The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 31, 2000, Page 9, Image 9
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Inside: ' Schedule
use track & field travels to 2000 Raleigh ■ Track & fiald at Ralei9h Relays’ today
. . , , . . through Sat.
Relays, men’s tennis tries to break into win . Men.s tennis vs. Arkansas, 2 p.m.
column with match against Arkansas ■ softball at Tennessee (DH), 7:30 p.m.
■ Baseball vs. Alabama, 7 p.m.
Holtz proposes changing fight song
Football Roundup
Gamecock Sports
USC head football coach Lou Holtz has
proposed changing the South Carolina fight
song, citing reasons of nobody understand
ing the lyrics and the lyrics not making
any sense.
The issue came up when a fan wrote
to Holtz’s web site, www.coachholtz.com,
and complained about the fight song. Holtz
responded to the complaint, saying, “I agree
that our school song and fight song leave a
lot to be desired... I have given up trying to
learn them. This is the first time I have not
insisted the players learn the school song be
cause I think it is impossible to learn.”
Holtz believes that the song needs a
rewrite so’ the football team can have some
thing to “sing after a victory.” The Game
cock football team went 0-11 last season and
is riding a 21 -game losing streak, the nation’s
longest active streak among the 114 teams
in Division I college football.
Holtz, who has coached at nine differ
ent schools (head coach at five of them) and
served as an NFL head coach, has always in
sisted that his teams leam the school’s fight
song.
“My children could sing the Ohio State
fight song when they were 3 years old,”
Holtz said (Holtz was a Buckeye assistant
in 1968). “Tell me what song anybody can
sing here other than the alma mater. The
players don’t know it; I don’t know it.
I’ve tried.”
Holtz is mainly complaining because he
says the song’s words don’t make sense. He
even hired a friend last year to write a new
song, but it was “just as bad as our present
song,” according to Holtz.
Holtz has been visiting dorms and
other campus locations over the past week,
encouraging support for the football team.
Holtz said he asked several students at these
locations and nobody knew it.
“This is the first place I’ve ever been
where nobody knows it,” Holtz said.
Holtz has offered to write a new song,
seeing that he wrote one for the New York
Jets when he was coaching in 1976. The
song later became the anthem for the N.C.
State Wolfpack, where Holtz coached be
fore New York.
Holtz used the song during his one
season with the Jets, making his players sing
it. However, he later resigned as head coach
following a 3-10 season.
The Jets fight song was “something that
was immature on my part,” Holtz said. “But
on the college level, a school fight song
should bind everybody together. This is the
only place I’ve ever been where it’s not ob
vious ... I’ve looked at the words and they
just don’t make much sense to me.”
The fight song was writter by former
Gamecock coach Paul Dietzel and intro
duced in 1968. Holtz, who held one of his
first graduate assistant coach positions at
South Carolina under Dietzel, left USC in
1967 after two seasons.
The search for the new USC fight
song is open to anybody. Interested fans can
send in their versions to several locations,
including Holtz’s web site and The State
newspaper.
Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports
USC football coach Lou Holtz is unhappy with the school’s fight song, saying the lyrics don’t make
sense. Holtz is advocating a different fight song for the university.
Fightin Christians hold
off Gamecocks, win 7-5
tit- *“®s**SP i i —Spu-t - . ----- --- •■
f ~ by Kyle Almond
Staff Writer
Mk
The No. 5 South Carolina baseball
team was shut down Wednesday by a
capable, underrated Elon team 7-5 at
Saige Frye Field.
Elon’s Tim Schilling had his way
; with USC hitters all night, striking out
* eight in 6 2/3 innings, and two insur
ance runs in the eighth and ninth in
5j nings from the Fightin’Christians were
£ enough to hold off a late Gamecock
i rally.
“As far as I’m concerned,” USC
i head coach Ray Tanner said, “that game
; was predicated by Tim Schilling. He
> was really good.
“He has a knack for sometimes be
■ ing very dominant, and tonight was one
I of those nights.”
Schilling, who improved his record
'■ to 4-0 this year, had a no-hitter until
- the bottom of the fifth, when Marcus
| McBeth singled to right-center. At the
time, Elon held a slim 1-0 advantage.
But as Schilling’s dominance be
gan to diminish, Elon’s bats respond
ed with an offensive barrage in the next
; inning.
Elon erupted for four runs in the
sixth, sparked by Jason Tuttle’s lead
> off triple off Gamecock starter Steven
! Whetstone. Tuttle was brought home
^ by^ghtfielder Whit Bryant, and Elon’s
' )itii Swenson and Brian Kane con
> tributed RBIs of their own to increase
jr their lead to five.
The Gamecocks finally got on the
board in the seventh. Nate Janowicz
brought home John McHenry to score
USC’s first run, and rightfielder Bren
nan Dees added two more runs off his
fourth triple of the season, effective
ly ending Schilling’s game.
Schilling’s replacement, Nathan
Holcomb, then struck out Trey Dyson
to get the Fightin’ Christians out of the
inning holding a two-run lead.
Elon refused to slow down late in
the game, adding a run in both the
eighth and ninth innings to make the
score 7-3, and the four-run deficit
proved to be insurmountable for the
Gamecocks.
Janowicz walked to start the bot
tom of the ninth, and shortstop Drew
Meyer doubled down the left field line
in the next at-bat, but Dees and Mar
cos Rios could only muster sacrifice
flies in the next two at-bats.
With two outs, a full count, and the
Gamecocks trailing 7-5, Tripp Kelly
flied out to end the game.
“We were just hoping that we could
run [Schilling’s] pitch count up and
take a shot at him late, which worked
out,” Tanner said. “The problem is, we
just spotted him too many runs.”
Carolina also committed three er
rors in the loss. Meyer let a double
play ball roll through his legs, lead
ing to a run, catcher Brandon Pack had
a throwing error trying to throw out a
runner at first and Whetstone uncorked
one wild pitch, scoring Elon’s first run.
The unexpected loss dropped the
Gamecocks to 25-4 on the season,
while Elon improved to 23-9.
Carolina now has to learn from this
setback and focus on its three-game
home series this weekend against Al
abama, picked in the preseason to win
the Southeastern Conference.
“I think we’re going to get up for
this weekend,” Meyer said. “Now, we
realize we can’t just walk on water and
beat anybody by just throwing our
gloves out there. We are going to try
hard.
“Hopefully, we can sweep them,
and if not, at least get two out of three.”
Notes: Senior outfielder Shane Nelson
will undergo surgery today to repair
tom cartilage in his right knee. He will
be out for a minimum of three
weeks ... senior righthander Lee
Gronkiewicz underwent shoulder
surgery on Monday and will not play
the rest of the season. He is applying,
however, for a medical redshirt and
hopes to be back next season ... pro
jected third starter Chris Spigner had
a recurrence of his elbow injury and
will be out another two weeks... fresh
man catcher Bo Mobley has a pulled
hamstring and is day-to-day ... Kip
Bouknight will start tonight against Al
abama, and Peter Bauer will start on
Saturday..Sunday’s starter will be an
nounced later, according to Tanner.
Jacquelyn Poston Gamecock Sports
Shortstop Drew Meyer receives instructions before standing in for the next pitch. The Gamecocks lost
Wednesday to Elon, dropping the No. 5 squad to 25-4,6-3 SEC.
Fantasy
baseball
not for
the weak
Mark
P i r a s
Senior Writer
About a week befoje the season
starts, the e-mails start pouring in. This
time, it’s baseball.
“REMINDER!” the e-mail screams
at me pointlessly. “Fantasy Baseball Live
Draft. Tuesday, March 28,2 p.m.”
I realize that 2 p.m is Pacific Time
and do some quick math - 5 p.m. I
scream a curse back at the screaming e
mail because I have class at 5:30.1 am
stuck with a dilemma -1 paid for the
team I’ll be drafting; I also paid for
the class. I decide to do the draft; I know
I can retake the class.
“This message is to remind you of
your Live Online Draft,” another e-mail
informs me; this one is much more cour
teous. i aon t scream at it, even tnougn
I realize that this draft takes place at the
same time as the other one.
ESPN, Yahoo, Sandbox, Wall Street
Sports, CNN/SI. I remember signing up
for a few of them, but can’t figure out
how I signed up for so many. I curse
again, this time at myself. Why do I feel
the need to hold all these drafts the week
before the season starts? Do I really
think that gives me a huge advantage?
I stay up all hours of the night, jug
gling my homework with reading up on
spring training reports, devouring team
previews and depth charts, searching
out mock drafts. I calculate my odds of
landing both Griffey and Sosa as slight
ly worse than winning the South Car
olina state lottery - the one that does
n’t exist.
Draft day comes too soon for each
one of my drafts. I feel unprepared, over
whelmed. I never get the first pick,
and watch helplessly as Rodriguez, Jeter
and Garciaparra go too quickly.
As I struggle to find my shortstop,
Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez and Kendall go.
I start scrolling down the charts, look
ing for a sleeper. Is this the year that
Barry Larkin returns to elite status? Whs
Lieberthal’s monster season last year an
aberration? I know I’m grasping at
straws. How am I ever going to get
my closers before they’re gone?
And of course, I make the inevitable
pick of a player I can’t believe is still
available. And also of course, there is
always a reason.
“Lofton!?” a polite league member
types in the draft chat room, another
roto-geex like me wno probably has
page after page of cross-indexed print
outs littering the desk his computer sits
on. “Lofton’s injured! What the hell are
you doing?”
“Astacio’s gonna suck this year!”
another one pipes in after another pick.
“You know he’s in Colorado, right?
His ERA will be larger than the skid
marks in Rikishi’s thong!”
Finally, I get through it and look
at a team filled with players I never
wanted - a team with more holes than
Pinehurst.
Immediately, I start getting trade
offers, generous opportunities to add
the services of Izzy Molina for the small
sacrifice of Mark McGwire. Always a
note attached, explaining that a backup
catcher is more important than a home
run-hitting first baseman. Catchers are
rare, it informs me, while first basemen
are a dime a dozen.
Fourteen-year-old managers with a
temporary lease on the computer from
their parents start filling the message
board with ignorant boasts like, “U ALL
SUCK! I HAVE VLADIMIR GUER
RERO AND HE WILL POUND 50
HOMERZ AND BEAT U ALL TO
HELL.”
The 40-year-old managers in the
league all feel the need to respond and
tell the ignorant people just how igno
rant they are, which is about as effec
tive as trying to fill the Grand Canyon
using a shovel and a sand pail.
Soon, the message board has spi
raled out of control as the children go
PlRAS SEE PAGE 10
Softball earns 8th split of year
Softball Roundup
Gamecock Sports
The No. 17 Lady Gamecock soft
ball team earned its eighth-straight split
Tuesday against the top team in the
Southeastern Conference Western Di
vision, the Crimson Tide of Alabama.
USC one-hit the Tide 1 -0 in game one
and dropped game two 4-3.
Game one was a pitchers’ duel un
til the fourth inning. The Lady Game
cocks had their first legitimate scoring
opportunity in the top of the fourth.
With two outs, senior Sondra Hall dou
bled over centerfielder Kelly
Kretschman's head. Junior Adrienne
Genovese then walked to put runners
on first and second with Megan Dono
hoo at the plate when Hall was picked
off second to end the inning.
The Tide threatened in the bottom
of the fourth when Megan Matthews
walked Kretschman with one out.
Christy Kyle reached on an error by
shortstop Kendra McCutcheon, with .
Kretschman advancing to third. But
Matthews got Paula White to ground
out to second to end the inning.
Carolina broke the scoreless tie in
the top of the sixth. McCutcheon
slapped a single to left field to begin
the inning. Joyce McMillin knocked
in McCutcheon with a double to left
field and a fielding error by White.
Matthews had her no-hitter bro
ken in the bottom of the sixth. Suzan
na Olcott walked to lead off the inning
and was sacrificed over. Power hitter
Kretschman was intentionally walked,
and Ginger Jones got Alabama’s first
base hit to load the bases. Matthews
put out the fire with a fly out and a lin
er.
Matthews dominated the Tide in
the bottom of the seventh to pre
serve the 1-0 lead for her third com
plete game shutout of the season. With
the one-hitter, Matthews moved to 13
9 on the season.
In game two, USC took advantage
of another Alabama miscue. With two
outs on the opening inning, Adrianna
Baggetta walked and Hall reached on
a fielder’s choice. Genovese then lined
a single to right field and advanced to
second on an error by rightfielder Kyle,
scoring both Baggetta and Hall.
The Tide got a run back in the bot
tom of the first with a pair of doubles
by Kelley Askew and Jones to cut
the USC lead to 2-1 after one inning.
USC took a 3-1 lead in the sixth
with a Jodi Fittro double and a Gen
ovese single down the right field
line. But Alabama would come roar
ing back with three runs in the bottom
of the sixth to take a 4-3 lead. Kim
Rohret hit a three-run home run to give
Alabama its first lead of the day. The
Tide held on for the 4-3 win.
Carolina now prepares for a three
day four-game series against Eastern
Division foe Tennessee. Tonight’s USC
. UT game will be televised on Fox
Sports South at 7:30 p.m. The Lady
Gamecocks will play a doubleheader
on Saturday anda single game on Sun
day. ’ {