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Inside: Schedule use football releases tentative depth chart a Track & ,ield at Duke lnvita,ional _ (Durham, N.C.), today-Sat. for upcoming season, DSC volleyball sees u women>s tennis at Mississippi State, 2 first action of spring p.m. ■ Men’s tennis vs. Mississippi, 2 p.m. Ninth-inning rally sinks Citadel, 6-5 by Rick Johnston Staff Writer The fireworks over the right field fence in the top of the fifth inning paled in comparison to the on-the-field fireworks in Wednesday’s game that saw the No. 2 Gamecocks rally to beat the Citadel, 6-5. The fireworks, shot from the Capi tal City Bombers’ stadium to com memorate the beginning of the new sea son, combined with junior rightfielder Brennan Dees’ solo home run off Bull dog reliever Jay Morgan to tie the game at five in the ninth. The shot to center highlighted the dramatic ninth in ning rally. “I was glad I was able to come up to bat again. The at-bat before I just missed a pitch with a man on third with less than two outs that I could have eas ily tied the game with,” Dees said. ' Junior catcher Brandon Pack reached base on a throwing error and reached third on a single by sophomore desig nated hitter Trey Dyson. Junior Tripp Kelly was next and hit into what looked like a double-play ball. Another Citadel error, this time by shortstop David Grif fin, brought pinch runner Steve Thomas home, and the Gamecocks walked away victorious. “What can you say, it was a game that could have gone anyone’s way, and we feel fortunate to be able to win one of these,” Carolina head coach Ray Tan ner said. The game featured seven combined errors, two hit batsmen and only one com bined inning where no one reached base. However, the late-inning heroics were not the only show on the field. In the top of the fourth inning, Tanner argued a call over a controversial bunt play involving Griffin and was ejected for only the sec ond time in his coaching career. “I certainly did not deserve to be tossed, I did not use a swear word. I did not say anything that my mother would be upset about,” Tanner said. The antics continued with the next Citadel batter when Griffin reached third after a stolen base and a sacrifice fly by Matt Dean. Sophomore center fielder Marcus McBeth, regarded as having the “best arm in the SEC,” according to Tanner, unloaded a cannonlike throw that nearly caught Griffin at third base. The call brought out Carolina assistant coach Jim Toman. After arguing with the umpires, Toman was also thrown out. “I don’t know why he got tossed,” Tanner quipped. “Coach Toman and I have together for a long time. I guess he didn’t want me to be lonely.” Carolina saw action from four pitch ers in the game, compared with the Bull dogs’ five pitchers. Sophomore left-han der Brett Price started the game and worked 2 2/3 innings, getting three strike outs. Sophomore Matt Wilson worked four innings, getting four strikeouts of his own. Clint Collins came in for Wilson and left with one out in the ninth in favor of John Wesley. Wesley was credited with his first win of the season. Besides Dees’ home run, another ma jor offensive highlight came from senior leftfielder Nate Janowicz, who had two hits, one of which was a double that notched two RBIs. The Gamecocks play No. 15 Missis sippi State in a three-game series this weekend at Saige Frye Field. Tonight’s game starts at 7 p.m., with Kip Bouknight(8-0) taking the mound for Carolina. Saturday game moved. Saturday’s game in the USC-Mississippi State baseball se ries has been changed to 4 p.m. to ac commodate television coverage. The game, originally scheduled for 3 p.m., will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net South (Channel 53 in the Columbia area) and will begin about 4:15 p.m. The game will be the Gamecocks’ first television appearance of 2000. Ticket system changed for Qemson. Tick ets for the USC-Clemson baseball lame at Saige Frye Field on April 19 will be issued differently from others this sea son, according to Sports Information Di rector Brian Binette. Because USC is expecting a sellout of the 5,000-capacity stadium, student, faculty and staff tickets will have to be picked up from the ticket office on Rose wood Drive starting Monday. Before, a student would be admitted Lo a baseball game with their student ID. The tickets will still be free, but a stu dent ID at the gate will not be honored for the April 19 matchup. Only students with actual tickets will be allowed into the stadium. Tickets for the annual rivalry will be available starting Monday at 8:30 a.m. They will be distributed through Friday or until they are sold out. Talk with Tanner. USC baseball fans can chat with Coach Tanner today starting at 10 a.m. Interested fans should log onto USC’s athetics web site, www.uscsports.com, to talk with the Gamecocks’ baseball coach. Fans can post questions via the Internet for Tanner to answer. Tanner’s three-year record at South Carolina is 112-65, a winning percent age of .633, raising his 12-year record as a head coach to 507-238-3, a winning percentage of .680. He averaged nearly 44 wins per season between 1988 and 1996, compiling a 395-173-3 record at N.C. State. He is also USC’s third-win ningest coach of all time. Tanner, 41, was named the Game cocks’ coach on June 14,19%, after nine successful seasons at alma mater N.C. State and a three-year affiliation with Team USA. Special to GamecociTIports Rightfielder Brennan Dees led a ninth-inning rally Wednesday as the Gamecocks came back to beat The Citadel, 6-6. Dees hit a one-out solo home run to tie the game. No. 18 Lady Gamecocks prepare for SEC East leader Kentucky by Shannon Rooke Sports Editor The losses have been close and hard The schedule has been one of the most grueling in the nation. And for the No. 18 Lady Game cocks softball team, the tough 2000 season is far from over. This weekend, they will travel to meet the Lady Wildcats of Kentucky in what is being called the first of the Southeastern Conference showdowns. The Lady Wildcats are leading the East ern Division of the conference and hold an impressive 23-17 record. Carolina (27-15) is just one rank ing behind Kentucky in the SEC East but is ahead in the overall series 10 2. The Lady Gamecocks dropped sin ^le/'-'tnes to UK in the 1998 and 1999 seasons but went on to take three of the four scheduled games in 1999. The Lady Gamecocks are pitching strongly and their 1.59 overall ERA has placed them behind Louisiana State in second place in the SEC. With South Carolina star Megan Matthews recently earning SEC player of the week for the second time, UK batters will have to be on its guard. The sophomore starter ended her 1999 season with honors such as All-South east Region, All-SEC Second Team and was a 1999 All-American. So far this season, Matthews has record ed an ERA of 190.1 and is second in the conference in strikeouts with 168. Carolina also has Joyce McMillin, j'Nith-a 1.66 ERA and 71 strikeouts on the season. When faced up against the expert hitting skills of some of the Wildcat players, Matthews will have to give this series everything she can. UK’s Leslie Kwiatkowski is hav ing a tremendous third season with the Wildcats and is leading her team in ar eas such as batting average (.413), slug ging percentage, on-base percentage, runs scored, hits (48), RBIs (33), home runs (3), total bases (72) and has earned a perfect record with 22 stolen bases in 22 attempts. Right behind her in batting aver age are teammates Jen Howland (.363), Beth Fogle (.344) and Lyndsey Angus (.341). When it comes to pitching, the Wildcats can also hold their own. Se nior Keary Camunas is 12-9 from the mound and leads her team with 92 strikeouts in her 23 total starts this sea son. USC’s offense is led by Jodi Fittro with a .326 batting average. McMillin represents a double threat by collect ing five home runs, 20 RBIs and six stolen bases this season along with her .320 average. Adrienne Genovese backs up the duo with a .306 average and nine RBIs. Kentucky is fourth in the confer ence with a 5-3 record and will look to stop Carolina from leaving its 8-7 fifth spot. The Wildcats have 18 SEC games left in the regular season, while USC only can look forward to 10. Immediately after the Kentucky series, however, the Lady Gamecocks will return home for a six-game home stand. While in Columbia, USC will continue its tough schedule and take on No. 8 and conference leader LSU, Arkansas and Coastal Carolina. The series will begin at 5 p.m. tonight with a double header. The two teams will face off again Saturday for another double header beginning at 1 p.m. Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports Lady Gamecock second baseman Kim Schultze tags out a Lady Bulldog during the series on March 24. The softball team travels to Lexington to take on SEC Eastern Division leader Kentucky today at 5 pm. USC men's tennis wins fifth straight over rival Clemson Men’s Tennis R ouN DU P Gamecock Sports The USC men’s tennis team out lasted the No. 37 Clemson Tigers 4-3 Tuesday to make it-five consecutive years in where Carolina has been vietbrious over its biggest rival. Carolina holds the edge 36-30 in the storied competition between the state’s two largest universities. The Carolina netters fought through the wind gusts that reached up to 40 mph and came back from being down 3-1 to get the win and keep their current streak of three wins alive. In the doubles match, South Car uima ium uic puiiu after their No.l and 2 teams were de feated by Clem son’s No.l and 2. Carolina’s tandem of Juan Gamboa and David Nelson were victorious over the Clemson _* d «l. c JV b VI VU1 V1 1/ Villi V/ V. The Gamecocks dropped their matches at No. 2 and 3 but picked up the win from Olof Akesson 6-2,6-2 at inu. t> iu maK.e uie score 3-1. Carolina received strong per formances from Seth Rose and Gam boa to even the match at 3-3. In the final match of the day, South Carolina’s Rob Steckley took the match from No. 37 Josh Goffi to give the Gamecocks the final point they needed to win the match. USC will be back in action today when they play host to the Mississip pi Rebels at 2 p.m. The matches will take place at the Sam Daniel Tennis Center. The Gamecocks only have five reg ular season matches left before completing in the SEC and NCAA Championships. Three of the five are at home. USC 4, Clemson 3 (at Clemson) Match-Winner-Score Singles 1. No. 100 Robert Steckley vs. No. 37 Josh Goffi USC 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 2. Jerome Jourdon vs. No. 48 Tomasz Boniecki CU 6-3, 7-5 3. No. 64 Guillaume Legat vs. Luis Garcia CU 6-3, 6-2 4. Seth Rose vs. Brad Emendorfer USC 6-3,7-5 5. Juan Gamboa vs. Sandon Barth USC 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 6. Olof Akesson vs. Micah Thompson USC 6-2,6-2 Doubles 1. Jourdon/Steckley vs. Goffi/Darren Knight CU 8-2 2. Akesson/Legat vs. Boniecki/Garcia CU 8-5 3. Gamboa/Nelson vs. Barth/Cohn USC 8-6 Gamboa a Steckley