The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 02, 2004, Page 8, Image 8
8 Game.ScheduIe
MEN’S TENNIS vs. Ole Miss, 2 p.m.
WOMEN’S TENNIS at Ole Miss, 5 p.m.
Pnntart BASEBALL at Vanderbilt, 8 p.m.
OUII ldL»l WOMEN’S GOLF at Bryan National Intercollegiate
Story ideas? Questions? Comments? in Greensboro, N.C.
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Baseball
looking for
momentum
USC needs wins
in Vandy series
BY JOEL WALLACE
THE GAMECOCK
The USC baseball team travels
to the laqd of Vanderbilt this
weekend to engage the 25th
ranked Commodores in a three
game series.
The Gamecocks (21-4,2-4 SEC)
are ranked sixth in the county, but
that doesn’t mean very much if
they’re still at the bottom of the
SEC East after this weekend. USC
is 0-2 in conference series this
year, losing at home to LSU and
on the road to Arkansas.'If the
Gamecocks drop another one this
weekend, it could be a long road
back to the top.
TTCP xxrill non oomo ofortina
rotation it has the past two series,
with junior right-hander Billy
Buckner (4-0) taking the hill on
Friday. The Saturday starter will
be right-hander Aaron Rawl (5-1).
Southpaw Matt Campbell (5-1) fin
ishes up the weekend Sunday.
The Commodores (20-5,3-3) en
ter Friday’s contest riding a six
game winning streak and a 17-1
record at home. The more im
pressive streak, however, is the
Gamecocks’ 21 consecutive victo
ries over Vandy, dating back to
1997. USC also leads the all-time
series 33-6.
Vanderbilt’s rotation for the
weekend opens with Jeremy
Sowers (4-1), followed by Jensen
Lewis (4-0) Saturday and Ryan
Mullins (3-1) Sunday.
The Gamecocks hope they can
continue to count on outfielder
Michael Campbell’s colossal con
tributions on offense. The sopho
more was named Louisville
Slugger National Player of the
Week for his performances last
week. He hit five home runs in
four games and drove in 10 runs
whild'going 8-for-16 at the plate
with six runs scored.
His three home runs against
Wofford tied a school record as the
Gamecocks easily dispatched the
Terriers, 12-1.
The USC-UNC game scheduled
for Wednesday night was post
poned until May 11 because of
rain. The Battle of the Border
would have pitted the sixth
ranked Gamecocks against the
20th-ranked Tar Heels.
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teams has grown tremendously
over the past two seasons, as the
Gamecocks have been the team
that ended the Tar Heels’ season
and, consequently, their hopes of a
berth in the College World Series.
Ticket holders should hang on
to their stubs, as they will be hon
ored when the game is made up at
Charlotte Knight* Stadium in Fort
MiU.
USC starts the series with
Vandy at 8 p.m. Friday. The
Saturday game, scheduled for 3
p.m., will be televised on Fox
Sports Net with Dave Neal and
Larry Conley in the booth.
Sunday’s finale will begin at 2
p.m.
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu
PHOTO BY MARK SCHILUNG/THE GAMECOCK
Arik Hempy pitches against LSU. Hempy has a 2.13 ERA and allowed four hits this season.
Halfway
between
heaven
and hell
A
We’re at the halfway point \
on the calendar between the
hideous end of the last foot
ball season and the slightly
less hideous beginning of next
seaspn. The scars of the
Clemson “incident” have fad
ed but will always remain.
It seems
like only
yesterday I
walked de
spairingly
all the way
from the sta
dium to my
dorm in full
STEVEN USC march
VAN HAREN ing band
Second-year gear, elec
mechanical t = b =
engineering trie Dass in
student hand. J
Spring "
training re
pui nave icnimucu uie ui uux
football team’s very existence
and pushed this abysmal
November memory to the fore
front of my mind. The passage
of time softened the blow, but
the very idea of the 2004 season
kickoff makes me undeniably
nervous. It’s five months away,
but that’s a long gun barrel to
stare down. I quiver with fear
when I think about how many
games we’ll come down to a
field goal and how many times
we’ll choke like Tennessee
Williams on the bottle cap of
life.
So how are we doing months
later? The team is healthy, but
it has a few injuries from^
spring practice: two wide re
ceivers are out for not being
“wide” enough; Jimmy the
towel boy is out after blotting
up too many kicking-game
messes; and head coach Lou
♦ VAN HAREN, SEE PAGE 9
USC alumnus launches Web site against columnist
Gamecock fan
says Ron Morris
should be fired
BY JONATHAN HILLYARD
THE OAMECOCK
At approximately 11 a.m.
Wednesday morning, USC grad
uate and Columbia resident
Wally McLendon launched a
Web site — not to get a sports
coach fired, but a sports colum
nist.
On his Web site, McLendon ac
cuses Ron Morris, a sports colum
nist for The State newspaper, of
writing columns biased against
Gamecock head football coach Lou
Holtz and the USC football pro
gram. The site,
www.FireRonMorris.net, had
more than 4,000 hits after approx
imately 31 hours.
McLendon is urging the news
paper’s subscribers to cancel
their subscriptions immediate
ly
“It’s offensive to me that I can’t
subscribe to my hometown paper,
because'they trash coach Holtz in
there constantly and I feel like I
can’t support
that,” he said. “I
am just one
Gamecock fan that
had enough and
couldn’t take any
more.”
Morris says he
has no such grudge
-t_±- TTnlin
gram, but it is his job to voice his
opinion, no matter how unpopu
lar it might be.
“I don’t have a vendetta
against Lou Holtz, and I have stat
ed numerous times that I think
Lou has done any number of great
things for the
football pro
gram and the
university
since he’s been
here, hot the
least of which is
give the pro
gram unprece
1 ”
UV111VU 1UA11U11U1 I, VVUgimiVit,
Morris said in a phone interview
with The Gamecock.
“To believe that I have some
sort of personal vendetta against
him is a little far-fetched.”
McLendon, a 1993 USC gradu
ate, has been living in Columbia
“I am just one
Gamecock fan that had
enough and couldn’t
take anymore.”
WALLY MCLENDON
FOUNDER OFWWW.FIRERONMORRIS.NET
C-i-T-11 ~_ A~.~4.~A ~ ~4-i ~~ ~
for approximately five years and
claims to have been a subscriber
to The State for about 13 years. On
his Web site, McLendon claims a
column Morris wrote prior to the
football program’s signing day was
aimed toward repelling recruits
from USC and was placed above a
story of greater importance.
“The Panthers had just beat
en the Rams to advance to the
NFC Championship, and their
placement was below Ron
Morris, and that is unaccept
able,” McLendon said. “I felt like
the timing of the article was in
tentional to be right before the
signing day.”
Morris denies the claim that his
column was used as a tool to hurt
USC’s recruiting class and says he
was simply doing his job. f
“The column was written at a
time that was shortly after the
bowl season in the wake of all the
firings. So the purpose of the col
umn was that Lou Holtz had a
mess on his hands, and at that
time he did,” Morris said of his
Jan. 10 column. “I wasn’t going to
wait till after recruiting, because I
am not in the business of helping
♦ WEBSITE, SEE PAGE 9
PHOTO BY JOHNNY HAYNES/THE GAMECOCK
Stacey Johnson fell to 9-4 in a loss to Tennessee on Tuesday, giving up seven hits in the game.
Carolina aims for improvement
in SEC series against Kentucky
BY WES WOLFE
THE OAMECOCK
The No. 23 USC softball team
has gone through a rough stretch
and will try to rebound in the
Gamecocks’ home series with
Kentucky this weekend.
Carolina should have a solid
chance at winning its first SEC se
ries of the season, considering the
Wildcats haven’t exactly been suc
cessful against conference oppo
nents this season.
Kentucky is 4-14 against other
SEC schools this season, with an
overall 18-18-1 record. USC, while
having trouble thus far against
conference foes, has still managed
a 6-9 mark in the SEC and an over
all 17-11 record, winning the series
against Mississippi and sweeping
Arkansas. The only real trouble
for Carolina has come in the last
two series, which were swept by
Auburn and Tennessee.
Once again, though, the
Gamecocks shouldn’t fret, com
pared to the Wildcats. Kentucky
was also swept by Tennessee, in ad
dition to dropping all three games
of the series against Georgia. UK
hasn’t had the opportunity to get
swept by Auburn yet, as the
Wildcats play the Tigers at the end
of the season. Also, if it weren’t for
Kentucky, USC would be in last
place in the SEC East.
One of the pitchers Carolina is
likely to face over
the weekend is
sophomore Amy
Kendall, the 2002
Miss Softball in
Indiana. Kendall
led Kentucky in
every statistical
category last sea
son but has
struggled this
year, posting a 7
UKat 10 mark in 25 ap
n ij pearances.
vsdrUIIIld Kendall also has
1 p.rn. a 2.99 ERA over
Saturday 105.1 innings
Beckham pitched. She al
Field lowed one hit
and struck out
_ one batter in six
innings, allow
ing no runs against Eastern
Kentucky on Wednesday.
All USC pitchers — Stacey
Johnson, Melanie Henkes and
Aleca Johnson — have an ERA
lower than Kendall’s. Johnson,
who has pitched only 17 fewer in
nings than Kendall, has allowed 39
fewer runs and 37 fewer earned
runs. To become equal with
Kendall’s performance, Johnson
would have to allow a little over
two and one-quarter runs an in
ning in each of her next 17 innings.
Johnson has also struck out 11
more batters than Kendall while
facing fewer people at the plate.
Johnson, who is likely to pitch
this weekend, has a 0.64 ERA over
88 innings with a 9-4 record. Also,
out of the pitchers on both teams,
Johnson is the only one not to have
given up a home run this season.
Henkes will probably also see
action this weekend but has by far
allowed the most runs on the team
with 34 — including 24 earned
runs — going into the series with
a 2.88 ERA over 58 innings.
Carolina will start the Saturday
doubleheader against Kentucky at
1 p.m. in Columbia at Beckham
Field; the second game is set to
start at 3 p.m. The final game of the
series will be Sunday at 1 p.m.
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gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu