Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, July 7, 2004 9 rkAnmn figure of the week (<0iS TACT U S If | 1 If ' I 15: Number of athletes with USC ties that will compete E-mailusatgamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu J_ \ / | | | at this week’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials . USC baseball wraps up successful season BY JONATHAN HILLYARO THE GAMECOCK After returning home from Omaha and the College World Series, the USC baseball team will now look back at an extremely successful season and prepare for what should be another memo rable campaign in 2005. The 2004 Gamecocks saw a roller coaster of events mold into one of the best seasons in school history. After starting off in an un defeated 18-0 streak, the team quickly cooled with a puzzling 2-4 start in conference play. The Gamecocks spent a great portion ol their season in the limelight, playing host to perennial baseball powers LSU and Clemson in front of a filled Sarge Frye Field. Toward the end of the regular season, the Gamecock faithful be gan to stir as the team won four of its last five SEC series. Probably the greatest turning point in the season came when the team trailed Ole Miss 6-2 in the top of the ninth inning of the opening game of the SEC Tournament. Following a come-from-behind win in that game, the team would win nine games in a row prior to losing in the first round of the College World Series. The win streak included the first SEC Tournament championship in school history and sweeps in both Regional and Super Regional com petition in the NCAAs. USC’s third consecutive trip to the College World Series drew ironic comparisons to the first in the trilogy as the team lost the opener, only to reach the semi-fi nals of college baseball’s national championship. As the Cal St. Fullerton Titans celebrated their national championship, USC ar rived back in Columbia having come up just short for the third straight year. USC had two players drafted in the first round of the Major League Baseball draft for the first time in school history. After day one of the draft, a total of seven Gamecock stars had been selected by pro or ganizations. The Gamecocks will have to fill the holes of at least a few of their drafted superstars next year. Senior catcher Landon Powell, who was a first-round selection of the Oakland Athletics, will most likely be succeeded by freshman Ryan Mahoney. Mahoney was in the Gamecock lineup many games this year as the team’s designated hitter. A very young pitching staff will face high expectations in 2005 af ter the departure of ace Matt Campbell, who recently signed a contract with the Kansas City Royals, and closer Chad Blackwell, who will join Campbell as a mem ber of the Royals’ minor league staff. Yet to be determined is the status Billy Buckner, who was also selected by the garnet-laden Royals. These holes will have to be filled by a number of pitchers, and some candidates from this year’s squad who will have opportunities include rising seniors Aaron Rawl, Jason Fletcher, Cliff Donald and Zac McCamie. Also carrying high expectations are upcoming soph omore pitchers Arik Hempy and Harris Honeycutt. In the playing field, the Gamecocks will have to fill a hole at third base vacated by Bryan Triplett, who has signed with the Houston Astros after being drafted in the 12th round. Also likely to turn pro is second baseman Kevin Melillo, who was a fifth round pick of Oakland. The uncertainty on the playing field lies in first base man Steve Pearce, who was draft ed by the Boston Red Sox in the 10th round, but has not made a de cision on whether or not to leave school. The anchor of what will be a young infield in 2005 will be ris ing junior Steven Tolleson, who spent all of his time this year at shortstop for the Gamecocks. me liamecocKs win expect tne outfield to be a strong point in 2005, which will return all three starters in Michael Campbell, Brendan Winn and Davy Gregg. Winn was among this year’s SEC leaders in home runs and other statistical categories. USC head coach Ray Tanner and his staff will also look to strengthen the program with a re cruiting class shaping up to be the second consecutive no. 1 class in the country. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu PHOTO COURTESY OF JOEY BORDELON/ THE REVEILLE USC’s Steven Tolleson will return at shortstop next season. — * After you see ‘Spider-Man 2, ’ check out the Lakers BRAD SENKIW Fourth-year print journalism student When the dog days of summer roll around and there’s nothing better than base ball to keep up with, I like to check out the latest summer blockbuster movies. In fact, “Spider-Man 2” was pretty dam gooa, Troy naa some gooa ac tion scenes and even “The Day After Tomorrow” held my atten tion long enough to enjoy the spe cial effects. But this year’s biggest Hollywood theatrics can’t be found on your local movie screen. Instead, just watch ESPN or pick up a newspaper and you’ll see what I’m talking about. That’s right, no multi-million dollar movies can even come close to the drama of the Los Angeles Lakers. No sports franchise on the face of this earth has ever captivated an audience quite like the Lakers. First, you have your all-impor tant lead character that dominates the scene and carries the most baggage, which would be Kobe Bryant. Whether he should be in the starring role is debatable, but he is in control of the script. Next, there are several key co-stars, such as Shaquille O'Neal, Karl Malone, Gary Payton and even the retired Phil Jackson. So, how have the Lakers re sembled Hollywood, you might ask? Well, Kobe is pulling a Matlock in the courtroom, and he’s decided to become the dicta tor of L.A., holding the fate of a franchise in his grasp. He’s decid ing who will remain in L.A., play ers and coaches, without even be ing under contract. Kobe even tried to hire Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, which didn’t work out. The Lakers knew that if Jackson stayed as coach, Bryant was gone and they also know that if Kobe stays, Shaq is gone. This thickens the plot so much that not even the guys on “Pardon the Interruption” will calculate this ending. Then there’s O’Neal. This guy absolutely hates his life, which seems more and more like a fan tasy anyway. He has it so bad that he’s stuck in one of the best mar kets in America with three cham pionship rings and nearly $20 mil lion a year. But he wants out. He’s not just tired of Bryant—he’s sick of the whole franchise. And as far as the others go, Malone retired, then said he did n’t. Sounds like a bad movie to me. ♦ SENKIW, SEE PAGE 10