March 26, 2003
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Derek Norman was 2-for-3 with three RBI and Patrick Griffin won his third game of the season as Furman knocked off 17th ranked South Carolina 7-5 on Wednesday evening at Greenville Municipal Stadium. Furman improves to 11-11 on the year while the loss drops South Carolina to 16-9 on the season.
Furman jumped on top of the Gamecocks early with a first inning run. Dominic Frankey’s one-out RBI single to left field scored Nick Wajda to give the Paladins a 1-0 lead. The Gamecocks came back in the top of the second to tie the game at one. Landon Powell led off the inning with a single and scored on an RBI groundout by Justin Harris.
The Paladins regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with four runs. A bases loaded single from Drew Latora scored two runs and RBI’s from Norman and Hildreth put the Paladins up 5-1.
South Carolina came back in the top of the sixth with two runs to cut the deficit to 5-3. A two-out RBI double from Michael Campbell scored Bryan Triplett and Hanks Parks and put the Gamecocks two runs behind. Furman added two runs in the bottom half to bring the game back to a four-run lead.
The Gamecocks once again cut the deficit to two with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh. The Gamecocks loaded the bases with one out by singles from Jon Coutlangus, Steven Tolleson and Triplett. Brian Buscher’s RBI sacrifice fly scored Coutlangus and Powell knocked an RBI single to left field to score Tolleson and cut the Furman lead to 7-5.
South Carolina starter Forrest Beverly took the loss despite throwing a career-high four 1/3 innings allowing only two runs on two hits with three walks and one strikeout. Beverly is now 0-2 on the year for USC.
South Carolina outhit Furman 11-10, the fifth consecutive opponent Carolina has outhit but the fourth time Carolina has lost in that span. Buscher extended his hitting streak to a season-high 14 games and has now hit safely in 24 of 25 games this year.
South Carolina returns home this weekend and resumes conference play with a three-game series vs. Vanderbilt. First pitch on Friday is set for 7 p.m., with Saturday’s game at 4 p.m. and Sunday’s at 1:30 p.m.
