March 25, 2003

Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina baseball team heads to Greenville, S.C on Wednesday evening to face Furman at Greenville Municipal Stadium, home of the Greenville Braves. South Carolina enters the week with a 16-8 overall record and 1-5 in the Southeastern Conference. Carolina is ranked 17th in the latest USA Today Sports Weekly/ESPN Top 25 poll and 21st by Collegiate Baseball. USC is not ranked in the most recent Baseball America Top 25. Furman is 10-11 heading into Wednesday night’s game. First pitch is set for 7:15 p.m.

The Gamecocks will start freshman LHP Forrest Beverly. Beverly is 0-1 with a 4.82 ERA in four appearances and has pitched 9 1/3 innings this season. This will be Beverly’s first career start at Carolina. Furman will start senior RHP Coogie Freedman (0-1, 8.53 ERA).

Junior third baseman Brian Buscher continues to swing one of the best bats in the nation, hitting safely in 23 of 24 games this season and owning a 13-game hitting streak. Buscher is batting .432 on the year with 41 hits, six HR and 23 RBI. Buscher is currently second in the SEC in batting average.

South Carolina returns home this weekend to conference play with a three-game series vs. Vanderbilt at Sarge Frye Field Times for this weekend’s games are 7 p.m, 4 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.