida game. The No. 1 Blue Devils left the court crying after committing 22 turnovers and getting outscored 13-0 in the last four minutes for a 70-65 loss the No. five Gators. U of F then proceded to travel down a road that many believed even Bil ly Donovan couldn’t take them. A road that wouldn’t end until they had defeat ed No. three Oklahoma State 77-65 and become East Region Champions. Just tack that one up to yet another unexpected and huge upset for this year. MIDWEST The Michigan State team held down their No. 1 spot in a seemingly quiet re gion. Quiet, you ask? Well, no upsets, no extremely big games, and no really threatening teams left the waters fairly calm. The past week has just paved the way for MSU in its second straight trip to the Final Four. Defeats over Syracuse and No. 2 Iowa State are behind them, and as long as they don’t rush their shots and stick to what they do in practice, the rest of this year’s trip should come without fail. SOUTH So, even in a down year, North Car olina can make it to the end. The No. 8 team in the region will head to the Final Four for a record-tying 15th time after defeating No. 7 Tulsa for in the South Re gional final. Against Tennessee, UNC’s Ed Cota and company held the Volunteers with out a field goal in the last seven minutes and sent themselves to the Elite Eight. And as a club, they’ve definitely got the experience to go all the way. Advancing to the regional finals for the sixth time in ten years, going to the Final Four every time they’ve made it to the top eight - some would say they were qualified enough. They are also the team responsi ble for dismissing the top seed in their re gion, Stanford, 60-53 in the second round of the South Regional. As of now, it looks like Bill Guthridge can stop worrying about that unsigned contract extension. WEST Out west it was the same old story for Arizona. Getting beaten on the same court where they were surprised by Santa Clara in the first round of the 1993 tournament, the Wildcats were upset by none other JL. W than No. 8 Wisconsin. And the Badgers are still going strong. The lowest seed to make it to the fi nal four since No. 11 LSU in 1986, this team has taken out No. 6 Purdue and No. 4 LSU in this year’s tourney to becomtj the West Region Champions. Relying on their defense and their mostly junior line up, the Badgers have been waiting 59 years to make it back to the Final Four. In fact, they haven’t won two straight games in the NCAA Tournament since they won the championship in 1941. So, if you’re one of those sports fans who always cheers for the underdogs, look no further - the Badgers are here. Wfell, there you go - a complete re cap and somewhat explanation as to why you’re losing money in the bets this year. Just one No. 1 team awaits to take on a No. 5 and two No. 8 teams. Sounds like a long shot, I know, but with what has happened so far this year, don’t put it past any of them. If there was acutally anyone out there who picked these teams to go so far (and don’t lie), then just maybe I’ll let you do my picks for next year. It’s been costly to many, and sur prising to more fans that I could imagine, but, all in all, it’s been one hell of a tour nament. The best part is is that it’s not even over. South Carolina swimmers Zsolt Gas par and Joey Faltraco both made im pressive showings at the NCAA Cham pionships. Gaspar finished second in the 200 butterfly, clocking a time of 155.88, coming in just nine tenths of a second be hind first place. Gaspar also had finished fourth in the 100 fly earlier in the week. Gaspar's teammate, freshman Joey Faltraco, finished an impressive sixth in the 200 backstroke with a time of 156.08. It was his first-ever national championship meet on the college level. Gaspar, Faltraco and diver Brandon Hulko were the only competitors for the Gamecocks, who finished 18th out of 37 teams in the overall team standings with 54 total points. Women’s tennis The South Carolina women’s ten nis team lost its first SEC match of the season Saturday as the No. 8 Florida Gators downed the No. 18 Gamecocks 7-1 in action at the Maxcy Gregg Tennis. Center. Florida moves to 13-1, 7-0 SEC, while Carolina drops to 12-6,4-1 SEC. The Gators won five of six singles matches to remain perfect in league play. The lone winner for Carolina was sopho more Lynn-Yin Tan, a 6-4,1-6,6-2 vic tor over Florida’s No. 92 Julia Scaringe at No. 6 singles. In doubles play, Florida took both the No. I and No. 3 matches. Due to time constraints, the No. 2 doubles match was n’t played. Carolina is back in action Tuesday to battle SEC Eastern Division foe Geor gia. The match in Athens is set for a 3 p.m. start. Spring football South Carolina went through a full contact football practice Saturday after noon at the practice facility at Bluff Road. The Gamecocks spent most of the 2 1/2 hour workout executing their offen sive package with live contact. The ses sion concluded with a spirited 3-on-3 live contact drill. Head coach Lou Holtz said he hopes to have a depth chart by midweek. “We need to come up with a two-deep and see where we go from there," Holtz said. Following Saturday’s practice, Coach Holtz praised his team’s defense. “The defense moved pretty well. Langston Moore has been a pleasant sur prise moving back over from the offen sive lina Andre Offing is dong some good things at linebacker.” Holtz wasn’t as complimentary of the offense. “Today wasn’t one of our better days. We were pretty ragged.” Holtz did have some good things to say about his tailbacks. “We have four guys competing at tailback,” Holtz said. “Corey Alexander could be a good back. We will probably play him at a couple of different places. Trevin Smith does some nice things, but he’s still a freshman.” Holtz said quarterback Phil Petty is improving every day. “Phil is becoming mentally tougher. I don’t see him make too many mistakes out there.” Holtz noted that the center to quarterback exchange had to become bet ter. “I’m not exaggerating what I say that our centers may practice snapping the ball 1,000 times on Monday. That’s the one area that we seem to foul up on the most, snapping the ball from center.” j Men’s tennis * The Gamecocks continued SEC match play Friday against Tennessee at the Sara Daniel Tennis Center. The con test was neck and neck from the begin ning, but USC couldn’t pull out the vic tory and lost the match 4-3. Carolina netters Guillaume Legat, Robert Steckley and Seth Rose each had impressive outings, putting away their Tennessee opponents with the same scores of 6-1,6-2. The No. 40 Legat continu osly frustrated his opponent, No. 27 Maik Parsons, and in the process brought his record to an outstanding 244 for the year. Steckley raised his record to 19-10, while Rose continued his dominance over SEC opponents with a 3-1 SEC record. Have a good Monday!! fsOMUCH FOR SAVINS' l MY N-ABI MONEY. /^SURE BAByTN you CAN HAVE ), him Jy NABI BioMedical Center 215 Assembly St., Columbia SC 29201 254-2280 Help children, hemophiliacs, and hearl patients who receive products made from the plasma of our donors. OH, YOU'RE ,THE BEST EVER. ^ ■r--m fc—1——jg—— I The South Carolina EPSCoR Undergraduate Research Program offers valuable opportunities in science, mathematics, engineering and technology research. Students have the opportunity to conduct research in an academic setting, directed by faculty advisors. Students are paid a stipend and the length of research is approximately ten weeks during the summer. 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