Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

GAME SCHEDULE CONTACT T IS " SOFTBALL vs. Georgia Southern, 3 p.m. Wednesday V71 ^ U MEN’S BASKETBALL vs. No. 6 Alabama, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? WOMEN'S BASKETBALL vs. Alabama, 6 p.m. Thursday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com BASEBALL vs. East Tennessee State, 3 p.m. Friday-Sunday Baseball starts off with sweep FRIDAY • PHOTOS BY ROBERT GRUEN Yaron Peters knocks the ball out of Sarge Frye Field In Carolina's first baseball game of the season. SATURDAY Catcher Jared Greenwood watches the baseball sail into the outfield during Carolina's second game of the weekend. v • SUNDAY A USC baseball player nearly escapes getting called out while leading off first base. Charleston So. 3 USC 11 BY TRAVIS BOLAND THE GAMECOCK Peters hits perfectly en route to USC win The USC baseball team started the 2002 season with a three-game sweep over the Charleston Southern Buccaneers. The Gamecocks easily took the first two games of the series, but they showed they could also win the close game. In Friday’s game, sophomore David Marchbanks pitched six scoreless innings, giving up only one hit and striking out 11 bat ters. Senior first baseman Yaron Peters had a perfect day at the plate, driving in five runs and hit ting a three-run home run in his first at-bat of the season. USC scored three runs in the first in ning and never looked back, win ning 11-3. Game Stats ♦ Yaron Peters drove in five runs. ♦ David Marchbanks allowed one hit in six innings. Marchbanks also had 11 strikeouts. ♦ Trey Dyson drove in three runs with a third-inning sacrifice fly and a two-run home run in the eighth. Charleston So. 1 USC 19 Bell allows one hit in blowout In Saturday’s game, USC’s bats came alive again, pounding out 19 runs on 20 hits. The Gamecocks scored eight runs in the first in ning and sent 12 batters to the plate. They rapped seven hits off Charleston Southern starter Ian Holmen and took advantage of two Buccaneer errors in the inning. USC also batted around in the third and fourth innings. Gary Bell pitched five strong innings, allow ing just one run and striking out six for the win. Senior outfielder Garris Gonce had a three-run home run in the first inning and drove in four runs. Sophomore catcher Landon Powell tied a school record with three doubles in one game, and he also had a two run homer. Shortstop Drew Meyer also drove in four runs in the vic tory. Trey Dyson contributed three RBIs on a double and single. Game Stats ♦ Garris Gonce and Drew Meyer each drove in four runs. ♦ Gary Bell allowed one hit and one run in five innings and also notched six strike outs. ♦ USC had a strong first inning, sending 12 batters to the plate and scoring eight runs on seven hits. Charleston So. 2 USC 3 Buccaneers keep game close until 8th In the series tinale, tans were treated to a pitcher’s duel. Senior Chris Spigner started for the Gamecocks and pitched four in nings, giving up two runs on five hits while striking out seven bat ters. Carolina held a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning before Charleston Southern tied the score. The score remained tied until a two-out sin gle by Garris Gonce scored Drew Meyer to give the Gamecocks a 3-2 lead. The real story of the game was the pitching of senior Blake Taylor. Taylor pitched five in nings, only allowing one baserun ner due to a walk, and pre servedthe 3-2 victory. Carolina now has a 3-0 record, while Charleston Southern dropped to 0-5. The Gamecocks welcome East Tennessee State to Sarge Frye Field next weekend for a three-game se ries. Game Stats ♦ Blake Taylor pitched five innings of relief, retiring 14 batters in a row. ♦ Ray Tanner, in his sixth season, notched his 220th win, tying him for 2nd on USC’s all-time victory list. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com BRIEFLY PHOTO BY ROBERT GRUEN Doubles partners Lynn-Yin , Tan and Jodi Kenoyer defeated Lacelarie/Jayet of Clemson 8-3. Tan also won her singles match against Ana Stiglic 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. Women’s tennis beats Clemson The 22nd-ranked USC women’s tennis team downed visiting Clemson 6-1 on Saturday in a non-conference match, marking the ninth consecutive regular season win for the Gamecocks over their archrival. Carolina (4-0) jumped out of the gates quickly, stretching out leads in each of the three doubles match • . es. USC cruised to win all three matches and claim an early 1-0 lead. The Gamecocks continued their hot play in singles action, dominating for the win over the Tigers (2-2). Jennifer Radman, ranked 71st in the nation, had no troubles with Milena Stanoycheva, winning 6-2,6-0. Kathy Boyanovich continued her solid play, winning at No. 3 singles 6-0, 6-4 over Anna Savitskaya. Carolina clinched the match behind a dominant 6-2, 6-0 win by Tamara Sutton over Ioana Paun at No. 5 singles. Carolina returns tb action next aaiuraay, wnen mey nosi Georgia Tech at 1 p.m. Gamecocks win at Meet of Champions Demetria Washington contin ued to show the rest of the NCAA why she is the best 400-meter runner in the country, winning the event at the second annual Meet of Champions. Washington, who set a meet record with a time of 52.36 sec onds, bettered her previous NCAA automatic time and put her at No. 1 in the NCAA in the 400. Washington pulled freshman Lashinda Demus along with her, as Demus ran a personal-best and NCAA automatic time of 54.19 to finish third. USC’s Chris Steddum fol lowed up Washington’s meet record with one of his own, win ning the pole vault. Antoinette Wilks won the long jump with a meet record as well. All told, USC won four events and put up four NCAA automat ic times and six NCAA provi sional times. The USC women finished sec ond in the event to LSU, while the USC men were fifth. Women’s swimming and diving defeated The women’s swimming and diving team was defeated by Florid i State 118-85 on Saturday afternoon. It was USC’s final dual meet of the season before it heads to Fayetteville, Ark. in less than two weeks for the SEC Championships. Senior Sarah Doyle contin ued her successful season, win ning two events on the day. Doyle won the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:09.01 and the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:59.12. Freshman Heather Skaggs (1:52.01) and junior Kristen Butler (1:53.42) also finished 1-2 in the 200-yard freestyle for the Gamecocks. Carolina will take a week off from competition to prepare for the SEC Championships, held Feb. 19-24. Tennessee still unable to overcome Gamecocks Tennessee 54 H| USC 72 USC blows out Volunteers for second time in three weeks BY RYAN CLARY THE GAMECOCK The USC men’s basketball team continued its up and down ways Saturday night with a 72-54 victory at Frank McGuire Arena over the Tennessee Volunteers. USC (14-9, 4-6 SEC) hopes this win will spark a win streak that could carry it to the NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks were led by Aaron Lucas, who knocked down 20 points and tied his season-high from the Clemson win earlier this season. Lucas’ consistent play throughout the game gave USC its second overwhelming victory against Tennessee this season. The first win came in Knoxville on Jan. 23, where USC won 94-60. USC head coach Dave Odom was pleased with the outcome. “It’s not that we match up well against Tennessee; we just seem focused when we play them,” Odom said. “Seeing Aaron play the way he did, I’d have to give him a good word.” Lucas did more than put 20 points on the scoreboard. He only had one turnover the entire game, shot 66 percent from the field, and showed leadership on the floor. “I felt I was just relaxed,” Lucas said. “I’m feeling confident due to the win, and I held on to the ball well tonight. The fact that we didn’t have a turnover in the first half meant we were focused.” With an eight-point lead at the half, the Gamecocks came out with a 22-5 run in the first six min utes of the second half. This was not the only run for USC, as it started the game with a 21-8 run and never looked back. “We shot reasonably well and our post guys did well,” Odom said. “Marius (Petravicius) and Carlos (Powell) played extreme ly well together. Rolando (Howell) came in off the bench and did well even after he had two early fouls.” . With 13:31 left in the second half, Petravicius and Howell had four fouls each, and over the next ten minutes, USC struggled to score. During that time, Tennessee outscored USC 22-8. The Gamecocks did not pan ic late, however, when Tennessee began to cut into the lead. USC scored on shots by Lucas and Tony Kitchings, and a breakaway dunk by Powell capped off the run and brought the crowd to its feet. Carolina looked to be in cruise control early, but in the last five minnfpQ nf thp first half thp Volunteers closed with a 10-3 run to cut the lead to eight. When USC got off to another quick start in the second half, Tennessee head coach Buzz Peterson received two technical fouls and was sent to the locker room for the remainder-of the game. It was Peterson’s first ejection as coach of the Volunteers. USC now heads into the final three weeks of the season looking to move its way up the SEC stand ings and hoping for an NCAA Tournament bid. The focus is now on sixth ranked Alabama, and the Gamecocks will try to get their first victory over a top 10 oppo nent this season. Tipoff for Wednesday’s game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Frank McGuire Arena. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@hottnail.com HHOI U BY KUBtK I liKUtN Carlos Powell slams home the finishing touch in USC's second victory over Tennessee In three weeks. Powell had 11 points and two steals on the night.