The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 16, 2004, Page 10, Image 10
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.
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gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu