March 21, 2003
Knoxville, Tenn. – A two-out three-run home run by Jordan Czarniecki broke a scoreless 0-0 tie and UT starting pitcher Ben Riley went eight innings as Tennessee defeated 10th ranked South Carolina 3-0 in the first of a three-game Southeastern Conference baseball series. Tennessee improves to 12-8 on the year and 2-2 in conference play, while South Carolina drops its record to 16-6 and 1-3 in the SEC.
South Carolina starter Steven Bondurant took a no-hitter into the eighth inning before the Volunteers struck for the first runs of the game. Bondurant went seven and 2/3 innings allowing two runs on two hits while striking out a career-high eight batters. It was Bondurant’s longest outing of the season and second longest of his career. Bondurant is now 2-1 on the year with Riley improving to 2-2 for Tennessee. Tennessee’s Luke Hochevar earned his first career save pitching the last inning of relief for the Volunteers.
A one-out single by Kyle Norrid broke the no-hitter vs. Bondurant in the eighth inning. After striking out Brett Chappell, Justin Branson walked to put two runners on base bringing Czarniecki to the plate and knocking Bondurant out of the game. Czarniecki drilled the 1-0 pitch from reliever Aaron Rawl to left field for his first home run of the season.
South Carolina had three hits on the game with Tennessee finishing with two hits, both coming in the eighth inning. Senior 3B Brian Buscher singled in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. Buscher was 2-for-4 on the day and he has at least one hit in 21 of 22 games this year. Kevin Melillo had the other hit for USC, a first inning infield single.
Game two of the three-game series is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday and will be broadcast on CSS. This will be the first televised game for South Carolina this season. Live stats and audio broadcast will be available at USCSports.com.
In other news, South Carolina junior catcher Landon Powell was named to the Johnny Bench Award Watch List. The Johnny Bench Award is given to the top National Collegiate Catcher in a season, with the list narrowed down to 10 semi-finalists on May 20, 2003.
