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• 17 • GAME SCHEDULE nmTmAnm tto SOFTBALL at Coastal Carolina (DH), 4 p.m.Wednesday CaUJN 1 A(j 1 U BASEBALL at Wofford, 7 p.m. Wednesday ' ' EQUESTRIAN at IHSA Nationals, Story ideas? Questions? Comments? tn Murfreesboro, Tenn., Friday to Sunday E-mail us at gamecocksports@hotmail.com BASEBALL vs. Kentucky, 7 p.m. Friday Carolina to face Wofford Jr %SC at Wofford 7 p.m. tonight Duncan Field BY BRAD SENKIW THE UAMECOCK USC baseball head coach Ray Tanner takes his team on anoth er road game tonight as they vis it the Wofford Terriers (8-31) in Spartanburg for the final game of the three-game season series. The Gamecocks (28-16) are coming off a series loss to Ole Miss last weekend, and Tanner said the team did win one game and was able to get some good things done but that the Rebels proved to be too much, especially "unday. “(Chris) Hernandez has had three good pitching performances in a row,” Tanner said. “He did everything he could do to help us win, but Stephen Head was just a little bit better.” Carolina is looking for a series sweep against the Terriers after romping them 29-4 March 19 and 7-1 April 16, both times in Columbia. In the first game, Conor Lalor picked up his fourth straight win, and four Gamecocks hit home runs, with Brian Buscher knocking two balls out of the park. Wofford’s Blake Timanus and Scott Holloway each picked up a pair ofRBIs. In the second game of the se ries, Lalor nabbed another victo ry and Buscher hit a two-run home run to give the Gamecocks the win. Tanner said that just because USC has been able to score against Wofford in the past, his team is not overlooking this road game. “We’re going to play at then place, and on the road, it’s en tirely different. We’re going to approach this game like it’s the last game of the season,” Tanner said. Matt Campbell, who will start on the mound, is coming off his second-longest outing of the sea son in the 5-1 win against UNC Asheville April 22. Campbell (2-3) pitched seven innings, allowing only one run on seven hits with six strikeouts. Campbell was pleased with the way he threw against UNC-Asheville but wants to see improvement against the Terriers and thinks a good per formance will help down the road. “I just want to come out and be consistent, get ahead of the bat ters, throw a lot of strikes, mix all my pitches for strikes and basi cally just help the team get a win,” Campbell said. “I think I’m going to play a big role coming up here in the next few weeks and this is will be a good outing for me to get all my pitches going again. I hope I get another start in a big game,” he said. In other news from the Dwlwfal 78MS40 rInsurance tilc rnu i d i ivi«r\r\ ov^niLLii'io/ i nt onmr\ Brian Buscher has six hits in two games against Wofford this season. Buscher and Carolina will head to Spartanburg tonight to play the final game of the season series with the Terriers. bullpen, right-handed sopho more Aaron Rawl was cleared by team doctors and started throw ing on Monday. Rawl has been out since the March 23 game against Tennessee, when he broke a finger on his throwing hand after slamming it into the dugout wall. Tanner is unsure when Rawl will return, but it’s possible that he could see some time against Wofford. Tanner also thinks the pitch ing staff is beginning to come to gether. “With Rawl coming back and Hernandez elevating his game, if we can get Matt Campbell a little bit better than he has been, it’s go mg to make us even better for the last three-conference series left,” Tanner said. The Wofford Terriers are coming off a series loss in which they dropped two of three at the Virginia Military Institute this past weekend and have won only twice in the past nine games. Steve Casey is hitting .326 with five home runs and 20 RBIs, while Timanus is leading the team with six home runs and 30 RBIs. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start at Duncan Field. The Gamecocks will conclude the SEC season with a series at home against Kentucky this weekend, followed by a series at Alabama on May 9. The season fi nale will come against Georgia in a three-game series on May 16 at Sarge Frye Field. Tanner said winning the SEC Eastern Division is still up in the air and that anything could hap pen. “I’d like to go out and do what we can do on the field and take care of business,” he said, “but it’s hard to tell. The way the race has been, it’ll go down to the last game.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@hotmail.com Gamecocks take two from the Rebels BY TRAVIS BOLAND THE GAMECOCK The 18th-ranked USC softball team concluded SEC play over the weekend taking two out of three games from the Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford, Miss. A sweep of the Rebels would have put USC in a tie atop the SEC Eastern Divison, but instead, the Gamecocks are a half-game ahead of the Florida Gators for second place. Both Florida and Georgia still have a three-game SEC series remaining their schedules. Game 1: USC 6 - Miss. 2 In the series opener on Saturday, the Gamecocks (36-15, 18-10 SEC) capitalized on six Rebel errors to win 6-2. Meghan Cornett gave Carolina a 1-0 lead in the sec ond inning, scoring on an error. The Gamecocks put another run on the board in the fourth when Nancy Crane scored on an Amber Curtis single. Curtis went 3-for-5 on the day for Carolina. USC broke the game open with a three-run fifth inning. Danielle Quinones hit her sixth home run of the season, a two-run shot, and Cornett hit a double to score pinch runner Samantha Jennings to go up 5-0. Carolina closed its scoring in the seventh inning when Melissa Sandel scored on a single by Crane. Ole Miss would get on the board with two solo home runs in the seventh, one to DeDe Justice and one to Rebecca Mclntire. Stacey Johnson (16-7) threw six shutout innings, striking out sev en and walking none. Aleca Johnson surrendered the Rebels’ runs, and Melanie Henkes came on to record her second save of the season. Ole Miss pitcher Dana Brill, who took the loss, allowed three runs on 10 hits. Game 2: USC1 - Miss. 0 The second game of the dou bleheader was a pitchers duel be tween Henkes and the Rebels’ Leslie Day. But Henkes and the Gamecocks were able to prevail 1-0 on a Kristin Hall home run in the seventh inning. Henkes (16-3) pitched a com plete game shutout, striking out three and walking four while al lowing only four hits. The Gamecocks had their chances to score early, but left runners in scoring position in the second, fifth and sixth innings. Ole Miss’ best opportunity to score was in the fifth when Megan Kozar grounded out with two run ners on base to end the inning and the threat. The only run of the game came in the seventh, when Hall came up with two outs and blasted her second home run of the season. Game 3: Miss.2-USCl The Gamecocks dropped the series’ third game 2-1 to Ole Miss on Sunday, despite getting eight hits to the Rebels’ two. The Rebels jumped on Henkes in the first inning as they loaded the bases with one out. Andrea Brahs hit a sacrifice fly, which brought Brooke Turner in for the first run, and Justice scored Ole Miss’ second run on a double steal. Carolina pulled within one run in the second, when Cornett scored on Hall single. The Gamecocks had a chance ♦ SOFTBALL, SEE PAGE 18 West Coast meets Southeast California girls lead Gamecock softball during their final seasons ^Y MATT ROTHENBERG THE GAMECOCK The song may claim that Carolina girls are the best in the world, but for USC’s softball team, it’s three California girls in their senior seasons who are lead- uiUM ing tne Gamecocks this year. Third base man Danielle Quinones and second base man Debralee Troesh are hav ing breakout years for USC, while center fielder Jodi Fittro is having another fj)lid season in the garnet and black. Despite all com ing from the sunny PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE N GAMECOCK Danielle Quinones is the top hitter on the Gamecock softball team with a .346 batting average and 16 doubles. > shores of southern California, dif ferent paths have led the trio to South Carolina, and each has found everyday life here to be quite unlike that which they came from. Of the three, Quinones and Fittro were me most iamii iar with each other be fore coining to USC. A Living only about an jml hour apart — Quinones in La jP Puente and Fittrn in fetaM Riverside — the two ™ crossed paths every weekend at games in I their local softball league. Although they weren’t friends at the time, the two W^, would gfift eventual ly have to ^^3 P^ find some V ^ common ® ground. ■T::; "We didn’t H| like each other. We had fHJj heard rumors about each wB ■ other,” Fittro said. “So U we were scared to come here our freshman ■ Bk year and be room- ^ mates because we ■■ml thought we weren't go ing to get along. It turned out the oppo site.” It sure did — the two have been “ roommates for four years. For Troesh, it went a little differently. She arrived at USC in the previous recruit ing class to join her older sister, Leanna Troesh, on the softball team. Debralee Troesh, y/ho hails from Santa Maria, between three and four hours from Los Angeles, said that playing on tne same team with k her sister was a A big influence in choosing to H|come to RCandhu. »y 1 l°ved t™' playing with her in high l school, and to have the opportunity to play with her in a Division I school at college I thought would be a great op f - portunity, johnnyBY saidTroesh, HAVNES/THE who WaS GAMECOCK , , . . , i redshirted Troesh her first broke the yearatUSC. USC “It did have single- a big influ season ence on me record for coming home runs here.” with 10 Although this year, they come from the west uoast, tne tnree nave accli mated well to life in the southeast ern United States. Quinones noted that the South is just the “total op posite of California” and “the peo ple and attitudes are different,” and the others agree. “It’s a totally different envi ronment here, and I think that has been the greatest thing that’s ly didn’t pay too much attention happened to me — to grow as a to offense. Now I’m working on person individually,” Troesh the tees a lot and critiquing my said. swing and having coach critique Fittro said: “If you drive by (a it,” she said. nouse > and some one’s sitting out side, they’ll just wave. They’ll say hi. They go out of their way to make friends with you.” But on the softball di- A amond, it doesn’t mat ter where you come from, as long as you can play, and these three Gamecocks are proving it day in and day out. Quinones leads the team with a .346 batting average and 16 doubles, while Troesh has 10 home runs — enough to nttro saia mat ner jod as me second batter in the order is to move the runners around, some thing that is apparent in her sac >. riflce hit total. Alter undergoing surgery in the sum mer, Troesh built up muscle strength and practiced hit ting off a tee to in crease her pow ■ . . .. r PHbTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/ THE GAMECOCK Pitcher Jodi Flttro has started nearly every game during her career as a Gamecock. in me ian, all I could do was work on the tee, and I got down to | the fun damen tals and all the little things you have to do to hit,” she said. break the single season record at USC. Fittro is batting a solid .255 and 16 sacrifice hits to go along with a perfect fielding percentage. She has also had some pop in her bat, with four round-trippers this year, and has started nearly ev ery game she’s played here. For Quinones, who’s hopped from position to position over the last few seasons, she says a change in her work ethic and me chanics at the plate have helped her. “I focused on defense and real “This is the strongest I have been, and I think that has a big influ ence.” The people that have had a bigger influence on them, though, are their parents. Each said how her parents used to wake up early to bring her to and from practices or games. From fund raising to traveling to doing just about any thing else to help them, the par ents did plenty, and each player is thankful for her parents’ ef ♦ SENIORS, SEE PAGE 18 Here's Rothy's top 11 events MATT ROTHENBERG GAMECOCKSPORTS@HOTMAIL.COM Great USC moments during the past 4 years. Well, this is it: my last column in The Gamecock. Unlike other people, I’m not going to bore you with what I’ve learned here at USC or how I’ve changed or what’s made me more disillu sioned than I was when I first came here. You don’t want to read it or care about it, and I don’t want to write it. Instead,Tm going to thrill you with what I believe to be the 11— no, not 10, but 11 — greatest mo ments in USC athletics since the fall of 1999. You still might not care, and moreover, you might disagree with my picks. You’re entitled to that, but I’m going to ignore it. Anyway, without fur ther ado, here are some of the greatest moments in USC athlet ics to occur within the past four academic years: 11. APRIL 20,2002 - Upset on the courts. The women’s tennis team shocks the No. 1-seeded and nationally top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs 4-2 in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament in Columbia. 10. APRIL 21, 2002 Gamecocks dominate the links. USC’s women’s golf team shoots a two-over 290 in the final round of the SEC Tournament to claim its first conference championship. Kristy McPherson adds to the honors by winning her second straight individual title. 9. MAY 14, 2000 - USC wins SEC title. Joyce McMillin comes home with the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of the SEC championship game as the Gamecock softball team defeats LSU1-0 to notch its second conference title in four years. 8. NOV. 22, 2002-The Carolina Center opens. 17,712 fans — the most to watch a basketball game in the history of the state of South Carolina — pack the brand new Carolina Center for its first sporting event. Many stay to see the women’s basketball team defeat Clemson for the first time since the 1994-95 season. 7. SEPT. 23, 2000 - The Fade. Those two words will never, ever escape Erik Kimrey. Kimrey came off the bench against Mississippi State and convinced everyone he could throw the fade, connecting with Jermale Kelly for what proved to be the game-winning score in a 23-19 USC football win. D. JMN. 1, ZUUZ — i neiUCK. Daniel Weaver’s leg boots USC to its second straight Outback Bowl victory over Ohio State. Weaver kicks a 42-yard field goal as time expires to give Carolina the edge against the Buckeyes. 5. THE 2001-02 WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON - There are too many great moments from this season to select from, so let’s just say the whole season. USC proved it belonged with big wins over teams like Duke and UNC, ending the season with a top ten ranking and a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. 4. NOV. 17, 2001-Finally! With a 20-15 win over Clemson at Williams-Brice Stadium, the Gamecocks win their first home game against the Tigers since 1987. Corey Jenkins scored the game-winning touchdown early in the fourth quarter, and USC held on for the win. 3. SEPT. 2,2000 - The night they tore the goalposts down. With a 31-0 victory over New Mexico State, the Gamecock football team ended its 21-game losing streak and gave Lou Holtz ♦ R0THENBERG, SEE PAGE 18