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« & "1—\ “|—\ rri Game.Sehedule I ll I I 1 ill W 1 MEN’S SWIMMING in NCAA Championship' Contact. Us I—I I I—^ I at Long Island, N.Y., Thursday Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I vvlllkl MEN’S-TENNIS at Tennessee, 2 p.m. Friday E-mailusatgamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu ■ B ^ / WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Tennessee, 2 p.m. Friday USC baseball tames Terriers, moves to 20-2 ® Right-fielder Michael Campbell knocks three home runs in victory BY STEPHEN DEMEDIS THE HAMECOCK Michael Campbell hit three home runs as the No. 4 USC men’s baseball team (20-2,1-2 SEC) got back on track with a 12-1 win over Wofford after dropping two of three games this weekend to the visiting LSU Tigers. Junior pitcher Zac McCamie pitched seven innings and struck out eight on the way to his second victory of the year. Junior Chad Blackwell got credit for the save as he held off a Terrier offensive late in the ninth inning. Campbell opened the scoring in the second with a solo shot to right centerfield. Carolina increased their lead to 3-0 in the third. With A__A. Al. •_3 1_riA__ wuio, uiuu uuocmau Pearce scored on a home run to left field by outfielder Brendan Winn. The next batter was Campbell, and he followed up Winn’s homer with his second of the game. Wofford got on the board in the bottom of the third, narrowing the score to 4-1 on an RBI double by Zach Pittman. McCamie worked his way out of the inning by catch ing the last two batters looking. The Terriers had threatened in the first inning as their leadoff man reached third before the in ning ended on an infield fly belli. • The Gamecocks added two more in the fifth inning when Hank Parks singled to left center, scoring catcher Landon Powell and Campbell. Carolina put the game away in the seventh inning as they scored four more runs. Campbell hit his third of the game, driving in three. Later in the inning, Steven Reinhold came off the bench and scored on an error. In the eighth inning, USC added two more runs, bringing the score to 12-1. Powell drove in Pearce with a double to left field. Campbell drove in yet another run on a single, bringing Powell in from second. In the bottom of the ninth, the Terriers put men on second and third, but were unable to drive them in as the game ended on a strikeout. USC reached several mile stones during the game. With his three home runs. CamDbell be came the ninth player in USC his tory to accomplish the feat and the first since Bryon Jeffcoat hit three in a 21-8 win at Clemson in 2001. Campbell finished the game 5-for 5 with six RBI, a career high. Powell, the senior captain, had two hits on the day to extend his hitting streak to 18 games, one of which was his 10th double of the year, moving him to second on the USC All-Time career list with 54 doubles. Carolina continues with its SEC schedule this weekend with a three-game series at Arkansas. The Gamecocks are in the midst of a nine-game road swing, which began with last night’s game against Wofford. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Guard Ernest Shelton celebrates during the NCAA Tournament. PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECO'CK Third baseman Steve Pearce had one hit and three runs during USC’s 12-1 victory over Wofford Tuesday. Bama, Vandy aspire to reach Final Four \ BY WES WOLFE THE (JAMECOCK On the whole, the SEC hasn’t fared well in the NCAA Tournament, with four out of six conference teams losing in the first two rounds. However, two unassuming SEC squads, Alabama and Vanderbilt, have made their way into the Sweet 16 and within striking distance of the Final Four. The success has a twist, though — if both teams win their Sweet 16 games, they will meet each oth er in the Elite Eight of the tourna ment. The Crimson Tide (19-12) reached the coveted Regional Semifinals of the Phoenix brack et by squeaking past a tough No. 9 seed Southern Illinois team and then shocking No. 1 seed Stanford (30-2) in the second round. “We feel like we can go all the way,” guard Antoine Pettway said to the Birmingham Post Herald. “I ain’t hearing nothing different. Don’t tell me nothing different.” Bama was only the second team to beat this season, but the Tide have a yeoman’s task ahead of them as they try to advance past the Sweet 16 for the first time in the history of the program. Indeed, this year’s Sweet 16 appearance it self was a major victory for Alabama, which hadn’t made it that far in the NCAA Tournament since 1991. No. 5 seed Syracuse (23-7) should present some problems for the upstart Tide squad, as the Orangemen are the defending na tional champions and have won eight consecutive NCAA Tournament games. “I know Hakim Warrick is one of the best forwards in the nation, and Gerry McNamara is a deadly shooter, and we have to get to those two guys,” forward Chuck Davis said to the Birmingham Post-Herald. “I realize they’re a great team — they have one of the better zones in the nation. We re ally have to scout them well and work on their zone.” ♦ SEC, SEEPAGE 12 NBA flounders in post-Jordan swill As Kobe Bryant buys soap-on-a rope, the NBA will move on with out him. Even with Bryant, it will always remain a boring vessel without a polar izing, Jordan-es que presence. But there’s so much to laugh at as the league neaus into me n STEVEN nal stretch be VAN HAREN fore the play offs. second-year Whining thugs mechanical like Allen esZmtnn8 “Filthy and Rich” Iverson will continue to wear diamond-en crusted sneakers and drink liquid platinum. Somewhere, Shaq’s blood sugar will continue its steady rise as he gobbles Nestle Crunch bars pretending they are tiny peo ple from Orlando. The NBA is boring, at least in this part of the country. Charlotte provided NBA action an hour away until last year, when George Shinn, a.k.a. Uncle Moneybags, pitched the Hornets to Louisiana for $5 and a basket of peaches. I re member when the Hornets soared awkwardly on the shoulders of Robert Parish, good ol’ double zero. The league is missing mid dle-aged dinosaurs like Parish who take shots of Metamucil with their grandchildren. I would take Parish any day over Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James. They’re good, but these young guns would wet their jerseys in front of the older-than time-itself Parish. Let’s have some fun and pick these young guns’ possible future endorsements, because it’s not enough to get millions of dollars playing a game. In Shaq’s steps, Carmelo will take the candy bar route and en dorse Caramello. He’ll pose and perform in a staged pick-up game with some hungry space alien and attribute his win to the power of condensed sugar. His face will flinch uncomfortably as he at tempts a dramatic reading of the word “delicious.” LeBron will pick the esteemed route of Brawny paper towel com mercials. He’ll dab some kid’s bloody knee and exclaim, “Hi, I’m LeBron James, and I heartily en dorse these paper towels. They’re LeBrawny! Now give me your money, you hard-working stiffs. I know, I know;, I play in Cleveland. Ever drank from Lake Erie? That’s how I got so good at book learnin’ and stuff." , How a$e the Hornets faring in the Big Easy? Nominally, at best. Why did New Orleans have to re tain Charlotte’s mascot when it clearly doesn’t fit? Shinn cajoled them with some peach cobbler and a wad of laundered money. Regardless, the city should have picked a better mascot. Imagine the fear that would creep into a team’s jockstraps playing the New Orleans Balcony Flashers. Imagine taking on the New Orleans Homeless Saxophone Players. Imagine holding your nose while wrangling with the New Orleans Frenchmen. The Hornets are just one of the ♦ NBA, SEE PAGE 12 T"rN()t • Horsing ■—Around USC student athlete rides on her ability to excel in school, on track BY JONATHAN HILLYARD THK CAMKCOCK • Sophomore equestrian standout Courtney Borton has been riding horses since birth — literally. The Bridgeton, N.J., native has pictures in her home of her on a horse on her • w&y home from the hospital in her first days of existence. _ Now a 19-year-old student athlete, Borton says she juggles ath letics and academics just as a football, basketball or baseball star would. “It’s a lot of time juggling and a lot of work,” Borton said. “We practice during the day so you have to work your schedule around practice time and still get in 15 hours of school, not to mention home: work.” , Outside the barn, Borton is a print journalism student and hopes to one day work for USA Today, where she will intern this summer. Inside the fences, Borton competes in events such as western horsemanship and reigning. Horsemanship is judged on the rider’s ability to control the horse and make the animal do what the rider wants it to. In the reigning competitions, the riding patterns are more technical and include more sliding stops, spins and circles. Judging in the reigning competition is a little more focused on the horse, but still takes the control of Jhe rider into serious considera tion. Riders draw for what horse they will ride the day before the Not only does Borton excel in academics, but she has also proved herself time and again in her sport as one of the best in the nation. In 2003 she racked up wins all over the country in places such as Kansas City, Mo.; Venice, Fla.; and Baton Rouge, La., along with many oth- • ers. In fact, Borton was so successful she ended last year as high point Western Pleasure rider in the United States with approxi mately 225 points. Wanting to get away from the cold winters of New Jersey that prevented her from riding, Borton’s decision to come to USC was based largely on the weather. She chose the school over Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Miami. “I narrowed it down to UK and USC and went and visited both places,” Borton said. “I just fell in love with the campus and knew it was the right place for me. ” The equestrian program is certainly glad she chose USC, as the western team just capped off an outstanding season. The season was highlighted by two wins over Auburn, Kansas State and a shock ing victory over Georgia, which Borton said she is most proud of. “Georgia was the national champions last year, and to beat them made me very proud of our whole program,” she said. As far as propelling her sport to the next level, Borton thinks pub licity is definitely the key to success. “We hear things all the time like, ‘We have an equestrian team?’ and we need to boost the coverage a little bit more,” she said. “We had a lot more people out there this year than last year, so things are getting better.” Borton and the rest of the equestrian team will now look to turn their regular season success into postseason success as they head into the Southern Equestrian Tournament next weekend. Following that event, the Varsity Equestrian Championships will be the final event for the Gamecock riders before Nationals in early May. Comments on this story?E-mailgamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu p\ ■ r i cneTiy USC’s Crane earns player of the week The SEC’s Softball Player of the Week honor for the week ending on March 21 was given to USC’s senior outfielder Nancy Crane on Monday. After batting an impressive .636 dur ing the week, Crane became the second USC softball player to receive the award this sea son. In USC’s three-game sweep of Arkansas, Crane scored the winning run in Carolina’s 2-1 victory and batted in four of the six runs in Sunday’s come from-behind victory. Two of her RBI scored the tying and winning runs for USC. She fin ished the game with five RBI in 11 plate appearances. USC’s Samantha Jennings was honored in February of this year. This marks the sixth time a Gamecock has received the honor. Men’s soccer hires coach, holds clinic The USC men’s soccer team has announced that it will play host to a free soccer clinic for children age 5 to 15 from 6-7 p.m. April 2. The clinic will be held before the USC Spartanburg soccer game, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. The team has also an nounced the rest of its spring schedule, which includes games against Lander on Friday at 6:30 p.m., the Aiken Fire on Sunday at 6 p.m., at Winthrop on April 9 at 7 p.m., at Charlotte on April 16 at 6 p.m. and at home versus the USC soccer alumni on April 24 at 2 p.m. The team announced also Tuesday that Bert Moliaary will be USC’s newest assistant coach. Molinary comes to USC ■ from Hampden-Sydney College, where he served as head coach. Head coach Mark ; Berson said that he will work ; in all areas of the program, in eluding recruiting, adminis- ; tration and player develop ment. Men’s golf finishes strong at tourney Led by back-to-back under par rounds by junior Alex Hamilton, the USC men’s golf team recorded another im- ' pressive showing, finishing third at the Schenkel E-Z-GO Invitational last weekend. The tournament, held at Forest Heights Country Club in Statesboro, Ga., featured 13 teams in GolfStat’s top 50 rank- Z ings and was held at Georgia USC finished with a score of 871, behind the No. 1 Florida Gators at 859 and the No. 3 - Georgia Bulldogs at 869. Rounding out the top five of the ^ tournament was Duke in ' fourth place and Augusta State in fifth place. Hamilton finished with a score of 216, good enough for - a tie for 10th place in the indi- ^ vidual standings. Second and third rounds of 68 and 70 ’ vaulted him 22 spots in the * rankings from the first to the third day. Winning the tour- * nament was Matt Every of Florida, followed by Wake ‘ Forest’s Bill Haas, Georgia’s'." Chris Kirk and Duke’s Nathan “ Smith. ‘ ~ For the Gamecocks, Eirik Johansen finished in a tie for 17th, Martin Rominger and Robert Svensson finished in a tie for 25th and Jake Thompson finished in a tie for 47th.