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Gamecocks weather the storm
By Denny O'Brien
©2004 Bonesville.net
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COLUMBIA, SC The last thing
South Carolina wanted midway through its Super Regional opener against East
Carolina was a lengthy rain delay, but it all worked out for the Gamecocks
after the washout.
After five innings, USC led
2-0 and pitcher Matt Campbell was cruising when, just like clockwork, the
skies opened and play was suspended, sending the two teams to the locker
room while Mother Nature took her course.
When the rain finally subsided
and after four-plus hours of waiting little changed.
South Carolina first baseman
Steve Pearce greeted Pirates reliever Matt Bishop with a solo blast when
play resumed, a blow that proved to be the winning run. The Gamecocks went
on to take game one of the Super Regional, 4-2, forcing the Pirates to win
two straight to advance to Omaha.
"We had two pretty good
pitchers going at each other," Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner said. "After the
delay, I didn't want to send Matt (Campbell) out there. I know he tried to
stay ready to go.
"He was in the training room
trying to stay ready because it was a long delay. He probably would have had
another inning or two left with his pitch count, so we went with (Jason)
Fletcher. He had been throwing the ball well."
Fletcher threw nearly three
perfect innings before the Pirates mounted a two-out rally in the eighth to
cut the Gamecocks' lead to 4-2.
Back-to-back doubles by Ryan
Jones and Ryan Norwood pushed the Pirates' first run across. A single by
designated hitter Mike Grace off closer Chad Blackwell then pulled the
Pirates to within two.
Blackwell then settled down to
close out the Pirates and earn his 18th save. Campbell (10-4) pitched five
innings to pick up the win, while Greg Bunn (10-1) took the loss, despite
striking out eight.
"He had some good stuff,"
Jones, Conference USA's Player of the Year, said of Campbell. "We knew he
was going to be throwing a lot of breaking balls.
"I felt like I had some pretty
good swings on some pitches, but I swung at some bad pitches as well. ... He
definitely had his stuff going, but we've just got to forget about it and
get ready for tomorrow."
Though USC was able to
manufacture a couple of runs off Bunn, Mazey felt his starter was superb.
"There was a point there where
we were still going to run Greg out there (after the delay) because he was
throwing so well," Mazey said. "They weren't taking good swings off him.
They weren't having really good at bats.
"I thought early in the game
we had better at bats than they did off the other pitcher. We just didn't
take advantage of a couple of opportunities early in the game. Greg was
sharp. That's Greg at his best right there."
The Gamecocks struck first on
an RBI single by Landon Powell in the bottom of the fourth that plated Bryan
Triplett. USC pushed its lead to 2-0 in the fifth when Michael Campbell
scored on a successful safety squeeze by Steven Tolleson.
Then the rains came.
"South Carolina's a good
team," said Norwood, who along with Jamie Paige paced the Pirates
offensively with two hits. "We've just got to be positive and go home
tonight with some confidence.
"We put up two runs on the
board late and really kind of broke through there at the end. It was just
too little too late. I personally think they threw their best at us today
and we're going to sleep well tonight and just come out and play with the
confidence that we've played with all year."
ECU certainly had its chances
early.
Paige led off the game with a
double down the left field line and moved to third on a sacrifice by Billy
Richardson, but was left stranded. An inning later, Trevor Lawhorn slapped a
two-out single to left and advanced to second via a walk to Mark Minicozzi,
but Campbell struck out John Poppert to end the inning.
The Pirates flirted with a
two-out rally in the third when Jones walked and Norwood doubled. However,
designated hitter Mike Grace weakly flew out to right field to kill ECU's
chances.
Meanwhile, Bunn was near
perfect during that stretch, yielding only an infield single to Gamecocks
centerfielder Davy Gregg and striking out five.
"That was a tough day of
baseball there," Mazey said. "If you're a pure baseball fan, that was an
enjoyable game to watch.
"It was good pitching, it was
well played defensively, and there was some good hitting. That's two good
teams going at it. That's a battle out there. I really think that our guys
came back from that rain delay, which is tough."
Now the Pirates must win two
straight to advance to Omaha. Tomorrow's first pitch is scheduled for noon,
with junior Aaron Rawl (12-4, 4.32 ERA) set to pitch for the Gamecocks.
Mazey said he was unsure who would throw for the Pirates.
Copyright 2004
Bonesville.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:39:03 AM
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