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10 THE GAMECOCK * Friday, April 16, 2004 GaiTie.SChedUle ~~M "V 'V ril f NJ MEN’S TENNIS at Arkansas, 2 p.m. ■ M \ fl I [ I 1 L 1 BASEBALL at Kentucky, 6:30 p.m. ContactUs Ml Ik \ ““SSSS Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I 1 W I 1 111 WOMEN’S GOLF in SEC Championships E-mailusatgamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu B V_>/ B B ' in Baton Rouge, La. ... . Baseball to battle Kentucky USC at Kentucky 7 p.m. Friday Lexington, Ky. TV: None BY WES WOLFE THE GAMECOCK The No. 6 USC baseball team (25-8,6-6 SEC) limps to Lexington, Ky., this weekend after being shel lacked by archrival Clemson at home Wednesday, 13-5. If the Gamecocks are going to beat Kentucky (17-15,3-9), they are going to have to improve their pitching. In a combined two and two-thirds innings against Clemson on Wednesday, Jason Fletcher and Zac McCamie gave up a combined 12 hits, 10 runs and two walks in 20 at-bats. However, Carolina will have its weekend rotation on the mound, which should help limit the Wildcats’ offensive output. Also, history is with USC, as the Gamecocks have won the last 10 contests with UK and have taken 13 of the last 14 games. USC will look for some relief at pitcher from right-hander Billy Buckner (4-1) tonight. Buckner has a 3.02 ERA, allowing 43 hits and 18 earned runs in 53 and two thirds innings pitched. If Buckner has a problem, it’s walks, as’he has walked 14 batters on the year, the most of any Carolina pitcher. Fortunately for the Gamecocks, he also leads the team in strikeouts ' with 70. LeftyJVlatt Campbell (5-1) will start Saturday’s game, sporting a 2.50 ERA. Campbell’s last credited game was a 10-2 victory in the rub ber game against Arkansas March 28. In that game, Campbell pitched all nine innings, allowing five hits, two unearned runs and two walks, along with striking out six batters. The starter on Sunday will be righty Aaron Rawl, who has a 6-2 record and a 4.22 ERA on the year. Rawl’s season stats would cause some to ponder his ability on the hill as a reliable starter, but a closer examination reveals that Rawl is usually spot-on for the Gamecocks, with the only slip being at Clemson April 7. Rawl entered the game in the sixth inning and left in the sev enth inning, giving up four earned runs and one unearned run in just an inning and one-third. If you take out that one appearance in relief, Rawl’s ERA drops to 3.71. The Carolina batters will be up against a Kentucky pitching staff that has been through 10 losses in 13 games, allowing opposing teams to drop double-digit run totals in four of those games. UK has only won one of its four SEC series this year, stealing an improbable upset at No. 16 ♦ BASEBALL, SEE PAGE 11 , r n w iu di mnnr\ ov<niLLi iiu/ i n c. univiLouon Jason Fletcher’s record went to 4-1 yesterday against Clemson. Fletcher only lasted one and one-third Innings In a losing effort against the Tigers, allowing six hits and five runs. Shared ballpark proposal overdue for USC The news of Mayor Bob Coble’s proposal for a baseball stadium to be shared by USC and the Capital City Bombers is music to the ears of baseball fans all over Columbia. No one should be happier with the news than USC head coach Ray Tanner, though he has heard this tune before. Coble has tried twice to rally support for such a venture, but be cause of lackluster effort from the previous own ers of the Bombers and the immense fi nancial under taking associat ed with such a project, the or deal left Mayor JOEL Bob out in left WALLACE field. Fourth-year Tanner left print the head coach i°ZZllsm ing job at N.C. State, his alma mater, to coach USC after failing to obtain im provements to the school’s ball park. After engineering the reju venation of the Gamecock baseball program, Tanner has faced the same problems in Columbia. The Gamecocks have won more baseball games under Tanner over the last four seasons than every other program in the country, save one. He has led them to four out of the past five SEC Eastern Division titles. Tanner has coached 12 All-Americans and sent enough players — 42 — into professional baseball to fill almost ♦ WALLACE, SEE PAGE 11 V Softball hopes to stem the Tide in weekend series PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK Melissa Sandel slides in to second base safely against Georgia. USC won the series 2-1. BY WES WOLFE THE GAMECOCK The No. 25 USC softball team (21-16,10-14 SEC) will be on the road again this weekend, and will again try to accomplish an upset of a top-15 team. Last week, the Gamecocks were unable to over come No. 15 Florida and were swept by the Gators (38-9,15-6) in Gainesville. This week, Carolina will try and put its bats to work against No. 13 Alabama in Tuscaloosa. USC at The Crimson Alabama Tide is 33-12 on HldUdllld the season, with 1 P-m- a 13-8 mark in Saturday conference play. Tuscaloosa, After losing Ala- games to the U.S. TV: Fox Sports Olympic team, Net South No. 1 Arizona and No. 23 Pacific early in the season, the Tide ran off an incredible string of 16 consecutive wins. Bama is 4-3 in conference series so far this year, taking two out of three from Kentucky and sweep ing Arkansas, No. 11 Tennessee and Ole Miss while losing two out of three to Florida and Mississippi State and getting swept by No. 6 LSU. Alabama’s main offensive threat comes from senior first baseman Jackie McClain. McClain leads the Tide in batting average at .437 and has 55 hits, also leading the team in most walks of any other player with 30. At 44 starts in 44 games, McClain is also the only Tide play er to start in every game and play in every game this season. Complimenting McClain, Bama has hitting power up and down the line. Infielder Staci Ramsey has only 35 hits and 15 runs, but she leads the team with seven home runs and 33 RBIs. Infielder Dominique Accettu has also been successful swinging the bat this season with 43 hits, 11 doubles, five home runs and 28 RBIs. The players in the outfield know how to hit, too, with outfielder Ashley Courtney knocking 41 hits with nine doubles, three triples and five home runs. Courtney will be the only player on the field this week end with three triples, as four peo ple on the Bama roster only have one and no Carolina player has hit a triple this season. The Crimson Tide’s pitchers, while putting up good records, still allow more runs on average than the Gamecock hurlers. Stephanie VanBrak (11-7), who will most like ly start in the first or second part of the doubleheader, has the most time on the mound for Alabama this year, with 39 earned runs over 134 innings pitched for a 2.04 ERA. Also, VanBrak has completed ev ery game she started. Erin Wright (124) is second in line on the Tide pitching staff in games started, but has the worst ERA at 2.15. Jennifer Wright, while the least used of the three typical starting pitchers, has a 9-1 record and the best ERA at 1.65. Still, Gamecock hitters should have a chance against Wright, who has given up the same amount of doubles (10), and the same amount of home runs (4) as VanBrak but in 66 fewer in nings pitched. The Gamecocks and the Crimson Tide will hit the field at 1 p.m. Saturday for the first part of their doubleheader, with the second part starting at 3 p.m. The rubber match for the contest will be Sunday at 1 p.m. and will be telecast on Fox Sports Net South. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu Men’s golf looks to carry success into conference tournament Carolina only team to beat top ranked Florida this season BY JONATHAN HILLYARD THE GAMECOCK The No. 13 USC men’s golf team will look to carry it’s sur prising success into the postsea son this weekend at the SEC Championship in St. Simons Island, Ga. The Gamecocks will attack the par 70, 6,898-yard course with a familiar group of five golfers. Leading the charge for USC will be sophomore Eirik Johansen, who has emerged as an All-SEC candidate once again this season. The Norwegian will be compet ing in his second SEC Championship, having been a member of the All-SEC team last year. Johansen leads the team in scoring average and is the only USC golfer to have won an indi vidual title this season, winning at the Palmetto Collegiate earli er this season. Backing up Johansen for Carolina is the second of three All-SEC candidates for USC, ju nior Martin Rominger. With a second place finish on his resume this season, Rominger is looking to have a good weekend in his third SEC Championship. A member of the 2001-2002 All-SEC team, Rominger is second on the team in scoring average with a 72.45 stroke average per round. The third and final All-SEC can didate for USC is junior Alex Hamilton, who is competing in his second conference championship as well. Hamilton, a South Carolina native, ranks third on the team with a 73.34 scoring av erage and has been very consis tent for the Gamecocks. Rounding out.the competitors for USC are ju nior Jake Thompson and sopho more West Streib. Streib will be making his fourth appearance for USC this year. In last season’s SEC Championship, the Gamecocks placed fifth, the fifth top five fin ish in school history. The school’s most successful finish was second to the Georgia Bulldogs in 1998. In order to come away victori ous, USC will have to dethrone the defending champion, top ranked Florida Gators. The Gators will be looking for their eighth victory of the season, as they have been the No. 1 team in the country for most of |he year. The Gators have placed in the top five of all 11 tournaments they competed in this year. Defending individual champion Brett Stegmaier ranks fourth for Florida in scoring average and will be accompanied by team mates Camilo Villegas, Matt Every, Jessie Mudd and Duke Butler IV. Florida is 40-1-0 in head-to-head competition with the rest of the SEC, with its lone loss coming at the Mercedes Benz Collegiate, when the Gamecocks defeated the second-place Gators by 27 strokes. The Gamecocks will also have to battle another top-five team in the Georgia Bulldogs. No. 4 Georgia will look to win ita 25th conference title and its fourth in the last seven years. Georgia’s pair of 2003 All-SEC players will lead the way for the Bulldogs. The two golfers, David Denham and Kevin Kisner, will be accompanied by sophomore Richard Scott and freshmen Chris Kirk and Brendon Todd. This year marks the fourth season that the tournament will be held at the Seaside Golf Course. The first round will be gin at 8 a.m. today, the second round at 8 a.m. Saturday and the third and final round at 8 a.m. Sunday. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu