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Gamecock Sports Schedule ■ Softball vs. Tennessee (doubleheader), 4 p.m. Tuesday ■ Baseball at Furman, 7 p.m. Tuesday ■ Men’s tennis vs. Auburn, 2 p.m. Wednesday ■ Softball vs. Tennessee, 4 p.m. Wednesday USC ends spring practice on high note ■ Football team's potential shines in spring game by Kyle Almond The Gamecock Gamecock fans saw a glimpse of the future when the USC football team competed against itself in the annual spring football game at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday. The Gamecocks split into two teams, and the squads battled it out in front of a crowd of 15,000 who came to see how the team is shaping up for the 2001 season. The White team, led by Andrew Pinnock and Brian Scott’s two touchdowns, held off a furious fourth quarter rally by the Garnet team to win the scrimmage 33-20. “I thought it was a good effort, but I didn’t think the focus was as strong as we’d like,” head coach Lou Holtz said after the game. Holtz was bothered by some sloppy play on both sides, which included a combined 12 penalties and seven turnovers. He was also worried about the team’s depth at the wide receiver position and on both sides of the line. For the most part, the third-year head coach had good things to say about the team’s potential and its improvement over the past year. “I think we can be better than last year,” he said. “I see a lot of things that we’ve really improved on. I think if you look at the way we run the ball, you look at our offensive line and you look at the way we tackle’ you’ll see that we’re a lot further ahead. < “It was a very good spring. We made a lot of progress. Wfe just have to eliminate the turnovers.” The Garnet team committed six of the seven turnovers in the game, and redshirt freshman quarterback Dondrial Pinkins threw five interceptions. Pinkins, who according to Holtz had an otherwise solid spring, had trouble getting into sync Saturday. Holtz attributed that to lack of experience. “The people who had experience are the ones who showed up. “It was good that [we played] in front of a crowd because some players did not respond, especially the new ones... but I think they will. It’s a matter of experience and a matter of time. I liked a lot of things that I saw,” Holtz said. With his team trailing 27-3 in the fourth quarter, Pinkins almost completed an unlikely comeback. After a safety by the Garnet team’s Carl Smalls, Pinkins threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Willis Ham to cut the White team’s lead to 15. On the following kickoff, the Garnet team recovered an onside kick, and Pinkins led another scoring drive, with a two-point conversion, to make the score 27-20 with a little over a minute and-a-half remaining in the game. When the Garnet team recovered its second-straight onside kick moments later, the game that once looked like a blow-out was competitive again. But it was not to be, as Pinkins threw his fifth interception a couple of plays later. The White team added a late touchdown in the final minute to clinch the win. Saturday’s game concluded spring football practice for the Gamecocks, who are looking to repeat a remarkable season that saw them go 8-4 and win the Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day. Holtz said he realizes that expectations will be higher following the team’s success front last season, but added that his team has its own expectations, too. “We know the fans’ expectations are always going to be high, and that’s a step in the right direction, but we can’t worry about anybody’s expectations but our own,” he said. “We have to make sure we meet our expectations.” Like the rest of the spring, Holtz said his team will make Saturday’s game a learning experience. “We will take some of the mistakes we learned today and we’ll turn it into a plus,” he said. “But it’s been a very, very good spring. I think we’re going to be a competitive football team, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.” The sports desk can be reached at gamecocksports@hotmail.com Scoring Summary Garnet 0 3 0 17 —20 White 13 7 0 13 —33 1st Quarter WHITE — Pingock 1-yard run (Weaver kick), 11:18 WHITE — Scott 16-yard pass from Petty (Weaver kick blocked), 2:06 2nd Quarter WHITE — Pinnock 14-yard pass from Kimrey, (Weaver kick), 5:54 GARNET — Weaver 21-yard field goal 4th Quarter WHITE — Gary 6-yard run (Weaver kick), 14:53 GARNET — Smalls safety, 5:29 GARNET — Ham 35-yard pass from Pinkins (Weaver kick), 5:08 GARNET — Pinkins 2-yard run (Pinkins rush), 1:42 WHITE — Scott 43-yard pass from Kim rey (Bowers kick failed), 0:51 White Team Petty at ease with offensive scheme by Kyle Almond The Gamecock Pliil Petty tightened his grip on the starting quarteiback position with a near flawless performance Saturday. The senior from Boiling Springs, S.C,. led the White tpam to touchdowns on his first two drives of the spring game to build an early 13-0 lead in tlie first quarter, a lead that his team would never relinquish. Petty credits a lot of his play to a more comfortable undeistandiiig of USC’s offensive system. In his previous years at Carolina, new offensive schemes had been brought in every year. Instead of mastering the old system, he would have to quickly adjust and learn the new one. Stability is making Petty’s job a whole lot easier. “I think tliis is the first year that I’ve had the same (offensive) system twice,” Petty said. “For me, it’s second nature. Now, it’s just a matter of perfecting (the offense) and getting better on the little tilings.” Petty showed on Saturday just how much he’s perfecting the offense, completing nine of 11 passes for one touchdown and no interceptions. In the first quarter, Petty was six-for-six. “Pliil Petty is just in command of the offense,” head coach Lou Holtz said. “He knows what he’s doing.” Even with redsliirt freshman Dondrial Pinkins showing off his massive potential in spring practice, Holtz and the rest of the coaching staff made it crystal clear: Petty is the leader of this offense. “Phil Petty is so confident,” Holtz said. “He’s very accurate, he’s got a nice, quick release, he throws on time, and he’s very cool. He had an excellent spring.” White see PAGE 9 Sean Rayford/The Gamecock Derek Watson is gang-tackled by a slew of Gamecocks during Saturday’s spring game. Watson finished with 84 yards rushing on the day. Spring Game Notes by Kyle Almond The Gamecock ■ Kicking game still a concern — The much-maligned Gamecock kicking game still has a lot of work to do. USC’s Joey Bowers missed an extra point and had another blocked. Head coach Lou Holtz also expressed concern about the team’s kickoffs. But Holtz did have positive things to say about place-kicker Dan Weaver, who was one-for-one on Saturday with a 21-yard field goal. “I thought Dan Waver place-kicked very well all spring as far as field goals, et cetera,” Holtz said. “I thought he kicked the ball very well.” The Gamecocks will welcome Holtz’s first-ever scholarship kicker, Josh Brown, in the fall. ■ Holtz gets the final say — The referees didn’t have all the say on the field Saturday. When the Garnet team’s first onside kick was questionable, Holtz called it a fair play from the press box where he spent the entire game. “Charlie (Strong, coach of the White team) was all upset and said the other side cheated, but once Charlie understood I called it, the conversation got very amiable,” Holtz joked. ■ KimreyisNo.2—After throwing two touchdowns and leading three scoring drives for the victorious White team, Erik Kimrey has assumed the back up quarterback role for the moment. “If we played tomorrow, No. 2 would be Erik Kimrey based on the fact that he’s protecting the ball,” Holtz said. Kimrey, who is best known for his fourth-quarter heroics against Mississippi State last season, says he just wants what’s best for the team, and if that means Dondrial Pinkins or Rod Wilson, so be it. He is there to help. “It’s my job as an older player to bring them along mentally, and that’s what I want to do,” the walk-on senior said. Garnet Team Pinkins struggles, but shows off talent by Michael Haney The Gamecock Though most of its spring game was a struggle, the Garnet squad showed its true fighting Gamecock spirit in a rousing 17-point rally late in the fourth quarter. The team was down 27-3 in the fourth quarter and had the ball with a chance to tie late in the game. But the chips didn’t fall, and the White squad tacked on another touchdown to hold on to the victory. Most of the Garnet team’s struggles came from redshirt freshman quarterback Dondrial Pinkins. In what he called the worst game he played in his entire life, Pinkins threw five interceptions, including his very first pass from scrimmage. “I got off to a bad start and came through at the end a little bit, then went back downhill,” Pinkins said. “I’m going to come here in the morning and me and coach are going to go over all the mistakes and try to get everything under control. Despite the five picks, Pinkins showed glimpses of what Gamecock fans can expect to see in the next few years at the quarterback position. He rushed nine times for 39 yards and a touchdown and also completed 13-of-32 passes for 152 yards and a touchdown. Head coach Lou Holtz expressed disappointment in Pinkins’ performance, but knows that the young freshman has a ways to go. “You can’t throw away everything that happened this spring, because he threw one interception this entire spring,” Holtz said. “He is going to have to protect the ball, but he is a freshman. I think he’ll learn great from this. “I know it’s disappointing in some respects to Dondrial, but his strong arm Garnet seepages Carolina baseball swept by Crimson Tide by Jason Malick The Gamecock The No. 5 USC baseball team (24-7, 7-5 SEC) was swept by Alabama this weekend in Tuscaloosa, Ala., marking the first time the Gamecocks were swept in a series nearly two years. The last sweep that Carolina was a victim of took place in May 1999, when die Kentucky Wildcats won three straight games at Satge Frye Field in Columbia. The last two games of that series were seven-inning games because of a doubleheader. The last time USC lost a series in which all three games were regulation length was back in April 1997, when Florida swept the Gamecocks. For Alabama (20-11, 7-5), this weekend's series not only marked its first sweep of the Gamecocks in school history, but also its first sweep of a team ranked in the top five in the nation. The Crimson Tide blew out the Gamecocks 12-1 Friday and 13-2 Saturday, and then held off USC 7-5 Sunday to complete the sweep. In a late attempt to salvage a win at Sewell-Thomas Stadium Sunday, the Gamecocks took their first lead against the Crimson Tide when two runs were tallied in the top of the second. Trey Dyson hit a pop fly deep into right field which was dropped by the Tide outfielder, allowing Tripp Kelly and Yaron Peters to cross the plate and give USC an early 2 0 lead. The Gamecocks were able to restrain Alabama for a while by letting only one run come across the plate in the bottom of the second. But the prospects of winning slowly diminished an inning later when the Tide captured a 3-2 lead after a two-run home run by Beau Hearod. Things looked even worse in the fifth inning when Alabama secured a 5-2 lead after Aaron Clark hit an RBI triple into the right center field gap. Alabama’s lead was shortened in the sixth when the Gamecocks scored their third unearned run of the game when Chris Plummer drove in Peters, but the Crimson Tide reacted by driving in two additional runs in the seventh, making it a 7-3 game. Tim Whittaker’s two-run home run cut the Alabama lead to two, but unfortunately for USC, the Crimson Tide was able hold on to its lead and its historic sweep. “We needed to win a close game like this one,” Alabama head coach Jim Wells said Sunday. “We were able to take the lead and hold on to it. This was a great win for us against a very good South Carolina team.” Carolina pitcher Chris Spigner (5-1) took the loss Sunday. Spigner, who managed to hold on for four innings, allowed six runs on four hits, threw two strikeouts and hit one batter. On the other end, Alabama’s Kavonski Chatman (1-0) recorded his first career win and pitched for 6 2/3 innings. Chatman struck out three Gamecocks, and none of the runs scored gainst him was earned. “I was happy to see Chatman bounce back and pitch the way he did today.” Wells said. “I was glad to see him go as long as he did. He is getting better and becoming a very good competitor.” Swept see page 9 Aaron Hark/The Gamecock Tommy MacLane and the Gamecocks were swept in a three-game series this weekend for the -first time since 1969.