The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 05, 2000, Page 10, Image 10
Inside: Schedule '*®y
USC senior fullback Jacob Bush to miss 2000 u Basebal1 vs-The Citadel, 7 p.m.
.±l A ■ Track & field at Duke Invitational
season with tom ACL, Clonmger discusses (Durham, N.c.), Fri.-Sat.
need for athletic heroes. ■ Women’s tennis at Mississippi State,
Ri
Gamecock baseball tries for 29
No. 2 Carolina welcomes The Citadel tonight for shot at 29th victory of the season
Special to Gamecock Sports
Centerfielder Marcus McBeth has made outstanding defensive
plays for the Gamecocks this year.
by Kyle Almond
Staff Writer
Fresh off a weekend in which they
swept Alabama and improved their record
to 28-4 overall and 9-3 in the SEC, the
South Carolina baseball team will next
face a familiar opponent tonight in
The Citadel.
The Citadel comes to Columbia with
revenge on its mind.
And with good reason.
The two teams played earlier in the
season at the Franklin Life Classic in
Charleston. The Gamecocks pulled out
a tough 4-2 win against the Bulldogs,
who are now 21-10 overall and currently
second in the Southern Conference with
a record of 10-2.
USC first baseman Tripp Kelly went
3-4 with a home run and two RBIs in
the game, and Lee Gronkiewicz only al
lowed three hits in five innings of play,
earning the win.
Hoping to reverse the result of its
first meeting, The Citadel could start
Dallas McPherson on the mound.
McPherson, a sophomore from Ran
dleman, N.C., was tabbed preseason play
er of the year in the Southern Confer
ence.
He is a double threat because of
his performance on the mound and at
the plate, and his record as a starter is 6
1. With the bat, he is hitting .394 with
6 home runs and 36 RBIs.
The Citadel could also start Ron
Colvard, who is 5-1 with a 2.56 ERa,
Kyle Bunn, who lost the first game
against Carolina, T.W. Mincey or Eric
Talbert.
The Gamecocks’ probable starter
will be sophomore southpaw Brett Price.
USC head coach Ray Tanner will most
likely save his top two pitchers, Kip
Bouknight and Peter Bauer, for the
upcoming series against Mississippi State,
starting Friday.
Price has dazzled opponents in his
three starts this season. In the most re
cent one, against Wofford, Price struck
out a career-high nine batters in five in
nings of scoreless baseball en route to
a 17-2 Gamecock victory.
Tanner could also go with pitchers
Matt Wilson, Steven Whetstone or Ernie
Bascuas as he tries to find a permanent
midweek starter behind his strong 1-2
punch of Bouknight and Bauer.
As for whomever Tanner decides
to start, he can count on getting solid
run support behind a Gamecock line
up that will head to the plate with a .303
team average.
Six of the Gamecocks’ regular
starters are currently hitting above .300.
Rightfielder Brennan Dees leads
the pack with a .358 batting average and
48 hits on the year.
Kelly has hit a team-leading 11
homers. Combined with leftfielder Nate
Janowicz, shortstop Drew Meyer, catch
er Brandon Pack and second baseman
John McHenry, USC has a lethal offen
sive attack and a run-producing machine.
The Citadel depends on McPher
son and first baseman Philip Hartig for
the majority of its scoring. Hartig is hit
ting at a .406 clip in 31 games this
season. He also has six home runs and
47 RBIs on the year.
On the base paths, the Gamecocks
need to keep an eye on the Bulldogs’
leadoff hitter, Chris Morris. Morris
has stolen 46 bases, tops in the South
ern Conference.
With a win tonight and continued
success on the weekend against MSU,
the Gamecocks could be well on their
way to the elusive No. 1 ranking, which
is held by Florida State. USC is ranked
No. 2 in the nation.
I-1-1--I
Special to Gamecock Sports
Trey Dyson, left, talks with coach Stuart
Lake at first base.
Coquettes heading to nationals
by Charlie Wallace
Senior Writer
Florida and Michigan Stale played for
the national championship of the
NCAA men’s basketball tournament Mon
day night in Indianapolis.
For the two teams, this final game was
the culmination of a lifelong dream. And
for many of the players, it was their fi
nal dance on center stage in the game of
basketball.
Gators and Spartans weren’t the
only teams dancing out their dreams.
On Main Street, about a block away
from the Towers, 15 girls stood outside
of the band hall, shivering in the middle
of a blustery spring wind, waiting to get
inside of the building that for the past few
months has been their home.
The USC Dance Team, also com
monly referred to as the Coquettes (which
means “flirt”), will finish their season in
less than a week.
It’s been a season of practicing almost
every day, bruising their bodies and giv
ing up the majority of their free time all
for the chance to compete and live their
dream of dancing at the National Colle
giate Association Dance Competition,
their version of the Final Four, which will
be held this weekend in Daytona Beach.
Most USC students don’t really know
what the dance team exactly does or who
the members are. The current team is
made up of four seniors, seven juniors,
three sophomores and one freshman.
Most students just recognize them as
the girls who dance at basketball games
and wear tight-fitting clothing.
How hard is tliat to do?
How much time does it take?
“Wfe started camp in August and have
not stopped since,” junior Jennifer Chin
ault said.
Officially under the jurisdiction of the
band, the dance team has many obliga
tions they must fulfill, and going to the
NCAA finals is actually not one of
them. Going to competition is something
the dancers want to do, so they give up
even more of their free time and pay
out of their own pockets for certain
royalties.
At most Division 1-A schools, the
dance team is under the athletic depart
ment and is coupled with the cheerlead
ers; thus, most of the dancers are under
athletic scholarship.
The Coquettes are not. They are or
dinary students.
Impressively enough, more than half
the team is on some type of academic
scholarship, which helps lighten the bur
den of paying for what they do.
“It costs $350 a girl to go to compe
tition,” Chinault said. “However, we have
had a couple of checks come in that have
helped pay for T-shirts and other little ex
penses.”
The dance team’s list of obligations
includes dancing with the marching band
before the football games and at halftime,
practicing 10 hours a week (Monday
through Thursday), performing at
Coddest, marching in the homecoming
parade and finally dancing at some of the
basketball games in the spring.
“Most SEC and Division 1-A schools
don’t dance with the band on the football
field,” squad captain Sheila Hudson said.
“They just do cheerleader-type things
like dancing on the sidelines. They
don’t actually perform on the field.
That is the difference with us.”
With no coach, someone has to be in
charge of the squad, other than the band
director. That job falls to Hudson. Along
with performing what they are obligat
ed to do, the team members also trains
for competitions.
“We go to a dance camp in the sum
mer that’s not affiliated with the band at
all,” Hudson said. “This is the second year
we’ve gone to competition.”
The team finished 11th in the
largest school division of 24 teams. This
year, if the team cracks into the top 10,
it will advance to the finals later on in the
week.
Even getting a choreographer is a try
ing process.
“We had someone help us this year
from Atlanta,” Chinault said.
While the dance is being worked out,
the practice schedule continues to in
crease.
“The closer we got to competition,
we moved the practice schedule up to
every day and for at least two hours,”
Chinault said. “This year, hopefully we’ll
be more prepared because we have ex
perience.”
The USC dance team is more than
girls strutting around in leather pants and
leopard-skin tops, although members do
that, too.
What the dance team really is, is a
group of dedicated college girls who are
committed their goal. And when the mu
sic stops for the final time, this group of
self-coached, workaholic college girls aim
to be the Cinderella of their own big dance.
m.-—I
Special to Gamecock Sports
The USC Coquettes pose with school mascot Cocky at Williams-Brice Stadium. The dance team is head
ed to Nashville for a national competition.
USC pitching duo receives
weekly conference honors
Baseball/Softball
Roundup
Gamecock Sports
Two South Carolina athletes from
the baseball and softball squads are mak
ing their mark in the SEC.
For their performances in last week’s
games, two of the Gamecocks’ starting
pitchers earned SEC Pitcher of the Week
honors.
Right-hander Peter Bauer was named
SEC Pitcher of the Week on Saturday for
his performance against Alabama.
The junior threw a complete game,
2-0 shutout to help his team earn a three
game sweep over the No. 12 Crimson
’ Tide.
Bauer threw 97 pitches, 76 of which
were strikes, while striking out six with
no walks.
Alabama batters only got five hits off
of Bauer, all singles. Also, only two Crim
son Tide players reached second base and
none reached third.
This is the second time this year that
a Carolina player received a player or
pitcher of the week award, js second base
man John McHenry was named the Play
er of the Week after the series against
Auburn. Carolina also swept the then
No. 4 Tigers that weekend.
Also, fellow USC pitcher Kip
Bouknight received the National Pitch
er of the Week award this season.
On the women’s side, Megan
Matthews of Greer, has been named SEC
Co-Pitcher of the Week for softball.
Matthews went 3-1 with a one-hit
ter against No. 14 Alabama and added two
wins against Tennessee.
Matthews will share the SEC hon
or with LSU sophomore Britni Sneed,
who tossed her first no-hitter against Ole
Miss.
This is the second time this season
that Matthews has been honored by the
SEC and the fifth time in two years that
she has earned the honor.
This season, the sophomore is 16-10
with a 1.43 ERA. Matthews has 168 strike
outs in 190.1 innings.
Spigner cleared to play. USC pitcher Chris
Spigner has been cleared to begin throw
ing again after a three-week rehabilita
tion for tenderness in his elbow.
The best-case scenario would have
the sophomore right-hander, slated as the
No. 3 starter at the beginning of the
season, pitching again this weekend against
Mississippi State.
If Spigner con
tinues to have pain,
however, he might
not pitch again this
season. He is 0-0 with
a 2.84 ERA in three
games, including one
start. If Spigner starts
this weekend, he will
take the Sunday
matchup. He could also see relief action
on Friday or Saturday.
USC baseball moves up in rankings.
South Carolina is ranked second in the
latest Baseball America poll and third in
the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and
USA Today/Baseball Weekly polls.
The 28-4 Gamecocks were ranked *
fifth in all polls last week, and earned one
first-place vote in this week’s edition.
In-state rival Clemson, ranked No. 1
ahead of USC two weeks ago in the Col
legiate Baseball poll, came in at No. 9 in
Baseball America, No. 8 in Collegiate
Baseball and No. 7 in USAToday/Base
ball Week/y poll.
The Tigers dropped from the top five
positions as a result of going 1 -3 this week.
Clemson dropped a Wednesday match to
No. 25 Geoigia, then lost two out of three
at No. 5 North Carolina.
Bauer
I........:-—-—
Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports
Pitcher Megan Matthews wo# her second SEC,Pitcher of the Weqk
award after throwing a one-hitter against No. 14 Alabama.