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Florida slides by softball in 3-game series KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK USC’s softball team struggled behind the plate against the Florida Gators this weekend, scoring only two runs in the three-game series. The team will return to action Tuesday night at Winthrop. By MATTHEW NAGY FOR THE GAMECOCK The USC softball team was swept this weekend by the No. 15 Florida Gators, as the Gamecocks were shut out in the first two contests of the series 1-0, 3-0 and struggled again with offense in the final game Sunday, losing 4-2. Carolina struggled on offense all weekend, scoring only two runs — both on Sunday — during the entire weekend series. The Gamecocks now fall to 24-20 on the season and only 7-11 in the SEC. USC was finally able to score Sunday after Florida jumped to a 2-0 lead early, and it appeared to be the same story as on Saturday for the softball team. After back-to-back singles to start the game, freshman Lisa Longo and junior Ashley Smith were able to drive in both runners to tie the game. The Gators, however, had an answer in the top of the fifth, and after following a pitching change by Carolina, Florida was able to score on a sacrifice fly to reclaim the lead at 3 2 and never look back. The Gators moved to 32-10 in regular season play and 11-4 in the SEC, moving to only a half-game away from second place behind Tennessee (12-4). Carolina remains in fourth place in the SEC and will look to improve with an upcoming doubleheader against Winthrop before coming back to play host to Alabama on Saturday afternoon. The team travels to Rock Hill on Tuesday night for a doubleheader against Winthrop and must focus on finishing the season strong and making a series run in the SEC Tournament in order to continue postseason play in the Women’s College World Series. With three SEC series left, two of them at Beckham Field, Carolina will have the ability to finish the season strong after playing two of the toughest teams in the SEC in Florida and Georgia. The competition does not get easier next weekend, however, as Alabama comes into town leading the SEC west. USC will play host to a doubleheader Saturday that begins at 1 p.m., with the second game following at 3 p.m. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu Tennis teams thrive during weekend By JASON SCHNEIDER FOR THE GAMECOCK George Gervin. Joe Carter. USC sophomore tennis star Christyn Lucas? Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but there is no doubt that Lucas weekend performance earned her the title “clutch.” Twice this past weekend, the USC women’s tennis team found itself in a 3-3 tie going into the final match. Both times Lucas was the last Gamecock on the court, and her play propelled the Gamecocks to 4-3 wins in matches against opponents from Mississippi. “I’m very confident. I’m usually the last one on the court, and I love it,” Lucas said. Against Ole Miss on Friday, it did not initially appear, however, the Gamecocks were going to have much of a chance for last-minute heroics. They lost the doubles point to open the match, and junior . Danielle Wiggins and senior Fallon Koon dropped their singles matches in the one and five positions. But, down 3-0, there was still plenty of fight left in the Gamecocks. Senior Magda Wojdylo fought her way back from a 5-1 deficit to win the set 7-5 and put it on cruise control in 6-1 second set. Freshman Megan McGavock and sophomore Miranda Gutierrez tied the match 3-3 by winning their respective bouts. And then there was Lucas. She won the first set 6-3 before relinquishing a 3-1 lead in the second set, dropping it 6-3. She then rolled 6-1 in the third set, leaving the Gamecocks with a 4-3 victory. On Sunday, a day set aside to honor the team’s seniors, the Gamecocks started off slightly differently, as they won the doubles point against Mississippi State. McGavock pulled off another win at the sixth spot to put the Gamecocks up 2-1, after Wiggins dropped her match to 18th-ranked sophomore Zsuzsanna Fodor at the No. 1 spot. Koon and Wojdylo played hard on senior day, though with different results. Koon won her match in two sets, while Wojdylo dropped a two-set match to freshman Renee Joseph, a South Carolina native. But, despite the slightly different start, the day finished quite similarly to Friday’s match, as Lucas was again the last to leave. Despite trailing 5-4 in the first set, she was able to come back and pull off a 7-5 victory, then proceeded to win the second set by the same score and in much the same manner. “I never, ever give up, no matter what the score is. I always keep fighting,” Lucas said. The men, who faced the same opponents, were able to finish 1-1 for the weekend. At No. 4 Ole Miss, the No. 22 Gamecocks were not able to put up much of a fight, dropping the match 6-1 despite starting off the day winning the doubles point. At No. 15 Mississippi State, the results would be quite different. The Gamecocks again won the doubles point, but, unlike on Friday, were able to keep the wins coming. They won the match 5-2, as Gamecock No. 1 junior Tom Eklund was able to win a two-set match against Mississippi State No. 1 sophomore Ivan Bjelica, and No. 2 freshman Pedro Rodrigues pulled out a three-set win against freshman Philippe Frayssinoux. The women will head to Francis-Marion on Tuesday. Both the women, aftd men will close out the regular season Saturday. Comments on this stoty? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu ■ MASTERS Continued from page 10 to the left as a smile creased his face and his right fist punched the air with fury. Everything else about this Masters was up in the air to the very end. First came the most improbable birdie on the par-3 16th, when Woods skipped his chip shot up the slope and watched it crawl 25 feet down to the cup, where it paused for 2 full seconds before dropping. “I would rank that as one of the best ones I’ve ever hit,” Woods said. “It turned things around. It was pretty huge. Then came an even bigger surprise. The greatest closer in golf looked like a first-timer at Augusta National, making a gaess out of the last two holes to finish with two bogeys and allow DiMarco one more chance. Woods made sure that was all he got. DiMarco again came up short of the green, and chipped up for a tap-in par. He took his hat off and ran his hand through his hair, crouched and kept looking up at Woods and down at his feet, afraid to watch, perhaps knowing what was about to happen. When the ball disappeared, DiMarco walked slowly to Woods and congratulated him. Woods closed with a 1-under | 71 and won for the second time in a playoff at a major, wrapping up a long and bizarre week at Augusta National that included two rain delays, an eagle putt that Woods rolled off the green and into the creek, a record run of birdies to get back into the contention and, finally, the fight of his life. It showed at the closing ceremony, where he cried while dedicating this Masters victory to his father, who was too ill to leave his hotel room. “Every year that I’ve been lucky enough to win this tournament, my dad’s been there to give me a big hug. And today, he wasn’t there,” Woods said, his voice cracking and his eyes filling with tears. “I can’t wait to get home and see him, and give him a big bear hug.” Woods never needed so many heroics to win his previous three Masters. DiMarco was responsible for that. “This was one fun victory, but also a lot of work because I was playing with one heck of a competitor,” Woods said. “Chris has got no backoff in him. He’ll come at you ... and that’s what he did today. He put up a heck of a fight.” Woods emerged from this battle with his ninth major, tied with Ben Hogan and Gary Player, halfway home to the standard set By Jack Nicklaus. He joined Nicldaus (six) and Arnold Palmer (four) as the only players with at least four Masters titles. ■ BASEBALL Continued from page 10 USC took a 1-0 lead in the first frame as junior Chris Brown scored on a Steve Pearce single, and the lead grew on an infield hit by Gregg, who made it all the way home on a bad throw by LSU sophomore pitcher Clay Dirks. Pearce added more insurance in the inning, crushing his ninth long ball of the season, to give the Gamecocks a 3-0 advantage. Junior Mark Stanley scored on a Mahoney double, while Mahoney came home on another Gregg infield hit in the sixth to finish the scoring for USC. Sunday, Carolina looked to achieve the first sweep of the Tigers on the road in Gamecock history. Senior Aaron Rawl got his sixth win of the season, going 6 2-3 innings and allowing just two runs on eight hits with six strikeouts. LSU gave up another unearned run in the first inning, as Pearce knocked Brown home on a single after Brown walked in his at bat. The lead grew again in the second as junior Ian Paxton went yard with a solo job to give the Gamecocks a 2-0 lead. Campbell added a homer in the third, while Stanley scored on a Gregg single that would spell the end of LSU starter Greg Smith. The Tigers managed to pull close in the fifth, as they got within two at 4-2 off a solo homer by senior Blake Gill and an RBI single by freshman Chris Jackson. That was as close as it got for the Tigers, as they fell 7 5, dropping the series and below the .500 mark in SEC play. The weekend wins were enough to earn coach Ray Tanner his 400th win as the Gamecocks’ skipper. USC’s faces its next opponent on a road trip to archrival Clemson on Wednesday for a 7:15 p.m. first pitch. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu KATIE KIRKLAND/THE GAMECOCK USC’s tennis teams battled against SEC squads from Mississippi this weekend, finishing 3-1 overall. BRIEF Track breaks records in Gatorade Classic USC took 12 titles and had more than 30 regional-qualifying times, as it helped the SEC defeat the Big Ten at the 33rd Gatorade Classic in Knoxville, Tenn. The Gamecocks broke two Gatorade Classic records en route to victories in the events. The USC 4x100 relay team broke a seven-year Classic record by recording a first-place time of 43.58 seconds.' The previous record of 43.99 was run by Tennessee in 1998. The women’s 4x400 team fared just as well, breaking an 18-year-old Classic record in winning the event, 3:32.14. It was the second-fastest time in the world this year. Gamecock hurdlers won both the men’s 110-meter and women’s 100-meter. The finishes put the SEC ahead of the Big Ten for the first time in the competition. Junior Tiffany Ross-Williams won the women’s event, 13-40. Ross Williams also finished in the top spot in the 400-meter, 56.51. Freshman Jason Richardson came back from an injury to win the men’s 110-meter event. Five USC women finished in the top 10 in the 100-meter dash, including freshman Shalonda Solomon in first and senior Erica Whipple second. Both the men’s and women’s teams won the 200 meter dash. In the field, sophomore Precious Akins won her first event of the season with a throw of 165 feet, 9 inches in women’s discus. Sophomore Greig Cryer won the men’s long jump with a leap of 24 feet, 6 inches. In the pole vault, both teams took second place. Sophomore Trey Bell cleared 16 feet, 6 inches, while junior Cheryl Terrio vaulted 12 feet, 5 inches for the women. -1 . DRUM FIGHT ROXI..G CAMP Experience the ultimate in physical fitness! ) Beginner classes starting soon. Private lessons available. L Contact Dominic Robinson-Neal at (803) 463-7435. my STORE BOXES FTC. is a division of STRONG MAN MOVERS specializing in providing temporal storage assitance to students bewteen semesters. Store Boxes Etc. also provides pick-up, delivery, shipping and packaging assistance. We provide a stress free packaging and moving experience through pur modernized packaging technique and simplified logistics. This consolidated approach to storage management offers substantial, cost saving benefits to students by pulling resources together. Room rickup, Storage, and Room y I I I ) i ___I Pick-up times will be scheduled, however, special * * ™ pick^mo'v & craters accommodated for a fee. ’ 144 D Harhison Blud. - Coliimftia, SC 2005 Faculty/Sta Baseball Ticket Monday,Tuesd; April 11. Pick-Up W/ ID @ the USC Box Office 8:30am-5:00pm Clemson Baseball Game l \ April 20,2005 I @Sarge Frye Field •! * *