March 2, 2003
Columbia, S.C. – Aaron Rawl pitched a complete game Sunday and had a two hit shutout into the eighth inning as South Carolina defeated Clemson 6-4 before an overflow crowd of 6,227 at Sarge Frye Field to even the in-state rivalry college baseball series at one game apiece.
Clemson won 8-0 Saturday at Clemson and the two nationally ranked rivals meet twice again in April. South Carolina is ranked sixth by Collegiate Baseball, eighth by Sports Weekly/ESPN and 10th by Baseball America. Clemson is 19th in two polls and 12th in another.
Rawl, a sophomore right-hander, improved his season record to 4-0 in his fourth appearance and second start. His career record is 11-2.
South Carolina improved to 9-2 while Clemson’s record evened at 3-3. Jeff Hahn, the first of five Tiger pitchers, took the loss as his record dropped to 1-2.
Rawl allowed only two singles over the first seven innings as South Carolina built a 5-0 lead but Clemson used a pair of two run home runs in the eighth and ninth innings to cut the final margin to 6-4.
Michael Johnson, who has eight homers against South Carolina in his four year career, hit his third of the season after a double by Zane Green in the eighth inning to cut the Gamecock lead to 5-2. South Carolina got one run back in the bottom of the eighth on freshman first baseman Trey McDaniel’s third homer of the season.
Russell Triplett led off the Clemson ninth inning with a base hit and Kyle Frank followed with his first homer of the season. Rawl shook off the Tiger rally by striking out the final three Clemson batters to end the game. He ended with eight strikeouts, walked four and allowed six hits.
The complete game was the first of the season for the South Carolina pitching staff and the second of Rawl’s career. He pitched a complete game win over Georgia Tech in the 2002 College World Series.
South Carolina opened the scoring with a run in the fourth inning. Kevin Melillo singled, moved to second on a sacrifice, to third on a balk, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brian Buscher.
The Gamecocks scored three runs in the fifth on a solo home run by freshman outfielder Michael Campbell, his second of the season, singles by Nick Gardiner and Hank Parks, three walks and a sacrifice fly by Melillo. Buscher earned a second RBI of the game with a bases loaded walk. The fifth Carolina run scored in the seventh inning. Jon Coutlangus beat out a hit to shortstop and continued to second base on a throwing error by Russell Triplett. A sacrifice by Melillo moved Coutlangus to third and he scored on a slow ground ball by Bryan Triplett.
Buscher, who had at least one base hit in each of the first 10 games this season, was hitless in two official trips but drove in two runs. Landon Powell was hitless in four at bats to halt his streak at eight games.
South Carolina had seven hits and Melillo had a perfect day with two hits, a sacrifice fly and a sacrifice bunt to raise his season average to .517 on 15 hits in 29 at bats. The redshirt sophomore second baseman has reached base 22 times in 34 plate appearances for an on base percentage of .647.
Johnson had two of Clemson’s six hits.
CLEMSON 000 000 022 – 4-6-2
SOUTH CAROLINA 000 130 11x – 6-7-1
Hahn, Rohrbaugh (5), Berken (5), Harrelson (6), Trolia (7) and C. Mahoney. Rawl and Powell. W-Rawl (4-0). L-Hahn (1-2). Save-None. 2B-CU, Green. HR-CU, Johnson (3), Frank (1); USC, Mi. Campbell (2), McDaniel (3).
