Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I Sports j Tallant named athletics CFO Former USC athletics department budget director Jeff Tallant has taken a positon as Chief Financial Officer, Athletics Director Eric Hyman said in a ^ release Tuesday. W Tallant worked as budget director from 2002-05, and was in charge of accounting operations for the athletics department and for the Colonial Center. Tallant has been at USC since 1997, working as a senior auditor before joining the athletics department. During the past nine months, Tallant has worked as a university audit manager and will ^ begin his new duties March 27. “Jeff was a logical choice for this position,” Hyman said in the release. “He comes highly recommended by people within the athletics department and is well-respected throughout the campus.” Gamecocks beat CSU behind Martin’s grand slam Juan Bias / THE GAMECOCK USC centerfielder Michael Campbell singled in the sixth inning as the team beat Charleston Southern, 6-3 Tuesday to improve to 18-3 on the season. Saui Smith THE GAMECOCK When Charleston Southern’s pitching coach went put to the mound to talk to starting CSU pitcher, Mike Mead, he returned to the dugout without Mead in tow. That was all the incentive that USC designated hitter Drew Martin needed to hit a grand slam to put the Gamecocks up 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning on their way to a 6-3 win Tuesday. After a pitching change, shortstop Reese Havens I and catcher Phil Dishei were two quick outs, but the damage had already been done. Charleston Southern retaliated quickly in the fifth inning, scoring twc runs, but USC charged bad in the bottom of the fifth tc push the score to 5-2. The sixth inning was low key, with no scoring from either team. USC centerfielder Michael Campbell started the bottom of the seventh with a hit tc center field but got caught off base, and a pop-out tc the catcher by Justin Smoali put a cap on the inning foi USC. USC missed out on a double play in the top of the eighth, but later, USC made a difficult double play to end the inning. Havens led off the Gamecocks in the eighth inning with a double off the wall and later scored to lift USC to a 6-2 lead. Everyone was getting their bat on the ball, but with two outs, Robbie Grinestaff hit a line drive to the second baseman who handled the play and that ended the inning for the Gamecocks. Charleston Southern came to bat in the ninth * r inning and got a run to cut the Gamecock’s lead to 6-3. Pitcher Wynn Pelzer, who has a 1.84 ERA finished the game for USC. „ The matchup started out slow with no scoring in the first through third innings, but the grand slam by Martin, who went l-for-4, ended the batting draught. CSU put up three errors to none for USC, but out hit the Gamecocks 12 to 10. In the end, though, USC earned a win to push its overall record to 18-3. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@giom.sc.edu RILEY • COflTinUED FROIT112 they have had. To fully understand what USC missed out on, you have to understand how close they were. Thirty six points over 10 games were all that separated the Gamecocks and a completely different season. Ten games were decided by nine points or less. Added to that, USC owns a 7-9 record against NCAA teams, with 2 5 points separating it and six wins. Thirty-six points could have made an 18-15 season into a 28-5 season to remember. While this season was almost something special, it still has the potential to be a special one for the history of Carolina basketball and its coach. With the win against Florida State, USC reached 20 wins on the season, the third consecutive year it has reached the mark. It is the first time since 1969 that Carolina has had three seasons in a row with 20 or more wins. Plus, the win gives Odom his fourth 20 win campaign in five years at Carolina. Not even the legendary Frank McGuire had a 20-win season in his first five years in Columbia. But, looking even further ahead, if the Gamecocks make a run back to the championship game of the NIT, Odom could finish the season attaining his 100th win at USC. Currently, Odom sits at 96-70 in five years. Odom owns a 7-5 record in the SEC Tournament, an NIT title and title game appearance and an average of 19 wins a season. With all that Odom has. accomplished and how close his team was to being a national contender this season, how can fans actually want to have him fired? Let’s face the facts people, Carolina isn’t Duke, North Carolina, or UConn. The best players in America aren’t going to come to a half-empty Colonial Center when they could go to a place that will sell out and put them in contention for the national title. You say Odom hasn’t recruited? What about Zam “Buck” Frederick? His father was the NCAA scoring champion at USC and it should have been a sure deal that he would come to Carolina. Instead, Buck went to Georgia Tech, where he is a starter and future All-ACC candidate. How about Rolando Howell? McDonald’s All-American in high school turned out to be a major flop in college. It’s stuff like that that has left Odom scrambling for people to fill holes. You want a team that goes to the NCAA tourney every year? You want a team that is in contention for the SEC title? Support this team. Don’t show up for just the Kentucky, Florida, and Clemson games. How about Winthrop? Or LSU? Maybe Georgia? Or even, say, Western Kentucky? That’s right, USC hosted the opening round of the NIT tournament and only about 4,000 fans showed up. If you want to blame someone, blame yourselves, Carolina fans. Half-hearted support of a team that is giving all its heart will not produce the champion you want. You may pay all the money in the world to the Gamecock Club, but it doesn’t mean a thing if your butt isn’t in a seat and your voice isn’t being heard. If Minnesota knocked off Cinncinati, the NIT shifts back to Columbia. Lets hope it did. I want one last chance to tell Dave how good a job he’s done. Dcrense • connnueo protti is Practice notes: — Tuesday’s offensive play of the day came from wide receiver Kenny McKinley on an end around reverse from Blake Mitchell. It was hard to tell whether the oohs and aahs came because of the juke he pi»t on the defense, or the hit the defense put on him. — Mike Davis took most of the snaps from the running back position, and he was able to get touchdowns from 15 and 10 yards out on consecutive plays. Bobby Wallace also saw action from the backfield. — Syvelle Newton continued to wear his yellow injury jersey, but was seen jogging and making cuts while the receivers did two-on-two drills. Newton looked to be enjoying himself at the practice as he cut up with teammates with his enormous afro flowing freely. — Nitron Stork broke his finger during 11-on-11 drills, but Spurrier thinks he will be back before the spring game. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu I FRATERNITY COUNCIL 1 I -Greek Wide Party, April 6th. GET READY! I I -Greek Impact Tuesday’s 9pm ) For having the highest men’s participation and donations for Dance Marathon, for obtaining highest new member GPA.as well as their outstanding I involvement in other campus Organizations I Phi Sigma Kappa I I was designated fraternity of the month I SORORITY COUNCIL -Congratulations to Rachael Renken for obtaining Delta Zeta’s national outstanding junior. Philanthropy Update. Here is what’s coming up -Delta Zeta - Turtle Tug. April 8th - Sweet Caroline Bone Marrow Drive. March 28 -Gamma Phi Beta - Crescent Classic Dodgeball Tournament April 11th -Alpha Chi Omega - Volleyball Brawl. April 12th. 3pm Strom. Sign your teams up. $65 per 6. Due March 31st -Chi Omega - Yippee Chi O/KA. Jillian’s Bar and Grill Volleyball Tournament with live music. March 24. 4-11pm. $5 cover - War of the Wings. March 29th.General Admission $5 -Delta Delta Delta - Tri Delta’s Tee Off. March 26th. ' aV I ■* ,<j^ *aratwite», l $5 LUNCH 7:30 PM W kWllVn EVERY TUESDAY CpcriAl Q TRIVIA NITE W ■ bVlflklV think whileyou drink! oi=f^au^DMNGNgiwomc/^« 1/2 PRICE PITCHERS #0*OOT OWN* to UN WMttTI _ AFTER 9PM! LLjL_„L-1,