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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, April 21, 2004 ^3 -|—v ^. mn r^i Game.Schedule ■ m \ I [ I 1 L 1 SOFTBALL vs. Furman, 5 p.m. fnntart lie | W m I ^ | BASEBALL vs. The Citadel, 7 p.m. I II kit MEN'S TENNIS vs. Vanderbilt at SEC Tournament Story ideas? Questions? Comments? If I L 1 in Nashville, Tenn., 2:15 p.m. Thursday E-mail us at gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu B y y _ B fy J Clemson pounds Citadel 13-4; Gamecocks look to follow suit Late-season woes plague Carolina sports programs ■ ■ ' . . It seems like all year there has been a buzz around USC sports — for the first half of ev ery season, anyway. In a trend that began in the fall, the hearts of Gamecocks everywhere have been torn to pieces over and over again with the . crumble of our most beloved JONATHAN athletic HILLYARD teams. First-year It all began electronic with good old journalism coach Holtz student and the Gamecock football team. We all want to love it, and after a 31-7 win over a ranked Virginia team, I could hear the whispers around cam pus of bowl dreams and maybe more. Then came the Georgia drubbing, which could have been expected. Then came an ab solute heartbreaker at Tennessee in overtime, which urnnlrl Vioo nrrr» hmm the program. Still, the team was 5-3 with four games to play and was as sured of a bowl game. Right? Wrong. Four straight losses and what a colleague of mine called “the Clemson incident,” and all of a sudden the boys are home for Christmas once again. Let’s not forget the men’s soc cer team, which began the sea son a stellar 7-0 before dropping four in a row and revealing its true face. A team that at one point was ranked eighth in the country finished the season in a terrible slump, and let’s not for get it also lost to none other than our good old friendly neighbor hood Clemson Tigers. Then a glimmer of hope peaked through the dark skies that were Carolina athletics. Amazingly, it was the men’s bas ketball team that provided this glimmer. How amazing was it that this team, a team picked to finish last in the SEC, was sitting at the midseason point with a 19 3 record and surprisingly was on top of the Eastern Division? This team’s late-season struggles may have been the toughest to watch. A heartbreaking loss at the last second in Kentucky and a de fensive breakdown at home against Mississippi State cost the Gamecocks two victories over top-10 opponents in the span of a week. The team limped through the rest of the regular season, and in a win over Georgia, lost arguably its best player in Rolando Howell, who broke his wrist at the end of his senior season. A couple of SEC Tournament wins and we could finally celebrate something at USC. The NCAA Tournament was finally back on the Gamecocks’ resume. However, a first-round loss left us once " again saying, “What if?” So we come to the spring sports schedule. Some team has to bring us out of this funk, right? This program can’t have this curse in everv SDort. can it? We saw it again with the men’s tennis team. The squad got off to its best start since the early ‘80s to do what? You guessed it — ft would lose 12 of its last 16 match es heading into postseason. OK, now we are safe. USC’s best sport will be our savior this year, right? Baseball will domi nate and send us to Omaha again, and the program will be revived. Well, don’t look now be cause our beloved bombers are now 7-8 in the SEC and coming off a series loss to last-place Kentucky. Ouch, fellas. That one hurts. So here is my plea to the baseball team: Bring us out of this funk, guys. You have the tal ent —-just hang on for a few more months and play like we all know you are capable of play ing. As hard as it is, I am willing to forgive two losses to Clemson if you make it back to Omaha. As for the rest of you USC stu dent-athletes, I’ll just say what has become a slogan for USC sports: I love you all, and better luck next year. f •PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK Brandon Winn Is batting .344 for the season. USC will take on The Citadel tonight at home. BY WES WOLFE THE GAMECOCK The game against The Citadel is coming at a good time for the No. 10 USC baseball team, which begins an eight-game homestand as the semester draws to a close. The Gameeocks (26-10,7-8 SEC) are com ing off a 2-1 series loss to Kentucky, arguably the worst team in the con ference. The Bulldogs enter tonight’s game at 23-13 overall and a 12-3 second-place record in the Southern Conference. Though The Citadel is doing well against opponents of a simi lar caliber, the team is scheduling teams with higher prestige, such as its games against Clemson (played on Tuesday) and tonight’s game at Carolina. In the game against Clemson last night, the Bulldogs had a chance to upset their cross-state rival, but fell short 13-4. The Citadel’s starting pitcher, Griff Beckham, was allowed significant time to turn things around but ended up allowing 12 hits and eight runs including five earned runs. Beckham’s hit total includ ed two doubles and two home runs in four and two-thirds in nings. Zach Brown came on in relief of Beckham, pitching three and one-third innings while allowing five runs off four hits. While it seems curious that Beckham and Brown would be al lowed to stay in after giving up so many runs, one can imagine The Citadel coaching staff wanted to save some mid-week arms for the Carolina game. The Citadel got off to a 3-2 lead in the first inning and lengthened the lead out to 4-2 before the Tigers reeled off 11 unanswered runs. USC surely try to beat the Bulldogs in a similar fashion this evening. Before the Clemson game, The Citadel swept High Point, winning the three games 10-4,11-10 and 14-2. Though The Citadel hails from a conference that doesn’t have as much prestige as the SEC, the Bulldogs still pack a wallop. The Citadel beat USC in Columbia last season—a USC team that made it to the College World Series for the second consecutive year. Right-hander Cliff Donald is set to start for the Gamecocks against The Citadel in his first start of the season. As of the game this evening, Donald will have the fewest innings pitched of any of the starters this season. So far, Donald has two earned runs in 19 innings pitched, giving him a 0.95 ERA, along with 18 strikeouts. The ♦ BASEBALL, SEEPAGE 14 LeBron and Melo set rookie standard No one was surprised when the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted LeBron James with the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. Equally obvious was the choice facing the Denver Nuggets, when Carmelo Anthony fell to them at the No. 3 pick. Even be fore NBA Commissioner David Stern called their JOEL WALLACE fmeaondraft „ ,, day, the quest Fourth-year for this sea. print , .... „ journalism son s NBA student Rookie of the Year was a two man race. So it should come as a shock to no one that LeBron and Melo finished 1-2 in this year’s ballot ing. James garnered 78 of 118 first-place votes, with Anthony taking the other 40. The only shock was the aplomb with which LeBron went about "havincr rvf 1_i. 1- _ -- WCOl 1 UUIV1C ocu sons in NBA history. King James averaged over 20 points, five re bounds and five assists this year, which is nothing too extraordi nary — if you’re a seasoned vet. But for a man who has not yet reached his 20th birthday, such numbers are almost unprece dented. The only other NBA players to achieve such lofty stats in their rookie campaigns were Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan. And if you’re not too familiar with basketball, take it from me — those guys turned out all right. James was the subject of more hype than any other player in NBA history. To refer to him as a “phenom” was a va^t understate ment; analysts across the country practically hailed him as the mes siah of the NBA, and have been doing so since he was a sopho more in high school. I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t think he could do it. From what I’d seen, he was a gifted athlete who showed incredible passing skills for someone his age. But the boy just didn’t look like he could shoot. Some pundits jok ingly referred to him as LeBron Ames. No J — get it? While he still has room to im prove his jump shot (LeBron posted an unimpressive 41.7 per cent field goal percentage), the fact that he still put up 20 points a game only becomes more im pressive. In addition to his stats, LeBron also brought the Cavaliers within one game of the playoffs, improving the team’s rprnrrl fWvrvi 17CC M Q^.47 The rookie sensation also gave Cleveland fans a reason to show up to games. The team’s at tendance rose from 11,497 to 18,288, which was the largest in crease in league history for a team not moving into a new are na. But what about Melo, you ask? I didn’t forget about him. I re member watching him in the na tional championship game last year and being absolutely amazed at what he could do, thinking he’d be a better player than LeBron. Anthony, who led Syracuse to that NCAA Championship his freshman year, would have been the star of any draft had his light not fallen under the shadow of LeBron. Anthony’s numbers this year were almost as impressive as Lebron’s. Carmelo put up 21 ■1 ♦ WALLACE, SEE PAGE 14 USC hopes to prolong Furman’s misery PHOTO BY MARK SCHILLING/THE GAMECOCK Kristin Hall throws to first base against Georgia earlier in the season. USC plays Furman tonight at home. BY WES WOLFE THEfiAMECOCK ~ ■The No. 25 USC softball team will try to focus on getting a couple of wins tonight when it takes on Furman. The Gamecocks (22-18,11-16 SEC) are 5-10 in their last 15 games and need a turnaround if they are looking to advance into the postseason. The Lady Paladins are in even worse shape, coming into the doubleheader with a 12-37 record overall and a 5-7 showing in the Southern Conference. Furman has also dropped its past five games against Carolina, dating back to a 1-0 Furman victory in 2001. The games this evening could mean history for the Gamecock softball program. Head coach Joyce Compton is within two wins of the 800-win mark for her career, and third baseman Samantha Jennings is two home runs away from breaking the school’s single-season home run record. Jennings currently has nine home runs on the season and is fourth on the career home run list. Furman will look for the up set with batters like centerfield er LaKerah Barr and first base man Megan Jaudon. Barr leads the team in batting average this season; she also leads the team in hits with 51, tying for second on the team in doubles with sev-' en, and having the fewest strike outs among probable starters with only 12. Jaudon is not to be fooled around with either. She leads the team in home runs with three and RBIs with 27, along with also being the top person in doubles with nine on the year and tying for the lead in triples with three. In the Lady Paladins’ last game, a 4-1 upset victory over Elon, Barr went 3-for-4 with one run and two stolen bases. Jaudon had a good game as well, going l-for-3 but driving in three of Furman’s four runs. Rachel Henley pitched all sev en innings for the complete game victory, allowing five hits, one run and one walk while striking out seven. Henley, a righty from Kingston, Tenn., has a 9-17 record on the season but has the lowest ERA of Furman’s three pitchers at 2.02. Kristy Goodrich, the other usual starter for Furman, ar rives in Columbia with a 4.03 ERA and a 3-10 record. Goodrich is 1-4 in her last five credited games, including los ing her latest game, a 4-3 loss to Elon on April 17. The righty from Lordstown, Ohio gave up four runs on five hits, while pitcning a complete game. However, only one of those runs was earned. The third pitcher that Carolina could face in tonight’s games is Erica Nesselroad, who has yet to be credited with a win and is currently 0-10 on the sea son. The sole lefty on the pitch ing staff also has the highest ERA at 7.97. Though Nesselroad has only pitched 45 and two thirds innings, she has just sev en earned runs fewer than Henley, who has pitched 159 more innings than the sopho more. Carolina will play the Lady Paladins in a doubleheader this evening at home, with the first game starting at 5 p.m. and the second game to follow at 7 p.m. This weekend, the Gamecocks will remain at home to enter tain Ole Miss in a three-game series. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu