The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 17, 2000, Page 10, Image 10

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Inside: Schedule Men’s and women's tennis take on Van- a Basebal1 vs- Davidson, Tue. , ^ _ ■ Softball vs. Coastal Carolina (DH), Tue. derbilt, Trammell and Barber shine at Sea a Baseba|| vs c|emson| Wed Ray Relays ■ Women’s tennis at SEC Tournament, Wed.-Sun. % ,.. < . !n> No. 2 Gamecocks sweep Vandy, stay in first place v Baseball Roundup Gamecock Sports The No. 2 Gamecock baseball team swept the Vanderbilt Commodores last weekend in Nashville. USC will return to Sarge Frye Field for a Tuesday game against Davidson and a televised matchup with Clemson on Wednesday before traveling to Lexington, Ky., for a three-game series with Kentucky this weekend. USC 7, Vanderbilt 3 (Sunday) Vanderbilt starter Damon Yee pitched a complete-game, 11 -strikeout performance, becoming the school’s new all-time career strikeout leader. However, the effort wasn’t enough, as counterpart Kip Bouknight pitched eight innings and struck out eight for his 11th victory of the season. The Gamecocks jumped on Yee ear ly, scoring one run in the first when Drew Meyer singled in Nate Janowicz. The third inning widened USC’s lead, when the Gamecocks loaded the bases with no outs and scored one run on a wild pitch. USC was shut down, how ever, when Yee struck out the next three Gamecocks to end the threat. In the fourth, Chris Plummer start ed things off for USC with a single, moving to third on a sacrifice bunt at tempt by John McHenry. A Yee throw ing error allowed McHenry to take first and then run to third on a Janowicz sac rifice fly to center that scored Plum mer. Meyer then knocked a pitch back to Yee, but another throwing error to first allowed Meyer to get to first and McHenry to score. Brennan Dees lat er knocked in Meyer for a 5-0 lead. Bouknight ran into trouble in the fourth after an Ashley Freeman fly ball was lost in the sun by Janowicz. The double was followed by a walk to Karl Nonemaker, and a double by Andy Kropf. The second double scored Free man, and Kropf scored when Sean Luellwitz dumped a single into the out field. An Adam Blue sacrifice fly scored Kropf, but the damage was con tained after Vanderbilt narrowed the gap to 5-3. The Gamecocks tacked on insur ance runs in the fifth and seventh in nings to extend Bouknight’s unde feated streak to 11-0, while reliever Jamie Poston closed the door in the ninth. USG won its 11 th consecutive game, improving to 36-4, 15-3 SEC, good for first place in the conference. Vanderbilt slipped to 18-20,4-12 SEC. USC 2, Vanderbilt 1 (Saturday) USC rallied with two runs in the top of the ninth inning Saturday on a Trey Dyson RBI double and edged Van derbilt 2-1 winning another last-inning battle. USC’s Scott Barber (5-1) pitched a complete game, allowing just six hits and an eighth-inning run while striking out five. Chris Maultsby (l-3)limited South Carolina to two hits, one of them an infield Single, through the first eight innings, but was charged with the loss as Vanderbilt fell. Catcher Brandon Pack walked to lead off the Gamecock ninth inning and was replaced by pinch runner Marcos Rios. After Tripp Kelly struck out, Rios moved to second base on a wild pitch. With the Gamecocks two outs away from a 1-0 loss, Dyson hit a drive that fell just inside the foul line in right field for a double, scoring Rios to tie the game. Maultsby was relieved by Jeff Little, and pinch runner Steve Thomas replaced Dyson. Thomas moved to third on a single to left field by Marcus Mc Beth. Then, Plummer hit a slow roller to shortstop and was out at first, but Thomas scored on the play to put South Carolina ahead, 2-1. Vanderbilt got the potential tying run to third base with two out in the bottom of the ninth. Ulises Cabrera walked with one out and advanced to second on a passed ball. He moved to third when Blue grounded out to short. Vanderbilt pinch hitter Kyle Flubacker was then struck out on three straight Barber pitches. The game was scoreless through seven innings, but Vanderbilt took a 1 0 lead in the bottom of the eighth. Kevin Baseball see rage n Mill 1BIII—y-- • . _L - ■*■ -_________1 Special to Gamecock Sports Tenth man Marcos Rios again came up big against Vanderbilt, scoring the tying run Saturday in the ninth inning. Watson, Kimrey lead White squad in spring game Football Roundup Gamecock Sports Derek Watson’s 1-yard touchdown plunge over the line with only 3:29 left in the fourth quarter gave die USC White team a 21-16 victory over the Black team in Saturday’s spring game at Williams Brice Stadium. The touchdown was Wat son’s second, as he scored the first of the day on a punt return. Running back Andrew Pinnock led the Black squad with 93 yards on 15 carries and had one touchdown. He was helped by quarterback Phil Petty, who was 14-of-35 for 263 yards with one touch down and one interception. Wide receiver Willis Ham gained 104 yards on four re ceptions for the Black team. Watson gained 65 yards on the ground on 13 rushes and scored one touchdown for the White team. Erik Kimrey direct ed the White offense through most of the day and completed 14-of-27 passes for 130 yards. On defense, Tim Yam contributed 10 tackles, while Darion Hutcherson made nine tackles for the White team. Defen sive lineman Cleveland Pinkney disrupt ed the line of scrimmage for the White team by collecting two sacks and forc ing two fumbles, one of which was re covered for a White touchdown. Down 16-15 late in the fourth quar ter, the White defense stopped a poten tial game-winning Black drive by knock ing die ball out of Corey Alexander’s hands after his reception and recovering the ball at midfield. Led by quarterback Mikal Goodman, the White team marched down the field and punctuated the drive with Whtson’s touchdown on the eighth play. The Black team had a chance to win the game on its last possession as it worked its way downfield from its own 35-yard line with big pass plays from Petty to Ham and to Brian Scott. Facing a fourth-and 14 from the White 18-yard line with less than a minute to play, Petty lofted a pass to the back of the end zone towards re ceiver Scott, but it was knocked away by White defensive back Yam. The White team took over on the change of posses sion and ran the remaining 47 seconds off the clock for the victory. “I thought that it was a good, com petitive game, other than the turnovers,” head coach Lou Holtz said. “We didn’t do a whole lot on defense or on offense. We were very bland in what we allowed them to do and what they could do.” Watson started the day with an 88 yard punt return, following the Black team’s first possession, for a quick 7-0 lead. The Black team regrouped later in the first quarter and scored its first touch down on a 6-yard run by Pinnock. Tak ing the ball at the 1-yard line after re covering a White fumble on the goal line, Pinnock provided the punch for the Black team, pinned in its own end zone as he raced for 65 yards on the drive, including a 50-yard gallop. The extra-point attempt from Reid Bethea skimmed off the right goalpost and left the Black squad down, 7-6. In the second quarter, the White team pinned the Black squad back on its own goal line again and the poor field position yielded points for the defense. Facing a second-and-10 from his own 2-yard line, Petty turned to hand the ball off to a back and found no one in the backfield on the busted play except himself and two White defenders. Marco Hutchinson and An thony Overstreet pulled the quarter back down for the safety and gave the White team a 9-6 advantage. With two minutes left in the first half, the Black team put together an 80-yard drive with a 14-yard completion from Pet ty to Scott for a 13-9 lead. In the third quarter, the White team again put points on the board as Pinkney sacked Petty in the end zone, forcing a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Hutchinson for a touchdown and a 15-14 lead. The extra-point attempt failed, as a bad snap from center forced holder Kevin Sides to try a desperate scramble toward the end zone. The Black team regained the lead on its next drive by traveling from its own 35 to the White red zone and knocking . in a 31 -yard field goal from Bethea. The big play of the drive occurred when Pet ty hit a wide-open Ham over the middle and the receiver scampered 29 yards to the White 16-yard line. The defense held and forced the field goal, giving the Black team a 16-15 lead late in the third quar ter. The game culminated 15 days of spring practice for South Carolina, and was viewed by an estimated crowd of5,500. Per Holtz’s instructions, the Black squad held a charity car wash Sun day as their punishment for losing. The White team, led by Watson, formed a circle at midfield after the game, jumping and dancing around the painted gamecock on the 50-yard line. After his cue, Watson raised his index finger and “machine-gunned” his teammates to celebrate the victory. Jets take Abraham. USC linebacker John Abraham was selected with the 13th overall pick by the New York Jets in the first round of the NFL Draft on Satur day. Abraham led the Game cocks with six sacks and was third on the team with six tackles for loss in 1999. Abraham had seven sacks in 1998 as a defensive end, and as a linebacker, he made 60 tackles in 1999. USC defensive back Ar turo Freeman was also se lected in the 2000 NFL Draft Sunday as the Miami Dol phins selected Freeman in the fifth round (152nd over all pick). I , ^ — ■ , . V '4. > ^ ^ _* j Sean Rayford Gamecock Sports Quarterback Phil Petty gets sacked by Cleveland Pinkney. The sack caused Petty to fumble the ball to Marco Hutchinson for a touchdown. if) Arkansas ruins USC s softball Senior Day Softball Roundup Gamecock Sports No. 19 South Carolina had its senior day ruined Saturday by two tough losses to Arkansas, 4-0 and 4-3 in 12 innings. With the losses, USC fell to 30-21,11-12 SEC, while Arkansas moved to 32-23,11 7 SEC. Despite the losses, Carolina re mains in second place in the SEC East be hind Kentucky. Arkansas 4, USC 0 (Game 1 Saturday) The Lady Razorbacks took an early 1 -0 lead, squeezing a Brett Erickson dou ble and an RBI single by Erin Stokey be tween three Megan Matthews strikeouts. Arkansas added another single run in the second inning. After loading the bases with a walk and back-to-back singles, Matthews hit Kim Eiben, scoring Erick son for her second run of the day. Arkansas upped its lead to 3-0 in the fourth inning when Sheri Wahrmund opened the inning with a single to center. After a fielder’s choice, Wharumund _i -. ■_i_n_/-v.i’ i. sparkling defensive plays by Kim Schultze and Kendra McCutcheon to get runners at the plate ended the Arkansas rally. The Lady Razoibacks added one more run in the sixth for the Game 1 4-0 win. Matthews went the distance, taking the loss. Matthews is now 19-13 on the sea son. Rachel Talley pitched seven innings, upping her record to 9-8. Arkansas 4, USC 3 (Game 2 Saturday) Matthews took the mound again in Game 2. Arkansas took the early lead in the second inning. Danica Howlett walked to lead off. The walk came back to haunt Matthews when Wahrmund dou bled, scoring Howlett to give Arkansas a 1-0 lead. The Lady Gamecocks scored their first run of the day in the bottom of the sixth inning. Carolina started the two-out rally with a double to center by Adrienne Genovese. Debralee Troesh tied the game with her fifth double of the season, scor ing Genovese. USC threatened in the bottom of the seventh, getting a base hit by Danielle Quinones and a McCutcheon fielder’s choice. But, Arkansas pitcher Tammy Kin caid got out of the jam. In the bottom of the eighth, leadoff batter Sondra Hall reached on an error, but once again Kincaid snuffed the USC rally. With a runner on second in the 10th inning and a fielder’s choice to open the inning, Arkansas took the lead. Erickson doubled to deep right field, scoring both runners and taking a 3-1 lead. USC cut the lead to 3-2 in the bot tom of the tenth with a Hall sacrifice fly to center field. McCutcheon reached on a bunt single and scored on a clutch sin gle to left center, but Genovese was thrown out at the plate on the play, sending the game to the 11th. Arkansas finally broke through in the 12th, scoring one on an Erickson double with the basesjjpaded. The Lady G aline cock defense came up big with two outs on the play to end the rally. But, Arkansas’ last run would provide the Lady ‘Backs with the 4-3 win in USC’s longest game of the season. The Lady Gamecocks ended No. 7 LSU’s team record 19-game winning streak with a 6-2 win in Game 1, while the Tigers (40-8,14-2 SEC) came back to win Game 2 6-0 in a doubleheader Friday at Beck ham Field. use 6, LSU 2 (Game 1 Friday) The Game 1 win broke a winning streak dating to a March 17 loss to Auburn. The six runs allowed were the second most allowed all season and the most ever in a Tiger loss. The Tigers threatened in the first itr ning with back-to-back singles by Stephanie Hastings and Tara Asbill. Shaunte’ Fremin was hit by a Matthews pitch to load the bases with two outs. Matthews got Stacey Newtown to ground out to Schultze to end the Tiger rally. Carolina br>ke out for four run- in the bottom of the second inning. 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