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Gamecock Softball Matthews makes batters look foolish by Steven Drummond The Gamecock She’s Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez rolled into one. The only difference is, Megan Matthews doesn’t get paid millions of dollars to make her opponents look fool ish. She does it for free. Matthews, a rising junior from Greer, has captured almost every softball award imaginable since arriving on USC’s cam pus in 1999. She has been named All Southeast Region, All-SEC and SEC Pitch er of the Week. But perhaps her most valued and memorable honor came last spring, when Matthews pitched all 36 innings of the dea. luuiiiaiiiein. one ariuweu sia runs on the way to a tournament championship and SEC Tournament MVP award. “It’s hard to describe the feeling I had winning the SEC Tournament, because it was awesome,” Matthews said. “To come back from splitting almost every conference series all year and beat those same teams, especially LSU, is some thing I will never, ever forget. I was on a high for the whole summer. We were ready to come back here and (to it again.” Matthews’s most memorable mo ment on the mound also occurred during this tournament. “During the SEC Tournament cham pionship game against LSU, in the fifth inning, the bases were loaded, there were two outs, and their number two hitter gets up to bat,” Matthews said. “She had a full count, and she had tipped off every thing I had thrown her. I knew if I had kept coming back with the same stuff she was going to hit it, which would have probably been the end of the game. I threw her a change-up, and she hit a dinky lit tie hit back to me, and I threw her out. “That moment was the key moment in my world!” Matthews ended last season with a 26-16 record, a 1.37 ERA and 37 com plete games. She earned Most Valuable Pitcher honors at the Gladstone’s and Speedline Invitationals. She was also named to the All-South Region First Team for the second straight year. In 1999, Matthews had one of the best rookie seasons of any Lady Game cock pitcher in history. She posted a 29-15 record with a 1.32 ERA. She ended the season first in the SEC in strike outs (313), appearances (57) andinnipgs pitched (292), and she also finished first in the nation in saves with nine. Matthews was the second Carolina freshman to earn NFCA All-America honors when she was named to the third team. “I struggled a little bit last year from the get-go. Things didn’t start coming to gether until it was too late; I was too tired,” she said. “My personal goal is to be strong from the beginning, to make it through regionals, to keep myself in shape, keeping ahead of the batters and winning the games that I’m out there for.” This past off-season, Matthews took some time away from softball to rest the arm that threw a USC record 311 innings. “I took a break,” she said. “I went out to North Dakota to visit my boyfriend. Then I came home and did my workouts. I took some time off from throwing, of course, because my arm gave out on me at regionals. I got to rest up, so now we’re OK.” What many say makes Megan Matthews so intimidating on the mound is the variety of ways she can at tack you. “I basically throw the change-up, curve ball, rise ball, screwball. I don’t throw a drop ball,” Matthews said. “When I worked with my pitching coach in At lanta she taught me to go out there and look at batter swings and stances and what to do when you’re ahead in the count and behind in the count. “I try to make my own game. I found the more variation you have, the better pitcher you will be. You have to keep the batter guessing. If you throw a batter a screwball three times and you come back with a rise ball and go to a screwball again, they’re going to expect it and they’re go ing to hit you. So variation is the key.” When Matthews isn’t blowing peo ple away on the mound, her favorite thing to do is snuggle up with her pillow. “I love to sleep,” she said. “I’m not a real ‘going out’ kind of person. I’m pret ty laid back. I like to go to the movies or stay at home and watch movies. USC lost only five players from the 2000 Lady Gamecock team that ended the season with a record of 41-28. Matthews thinks this year’s squad has a chance to achieve greater goals. “We are going to see a lot of good things from our freshmen class,” she said. “Wfe’ve got some freshmen that have re ally stepped up and met the challenge placed before them. I think they’re go ing to help us out a lot. We’re supposed to take this season one game at a time. “We think that we can win the SEC, and we think we can win the tournament again, and we also want to advance further in the regionals. The whole team wants to go to Oklahoma re ally bad. That would be incredible.” The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com USC’s Megan Matthews was named Most Valuable Player of last sea son’s SEC Tournament She allowed only six runs in 36 innings. Special to The Gamecock Head Coach . —» v -—-1 Joyce Compton 15th season at USC (654-232-1, .737) 2001 Schedule Febnxvy 11 at Arkansas 12 pm 3 North Carolina (DH) W1-0, L 0-1 14 So. Mississippi (DH) 3 pm 6 at Georgia Southern (OH) W12-0. W 6-1 17 Mississippi State (DH) 1pm 18 Mississippi State 2 pm Fiesta Bowl Classic (Phoenix, AZ) 24 LSU(DH) 1pm 9 Nebraska W2-1 25 LSU 1 pm 9 Arizona State L2-8 28 at Georgia (DH) 4pm 10 Washington L1-5 29 at Georgia 4 pm 10 New Mexico State WM 11 Arizona L W Apr! 3 Tennessee (DH) 5 pm USF Tournament (Tampa, FL) 4 Tennessee 5 pm 16 Washington 3 pm 7 at Auburn (DH) 1pm Hofstra 8 pm 8 at Auburn 1pm 17 South Florida 4 pm 14 at Kentucky (DH) 1pm Maryland 8 pm 15 a Kentucky 12 pm 18 Notre Dame Noon 17 Furman (DH) 5 pm 21 Florida pH) 1 pm NFCALeadoff Classic (Columbus, GA) 22 Florida 1 pm 23 Oregon 2:30pm 25 at Coastal Carolina (DH) 5pm 23 San Diego State 5 pm 28 Alabama (OH) 1 pm 24 Oklahoma 10 am 29 Alabama 1 pm 28 Virginia Tech (DH) 3pm May 10-13 at SEC Tournament 3 at Mississippi (DH) 1pm (Chattanooga, TN) 4 at Mississippi 11am 17-20 at NCAA Regionals 6 Pittsburgh (DH) 3 pm 24-28 at NCAA Women's College World 10 at Arkansas (DH) 12 pm Series (Oklahoma City, OK) The Players I Melissa Sandel OF Fr. 4 Kim Evans OF So. 5 Megan Matthews P Jr. 7 Adrienne Genovese C Sr. 8 Amber Curtis SS Fr. 9 Kate Morrison 1B So. II Danielle Quinones 1B So. 12 Joyce McMillin P/OF Sr. 13 Samantha Jennings 3B/OFFr. 14 Nancy Crane OF Fr. 18 JodiFittro OF So. 26 Stacey Johnson P Fr. 21 Adrianna Baggetta UT Jr. 22 Debralee Troesh 2B So. 33 Megan Donohoo OF Sr. Cayce, S.C. Greenville, S.C. Greer, S.C. Corona, Calif. Tucson, Ariz. Blythewood, S.C. LaPuente, Calif. Melbourne, Fla. Placentia, Calif. Stuart, Fla ./South Fork Riverside, Calif. Newton, Penn. Chantilly, Va. Santa Maria, Calif. Chattanooga, Tenn.