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12 Game.Sehedule SOFTBALL vs. Georgia, 4 p.m. WOMEN’S TENNIS vs. Marshall, 1 p.m. Pnntart I Ic - BASEBALL at Clemson, 7:15 p.m. UUIILdGL.Ua MEN’S AND WOMEN’S TRACK at S.C. State Story ideas? Questions? Comments? Championships in Columbia E-mail us at gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK Catcher Ashley Smith had one hit in each of USC’s games against No. 6 Georgia in Tuesday’s doubleheader. Softball splits doubleheader with Bulldogs BY BRAD SENKIW TIIK liAMKCOGK ■ The USC softball team faced one of the nation’s best last night and came away in pretty good shape heading into today. The No. 23 Gamecocks (20-13, 9-11 SEC) gained a split with No. 6 Georgia Bulldogs (36-8,13-4) by taking the first game 7-3 and belted 10 hits for the team’s fourth win over a top 25 opponent this season. Carolina wasn’t as offensive in the second game and dominating pitching doomed the Gamecocks as they fell 3-0. USC 7, Georgia 3 USC’s Meghan Cornett went 2 for-4 with an RBI as McKenna Hughes and Ashley Smith added a pair of RBIs each to blow by the Bulldogs 7-3. Stacey Johnson (12 4) picked up the win, giving up three earned runs on eight hits but got enough offense from her team mates to get the upset. Kasi Carroll pitched a complete game and moved to 8-3 on the year for Georgia. Carolina jumped out to an early first-inning lead when Smith hit a double to left field that brought home Nancy Crane and Cornett. Georgia cut the lead to 2-1 in the fifth inning after Julie Milner reached on a single to left. Melissa Cook came on to pinch run for Milner and scored two batters lat er on a double down the left field line by Nicole Barber. In the bottom half of the fifth in ning, the Gamecocks exploded for four runs to take a 6-1 lead. Cornett brought Melissa Sandel home with a single and an errant throw advanced her to second base and Crane to third. Hughes took advantage of run ners in scoring position and dropped a double to right field that scored two more runs. Hughes came home two batters later after a Samantha Jennings RBI single. Carolina added a run in the sixth inning on a sacrifice bunt by Crane that scored Chrissy Schoonmaker from third base. The Bulldogs got two runs in the top of the seventh by Barber, but it wasn’t enough to match the Gamecocks as they took the first game in the three-game series. Georgia 3, USC 0 Game two looked like a pitching battle for the first four innings and tinned into 3-0 series tying win for Georgia. The Gamecocks were shut down by Georgia’s Katie Griffith (14-2), who allowed only two hits, walked three and struck out 10 bat ters. Jennings and Smith recorded the only two hits for USC. Aleca Johnson (3-3) stifled the Georgia bats early, holding the Bulldogs hitless for the first four innings but gave up one run on one hit before being replaced by Melanie Henkes. Henkes gave up six hits and two runs in the final two innings. Georgia struck first in the fifth inning when Jade Jarvis hit a two-out triple to left center, scor ing Megan McAllister, who reached after being hit by a Johnson pitch. The Gamecocks answered in the bottom half of the inning by lining out and going down on back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning. Georgia added to its lead in the seventh inning to push ahead 3-0. Ashley Godfrey pinch hit with runners at the corners and one out, singling to right field. Milner scored on the play and Barber loaded the bases with a sin gle to left field on the next at bat. Then Katie Lewis reached first on a fielder’s choice, scoring Jarvis from third. Needing two runs in the final inning, USC came away with noth ing as it went down 1,2,3 to end the game. The Gamecocks finish off the series against UGA today at 4 p.m. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu Baseball journeys to Clemson to close out 8-game road tour BY WES WOLFE TIIK CAMKCOCK The No. 6 USC baseball team (23-5,4-5 SEC) will finish up its eight-game road swing tonight at Clemson (17-10,6-0 ACC), a team which has won nine of its last 10 games. The Gamecocks took the first two games of the season against the Tigers, a 5-2 win at home March 6 and an 8-7 victory in 10 innings at Clemson March 7. Even though Clemson has caught fire in the past two weeks, USC head coach Ray Tanner said the Tigers were just as good when Carolina played them a month ago. “I thought they were a good club the whole time,” Tanner said. “I know they had a couple bumps in the road early on, but they were a good club. We knew that, and they knew that and they were going to get it going. But I don’t think it matters anyway when you play. “You know, if we were under .500 and they were undefeated, when you play a rival it doesn’t matter.” Starting for USC in the game is Zac McCamie, who has a 2-0 record on the season and a 2.29 ERA with wins against Charleston Southern and Wofford. The two wins were also the only two games McCamie has started all season. “I am excited, honored, and happy to get the start against Clemson,” McCamie said. “I think of it as a great oppor tunity to show what I can do, to show Carolina fans that I can pitch. Hopefully I will do the best I can and get a win for our team.” Clemson is heading into the match-up with a full head of steam after sweeping ACC foes Wake Forest and Maryland, and taking both games against Georgia. Starting for Clemson will be Kris Harvey, who is 5-0 with a 3.13 ERA. Harvey’s last win was a 6-2 victory at Georgia, in which he pitched seven innings, allowing two runs while striking out sev en batters. Carolina will have to be able to put some runs on the Tiger pitch ing, since Clemson is averaging 8.9 runs and 12.5 hits a game in its last eight games. USC will have to beat Clemson, and the next few oppo nents, without the services of shortstop Steve Tolleson. The sophomore had surgery on his left knee on Tuesday to repair a small defect in his medial menis cus and is estimated to be out for two to four weeks. However, Tanner said that if the surgery reveals the problem to be more severe, Tolleson could be out for the year. Tolleson had 25 hits, two home runs and five stolen bases before being knocked out with what was first thought to be an aggra vation of an earlier hamstring injury. USC steps on the field against Clemson at 7:15 p.m. at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Carolina will return home this weekend for a three-game series with Florida. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu Spring.practice Football develops teamwork, continues emotional practices BY WES WOLFE TilK (JAMKCOCK The USC football team con tinued its string of emotional, high-energy practices Tuesday, assistant head coach Skip Holtz said. “Overall I thought it was a very emotional day, a lot of team work, a lot of excitement,” Holtz said. “I came in here, I believe it was after about the third prac tice, the first day in pads, and I said that if we go out and play with that kind of emotion every day, we’ll get better in the spring. “I thought today we had the same emotional intensity about it that we did at the very begin ning.” Holtz also said that all four quarterbacks, Dondrial Pinkins, Syvelle Newton, Mike Rathe and Blake Mitchell, are progressing well after their per formances in the first scrim mage of the year on Saturday. However, the best praise was saved for Newton, who has moved to quarterback from wide receiver. “I think that Syvelle Newton really showed up at that scrim mage, he did some very good things with his feet and he threw the ball very well,” Holtz said. “I believe he was four out of five throwing the ball, threw the ball accurately and really did a very nice job of running the football team.” In the scrimmage Saturday, the running game was the pri mary focus of the offensive plays, with 30 pass plays and 54 • running plays. The next scrim mage, set for Friday, will focus more on the passing game. Currently, Holtz is expecting to run passing situations like third down and eight yards, and two minute drills. “After today we’ll watch this film and see what we need to do, have our practice on Thursday and talk about what we need to do Friday,” Holtz said. “Obviously the passing game is going to be a point of emphasis we’re going to need to hit, just not for the quarterbacks, but for the o-line and pass protection, the wide receivers, for every body.” Last season, the Gamecocks never used the fullback posi tion, as the only person classi fied as a fullback on the roster played on the practice squad. Still, Holtz is impressed with the effort by converted full backs Brandon Schweitzer and Jaime Peters. tsranaon scnweitzer s real ly made an excellent adjustment to it; he’s done a very nice job,” Holtz said. “He’s very intelli gent, knows what he’s doing, knows the offense, knows where to go, he’s heady, he’s smart, he’s intelligent, he’s all those things. “Jaime Peters has shown some excellent promise. He’s big, he’s physical, he’s 252 pounds, I believe, right now.” The passing game and the running game should be of in terest to the fullbacks, though, only as far as the blocking as ♦ FOOTBALL, SEE PAGE 13 PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK Wide receiver Matthew Thomas goes up for a catch during practice Tuesday. The Spring Game is April 17 at 1 p.m. MLB’s attention finally on the field After one of the most eventful off-seasons in recent memory, America’s fa vorite pastime is ready to get ■jMH cranked up once again. With last weekend’s true opening game in Baltimore and this week’s ini JONATHAN tial contests, we HILLYARD finally get to First-year shut up about electronic steroids, unfair SK?” trades and all that mess and fo cus on a game that used to be top dog in our country. First of all, what in the world was MLB thinking when it decid ed to hold its first games in •Japan? Think about the premise of this. America’s favorite pas time is holding its “opening day” in a country that is largely re sponsible for the stoppage of the sport 60 years ago. It made me sick to my stomach that the first pitch of the season was thrown out at 5 a.m. when the entire country, save a couple thousand college students, was asleep. Does this really help the game of base ball? A colleague of mine called the Japanese openers “kind of like the Canadian baseball teams. They don’t really do anything to help the game.” OK, pushing the foreign-held opener aside, I am sick and tired of hearing about steroids. The lat est cry is from former pitcher Jack McDowell, who said that maybe Cubs pitcher Mark Prior is having nagging Achilles tendon injuries because of steroid use. Have you seen Mark Prior lately, Jack? The kid is tall and lanky. For some reason I don’t associate that with the juice. Oh, and how did Barry Bonds respond to all the BALCO and steroid outcries? He started his own Web site. Way to go Barry, because that’s going to clear everything up. Nothing will be settled until a player says screw the players unipn and takes the friggin’ test on national TV. By the way, Bonds hit juiced home run No. 649 Monday, bring ing him within one of his godfa ther Willie Mays: It was probably good for base ball that Alex Rodriguez, ar guably the game’s best player, was traded to a winning team. The Yankees on the other hand — well, let’s not go there. The truth is that the off-season moves made by not only the Yankees, but the Cubs, Astros, Red Sox, Angels and many others make for a very in teresting season. Watching the storylines unfold should be quite a treat. Can Andy Petite and Roger Clemens move their suc cess from the Big Apple to the most unsuccessful playoff team in history? The Astros sure hope so. Can the Cubs and the Red Sox fi nally get the monkeys off their backs? Can the new-look Braves (new look being a synonym for most likely overmatched) take home their 13th straight division title in the most unlikely of sea sons? The list of possible great sto ries is longer than it has been in recent memory. That being said, baseball needs a great season in the worst way. After a decade of players com plaining about money and now the press all over players every pill, the game is known for every thing but what happens on the field. As much as it made me want to hurl, Aaron Boone’s home run in extra innings in the ALCS last year was fantastic for baseball, be cause it brought the attention back to the field. That is some thing the game is sorely missing. We need the Boston and New York rivalry, we need Bonds’ quest for Hank Aaron’s record, and we need Greg Maddux’s chase for 300 wins. So as your fa vorite team takes the field for the first time this week, stop all the complaining, stop all the specu lation, and for the first time in years, enjoy what truly is America’s favorite pastime.