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„ Game schedule THIWtAMEGOGK Wednesday __ _ ' Softball vs. Georgia, 5 and 7 p.m. —I "V ^ ^ ^ Baseball vs. Clemson, 7 p.m. Page 8 ^ Monday, April 3,2006 ■——————^I—; Hill iMilll llll— I— ■IHI—I1IIII HHIHi i IH1H1HIIMMI lullIIij|— James Chance / The Associated Press USC’s Michael Campbell slides home for a score against LSU. The Gamecocks swept the Tigers over the weekend series in Baton Rouge. Taming the Tigers Gamecocks use balanced pitching, hitting to sweep LSU on Bayou Rlex Riley ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR The domination effect from last weekend’s series with Florida traveled with No. 5 USC (26-3, 8-1 SEC) to the bayou, as the Gamecocks pounded out double-digit wins against No. 15 LSU (20-10, 2 7 SEC) on Friday (12-2) and Saturday (18-4) before having to sweat out a nail bitter on Sunday (2-1). “We’re going to hit the halfway point this weekend and I can’t ask anymore of my team than what ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■Mi I’ve gotten to this point,” Coach Ray Tanner told Gamecockcentral.com. “We’ve gotten better since day one. We’ve improved at just about every facet of the game. But we’re only at the halfway point and we have a long way to go.” Up 2-1 in the fifth inning of the first game of the series, USC poured it on to the Tigers in the sixth, bringing six Gamecocks home to push ahead 9-1. Carolina finished with 12 hits, including home runs from the hot-hitting Neil Giesler and a Justin Smoak three-run shot in the eighth. USC pitchers Arik Hempy and Andrew Cruse combined to hold LSU to just six hits all game, as the Gamecocks took a 12-2 win in game one of the series. The hard hitting continued Saturday as USC exploded for another 18 hits, including four homers from Michael Campbell (3 run), Robbie Grinestaff, (3 run) Trent Kline (2-run), and Smoak (2-run). The hitting overshadowed a huge performance by freshmen pitcher Mike Cisco who allowed three hits and two runs in seven innings of work. The outing, his second longest of the season, gave him the win and improved the freshman to 4-0. “We have been getting beat by a better ball club • right now, and our guys are hurting,” LSU coach Smoke Laval said. “South Carolina is good, and they have been playing at their best right now.” Saturday’s matchup was a bit of a change from the batting practice feel of the previous two games. Instead of a battle of the bats, the game turned into a pitchers duel, as starter Forrest Beverly gave up one run on four hits and struck out four. But it was the relief pitching of Wynn Pelzer that did the Tigers in, as he worked over four innings of shutout baseball. His biggest pitch came in the ninth as the bases sat loaded and Pelzer got Jordan Mayer to fly out to center, ending the game and giving USC the 2-1 BRSCBflLL • 9 Juan Bias / THE GAMECOCK Sophomore receiver Sidney Rice has been named to the NationalChamps.net All-America team. Sports Rice named to online All-America team for 2006season Sidney Rice continues to garner honors in preparation for the coming season, as the sophomore from Gaffney has been named to the NationalChamps.net preseason second team All America squad. Rice, who grabbed 1,143 yards and 13 touchdowns last season, will miss the remainder of spring practice due to a broken thumb sustained while playing basketball. He was an All-SEC selection last year after leading the league in receiving yards and touchdown catches. His 103.9 yards per game was the fifth best total in the country. Rice also had a record setting streak of eight consecutive games with a touchdown, a USC single-season record. Joining Rice as an underclassmen second team receiver is Georgia Tech junior Calvin Johnson. Notre Dame’s Jeff Samardzija and Southern Cal’s Dwayne Jarrett ^re the first-team receivers. _ Softball stumbles against LSU over weekend To say scoring wasn’t at a premium for the USC softball team over the weekend might be the understatement of the year, as the Gamecocks failed to score a run in all three games against No. 11 LSU. The Gamecocks recorded just four hits in three games, as the Tigers took victories of 1-0, 9-0, and 8-0. , LSU improved to 35-5 on the season as USC falls to 22-17i Title game lost flavor when good teams fell Championship game not worth watching without Cinderella, Big Baby For the first time that I can remember, I really don’t care who wins the NCAA tournament. I was pulling for George Mason to beat Florida. Seeing George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga go through about 72 - -n,. , . Third-year straight hours poUtical of interviews science hopped up on student his patented Dunkin’ Donuts coffee would have been fun to watch. I was also pulling for LSU to beat UCLA. The longer LSU wins, the more Glen “Big Baby” Davis gets interviewed live on television — that alone was reason enough to pull for them. He is the next Charles Barkley, and I mean that as a compliment. All he needs is a horrible golf swing and a gambling problem. What is left, after both of the teams that I was pulling for lost, is the first National Championship game in memory that I could actually sleep through. On one side there is UCLA, a school so far away that it almost doesn’t seem to exist. UCLA has already won 11 National Championships. I think that is more than enough for one school. They don’t seem to do anything outstandingly well, but somehow they keep winning by playing defense and hitting a shot every now and then. They don’t really have any extraordinary front court players, and their two best players, guards Jordan Farmer and Aaron Afflalo, were a combined 10 for 38 in the previous two games. They win by not losing. I can hardly contain my, excitement. One more game for UCLA means about 286,031 more shots of former coach John Wooden sitting in the stands. I understand he is probably the best coach in the history of college basketball, but why show him on TV every 3 minutes? He is 95 years old. Literally, 95 years old. I once heard him say he thinks dunking should be made illegal. I think it is about time to let old John just be a fan. Once you say that dunking, the aspect of the game that now makes it as popular as it is, should be illegal, you are crossing into the same territory as that crazy uncle that nobody wants to talk to at family functions. On the other side there is Florida. Florida has head coach Billy Donovan, who is hogging all the hair gel. They have guard Lee Humphrey, who is hogging all the white guy jokes. And they have forward Joakim Noah, who is hogging all the ugly. One more game for Florida means about 9,207 more comments about Noah. It is like Jim Nanjfz