Feb. 13, 2006
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina baseball returns to action this weekend with a three-game series vs. Radford at Sarge Frye Field beginning Friday, Feb. 17 with first pitch set for 3 p.m. USC and Radford will play at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18 and Sunday, Feb. 19. Live audio and gametracker stats will be available at uscsports.com. Carolina moved up one spot in both the Baseball America (No. 13) and Collegiate Baseball (No. 17) rankings.
CAROLINA NOTEBOOK
Record: 2-1
2-1 in home games
0-0 in road games
0-0 vs. top 25 teams
Last Week: 2-1
Friday – 2/10 vs. Elon – W, 5-4 (11 innings)
Saturday – 2/11 vs. Elon – L, 2-1
Sunday – 2/12 vs. Elon – W, 8-3
WEEKLY NOTES:
FOR STARTERS
South Carolina won two of three games in its opening series vs. Elon … Carolina’s 5-4 win over Elon in the season opener marked the first time in the school’s 114-year history that the Gamecocks went into extra innings in the season opener … USC’s loss to Elon on Saturday snapped a 26-game winning streak for Carolina in the month of Feburary … Following the weekend series victory, USC is now 61-2 (.968) in games played in the month of February, dating back to the 2000 season
PLAYER HIGHLIGHTS
USC junior outfielder Cheyne Hurst got off to a great start in his first career game at Carolina with a 5-for-6 performance in the 5-4 victory vs. Elon … Hurst was the first player since Steve Pearce last year vs. Niagara (2-26-05) to have five hits in one game.
Senior RHP Andy Lambert and senior RHP Shawn Valdes-Fauli did not allow a hit in the final five 2/3 innings pitched by Carolina in the season opener … Valdes-Fauli worked a perfect two 2/3 innings with two strikeouts to pick up the win for Carolina … Lambert tied a career-high with six strikeouts in the win as well.
Despite the loss on Saturday, junior LHP Arik Hempy pitched a solid six innings with five strikeouts and no walks … Hempy allowed just two hits and two runs, both were unearned … Junior RHP Conor Lalor worked three scoreless innings of relief as well.
USC received production from a pair of newcomers in Sunday’s 8-3 win as James Darnell and Reese Havens each went 2-for-4 with three RBI … Havens two-out RBI double scored two runs to give USC the lead and was followed by a three-run homer from Darnell to cap a five-run fifth inning that helped lead USC to the victory …USC started three true freshmen in the infield on Sunday with Darnell at second base, Havens at shortstop and Justin Smoak at first base … Smoak was 2-for-8 in his first weekend at Carolina with a team-high five walks … Havens stayed busy at shortstop with six putouts and 15 assists in the first three games.
Senior outfielder Michael Campbell continued his move up career lists in the USC record book this weekend … With an assist from the outfield in Sunday’s game, Campbell tied Paul Hollins (1978-81) for the USC record for career assists by an outfielder with 20 … Campbell is also now 10th on the All-Time List at Carolina in games played with 203 as well as sixth in At-Bats with 751 total in his career …The iron man at Carolina, Campbell has now made 182 consecutive starts in the outfield going back to his freshman season.
In Sunday’s win over Elon, USC junior LHP Forrest Beverly pitched his second longest outing of his career, going five innings and earning the win … Beverly had six strikeouts in the five innings he pitched.
USC also had a strong debut from freshman RHP Mike Cisco, who pitched three perfect innings in relief of Beverly.
Along with Darnell, USC senior catcher Ian Paxton and senior infielder Neil Giesler hit home runs on the weekend.
Carolina continues the 2006 season next weekend with a three-game series vs. Radford … Carolina is 11-3 all-time against Radford including a series sweep against the Highlanders last year.
UP NEXT
2/17 vs. Radford – 3 pm
2/18 vs. Radford – 1:30 pm
2/19 vs. Radford – 1:30 pm