University of South Carolina Libraries
Inside: Men’s tennis drops match to LSU, guest columnist Kyle Almond discusses the 2000 professional baseball season Schedule ■ Baseball vs. Elon, 7 p.m. ■ Men’s tennis vs. Tennessee, Fri. ■ Softball vs. Mississippi State (DH), Fri. ■ Baseball vs. Alabama, Fri. ■ Women’s tennis vs. Florida, Sat. Wednesday, March 29, 2000 HCIlC (5QfflCC0Ck Page 11 USC cages Cougars, wins No. 25 by Bryan Della Volpe Staff Writer Offense wins ballgames, but defense and pitching win championships. That phrase is something that both the Gamecocks and their fans need to remember as the 2000 season continues on. The No. 5 USC baseball team took heed Tuesday beating the College of Charleston for the fourth time this season 4-1 in front of a small but active crowd. The win pushed USC’s record to 25-3 while dropping the Cougars below .500 at 14-15-1. The Gamecocks started off fast with two doubles in the first innings by Nate Janowicz and Brennan Dees. Dees’ shot to the left cen ter gap scored Janowicz for the first Caroli na run. The Cougars answered back in the second when Kris Conrad scored on a sacri fice groundout to second. Unfortuantely for C of C, this would be Lheir lone run as sophomore Matt Wilson al lowed only two more hits until leaving the game in the 6th. “Matt’s a young man that has done well in practice for us, and tonight, like he did in the Florida game, he put us in a situation to win,” coach Ray Tanner said after the game. The Gamecocks increased their lead in the third when Marcus McBeth led the in ning off with his fifth home run of the sea son, good enough for third highest on the team. Drew Meyer and Dees then hit back to-back doubles with Dees collecting his sec ond RBI as Meyer crossed the plate to put the Gamecocks up by two. Along with solid pitching, USC used ex quisite defense to put themselves in a posi tion to win the game. The Gamecocks had five double plays, four of which ended in nings. The biggest of those five came in the fourth when the Cougars were threatening to cut into the USC lead. College of Charleston had runners on first and second with only one out as Conrad singled and Josh Edgeworth reached first on an error. Ronny Mormol then proceeded to bounce into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play, allowing Tanner and Gamecock back ers a sigh of relief. “[The double play] was big for us tonight, it kept us out of some situations that could have put them right in the game,” Tanner said. Clint Collins entered the game in the sixth and pitched three innigs of perfect re lief. He allowed only one baserunner, walk ing one and striking out two. Collins is just one part of a strong Car olina bullpen. “We’ve got a pretty deep pitching staff and we don’t drop off a lot from one guy to the next,” Tanner said of his pitching staff. Scott Barber proved that as he came in to close the game. Baiber earned his sixth save of the year, surrendering a leadoff single be fore using yet another double play to get the first two outs. Dees was the game’s offensive star, going 4-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. Mc Beth went 2-for-4 with the homer and two RBIs as well. Wilson’s line was one earned run on three hits in five innings of work. He struck out two for his first win of the season. Jacquelyn Poston Gamecock Sports Freshman shortstop Drew Meyer swings and fouls earlier this year. Meyer and the Gamecocks won Iheir 25th game Tuesday night against College of Charleston, 4-1. ■ Gramling, Raines and Sharpe enter South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame by David Cloninger Sports Editor The USC Hall of Fame welcomed perhaps its most talented class yet Mon day when it inducted Johnny Gramling, June Raines and Sterling Sharpe before the USC Letterman’s Association at Seawell’s Banquet Hall in Columbia. The three honorees, two athletes and one coach, were surrounded by former players and teammates, their families and several others as they received awards for their outstanding contribu tions to Gamecock athletics. USC head football coach and guest speaker Lou Holtz opened the cere mony by comparing the three inductees to his current football squad. “I think all those qualities - men tal toughness, competitiveness and be ing a team - are exemplary in the peo ple you honor here tonight,” Holtz said. “Congratulations not only to the hon orees, but to the people responsible for them being inducted.” i __ _ Former Gamecock quarterback Johnny Gramling was welcomed first with a lively introduction from long time friend and teammate Warren Clarke. Clarke, a receiver for Caroli na, credited himself for steering Gram ling away from Frank Howard’s Clem son team and into USC football. “He was always fair, always straight and always trying to do the very best he could,” Clarke said. “When Johnny was highly recruited to go to Clemson, I found out one thing real fast. These farmers may know a lot about growing cotton and growing com, but they don’t know much about football.” Gramling, meanwhile, was much more subdued. “This honor that I have received is really without a doubt the top of my life,” Gramling said. “What a wonder ful experience to be here at the Uni versity of South Carolina.” Gramling was USC’s first big-name quarterback, lettering from 1951-’53 and leading USC in passing yards for the latter two years. He completed 150 of 329 attempted passes for 2,007 yards and 18 touchdowns in his career and was named to the All-Southern Con ference team in 1952. In the ACC’s first year of existence, Gramling was named the top quarter back in the conference. Also, Gram ling’s teams beat Clemson every year he played. “We didn’t have any sports where I grew up,” Gramling said. “I just kind of fell into it.” “I will cherish this the rest of my life,” Gramling said of the award. “I want to thank all the teammates I had, because I didn’t do this all by my self. If it hadn’t been for those other ten guys out there, I never would have done anything.” Another football great, wide re ceiver Sterling Sharpe, was inducted with a welcome from Otis Morris. Sharpe, one of only four Gamecocks to have his jersey (No. 2) retired, went on to a successful professional career and is now an ESPN analyst. Sterling was a little like me com ing out of high school,” Morris said. “Only USC and Valdosta State would let him play on the offensive side of the ball. When [former coach Michaels] told me he needed this recruit, I went out with him. I told him, ‘You can play at Carolina.’ Then I told him I would personally take care of him and he said he would come to Carolina.” “You proved something to me by voting me into the Hall of Fame,” Sharpe said. “You proved that if you surround yourself with good people, good things happen to you. You proved to me that you never are a former any thing. We’re Gamecocks.” Sharpe spoke of his five years (1983 ’87) at Carolina, where he earned two degrees. Sharpe went from little action his freshman year to a redshirted sopho more year before becoming a flam boyant All-American in his final three years. The Georgia native is USC’s all time receiving leader with 169 recep tions, 2,497 yards and 17 touchdowns. Sharpe also holds USC records for the longest kickoff return and the top two spots for single-season receptions. Sharpe was named to five different All American teams during his senior sea son. “Everything that I am I owe to foot ball,” Sharpe stated. “And I owe that to the University of South Carolina. I didn’t come here to be well-liked, I did n’t come here to make friends. I had one goal and one dream only - to play in the NFL.” Sharpe accomplished his dream by becoming a standout receiver at Green Bay. The seventh overall pick of the 1987 draft, Sharpe would set an NFL record by becoming the first player to catch 100 passes two years in a row. The Packers offense that would later win a Super Bowl was started with Sharpe and another former Game cock receiver, Robert Brooks. “I could have gone anywhere else, to play anywhere else,” Sharpe said of his decision to come to USC. “I wanted to be the most dominant of fensive figure to ever play sports. I got that dream and I got that opportunity here.” “You told me that if I had a goal and a dream I could come here and I could be whatever I wanted to be,” Sharpe said. “I got that here.” Former baseball coach June Raines was the last inductee, welcomed by his torian Tom Price and praised for his 763 victories in 20 years with the USC base ball team. Raines took his first team in 1977 to within one run of a nation al title at the College World Series and became USC’s all-time winningest coach. “It’s unbelievable,” Raines said. “This is what it’s all about. I didn’t play a lick at Carolina, but I’m a Gamecock. I didn’t take o .ie bruise for the team, I didn’t get hits. I love Carolina.” Raines spoke more of his love for Carolina than his accomplishments on the diamond, emphasizing the long career of fun players and times during his career. “I came to Carolina in 1968 as a 30 /• year-old freshman,” Raines said. “[Car olina] grows on you.” Raines also spoke of the people he met during his 23-year relationship with Gamecock baseball. -■“ HalT SEE PAGE 12 Special to Gamecock Sports Quarterback Johnny Gramling was USC’s first great athlete at the position, passing for 2,007 yards in his career. Special to Gamecock Sports Wide receiver Sterling Sharpe was one of four Gamecock football players to have his number retired. RAINES Fogler recaps season by David Cloninger Sports Editor “I think we made good strides this year,” USC head basketball coach Ed die Fqgler said at a press conference Mon day. “This team played the 20th most dif ficult schedule in the country this year, according to the RPI, in the top-rated league [the SEC]. We think we are now positioned to be very competitive in the next couple of years.” Fogler recapped the 1999-00 season of his young team, which finished 15-17, 5-11 SEC, good enough for fifth in the SEC Eastern Division. However, despite its record, the Gamecock basketball team won six of its past nine games and ad vanced to the semifinals of the SEC Tour nament for the third time in four years. Also, during the season-ending stretch, Carolina knocked off a nationally-ranked Vanderbilt squad in Nashville, then beat Alabama, No. 8 Tennessee and took No. 5 Auburn into overtime in the SEC Tournament. Guard Chuck Eidson was named to the SEC All-Freshman team, while almost the entire team will re turn next season, losing only swingman Herbert Lee Davis. oeven ui me nine [Udiuubj 111 the new year were against ranked teams. I don’t know how many times that’s hap pened in NCAA history,” Fogler said. “It’s one of the more unselfish teams that I’ve coached. I thought our chemistiy was re ally good. Our lead scorer didn’t score ten points a game. I would have felt that way even if we didn’t win in the [SEC] tournament.” Fogler, who just completed his sev enth year at Carolina, saw his team play 12 games against current Top 25 teams, including games against Final Four par ticipants Michigan State and Florida In those 12 games, the Gamecocks went 1 11, but eight of the 11 losses were by eight points or less, giving hope to Fogler and Gamecock fans. Eidson came out as a tremendous fu ture talent for the Gamecocks, stepping into the starting point guard position when regular starter Aaron Lucas injured his hand. The 6-foot-7 Summerville native made USC history by breaking Barry Manning’s single-season steals record of 73 on Feb. 16. Eidson ended up with an SEC-leading 93 steals for the year, av eraging 2.91 per game and ranking sec ond all-time on the conference’s season steal totals. Along with Eidson, Carolina’s other six freshmen accounted for 30.1 points per game (44 percent). Eidson and cen ters Marius Petravicius and Tony Fooler see page 12