The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 29, 2000, Page 11, Image 11
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