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March 27, 2006

Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina (22-3, 5-1 SEC) baseball team returns to action on Tuesday night with a non-conference tilt against Wofford (15-13) at Sarge Frye Field. First pitch has been moved to 6 pm in order to accommodate fans, who would like to watch the USC-Wofford baseball game before the men’s basketball NIT Semifinal game between USC and Louisville. Fresh off a sweep of Florida over the weekend, Carolina has climbed up to No. 5 in this week’s Baseball America Top 25 and Collegiate Baseball Top 30. Live audio and live gametracker stats will be available for Tuesday’s game at uscports.com.

TUESDAY PITCHING MATCHUP
South Carolina: Harris Honeycutt (RHP, So., 3-0, 1.10 ERA)
Wofford: Adam Wood (RHP, 0-1, 10.38 ERA)

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Record: 22-3
SEC Record: 5-1
20-1 in home games
2-2 in road games
0-0 in neutral games
4-1 vs. top 25 teams

Last Week: 5-0
Tuesday – 3/21 – vs. Charleston Southern, W, 6-3
Wednesday – 3/22 – vs. Furman, W, 11-3
Friday – 3/24 – vs. Florida, W, 4-1
Saturday – 3/25 – vs. Florida, W, 6-5
Sunday – 3/26 – vs. Florida, W 21-4

WEEKLY NOTES:

QUICK RECAP
South Carolina went undefeated on the week with five wins including a three-game sweep over the weekend against Florida … Carolina is now 22-3 on the year and tied atop the SEC conference standings with a 5-1 mark … South Carolina swept Florida for the first time since 1995 … The Gamecocks have won six of the last seven series played between the two schools and now lead the all-time history 28-21.

LOOKING BACK
Sunday’s 21-4 victory over Florida marked the largest margin of victory for USC since a 19-1 win over Niagara on Feb. 26, 2005 … The 17-run victory was the largest for Carolina against an SEC team since a 21-1 win over Vanderbilt on April 18, 1992 … The 21 runs were the most scored by Carolina since a 38-0 win over Charleston Southern on February 14, 2004 … One other note, the 21 runs are the most scored against an SEC team since Ray Tanner has been head coach at Carolina (1997-present).

GIESLER
Senior INF Neil Giesler raised his hitting streak to 17 games this week and leads the SEC with a .506 batting average (44-for-87) … Giesler went 10-for-15 at the plate this week for Carolina … He has hit safely in 21 of 22 games played with 15 multi-hit games.

GRINESTAFF
Junior OF Robbie Grinestaff returned to the Carolina lineup after being sick on Friday and came away with a stellar series vs. the Gators … Grinestaff went 5-for-9 on Saturday and Sunday vs. Florida with a game-winning three-run HR on Saturday as well as four hits (4-for-5), including two homers and a double in Sunday’s win over the Gators … Grinestaff had his second multi-homer game of the year and tied his season-high for RBI with five in the Sunday victory … Grinestaff is batting .295 (26-for-88) with a team-high eight HR and 32 RBI.

HURST
Cheyne Hurst was 3-for-5 with three runs and five RBI in Sunday’s win over Florida … Hurst on the year is at .358 (34-for-95).

CAMPBELL
Senior OF Michael Campbell had his best week of the year at the plate batting .579 (11-for-19) with five RBI and eight runs scored … Campbell raised his season average to .315 (28-for-89) with 21 RBI and 22 runs scored … Campbell has made 204 consecutive starts in the outfield and has played in 225 games … Campbell moved ahead of Jeff Parnell (1990-93) into third place on the USC career games played list … Campbell had eight hits in the Florida series also pushing him past Hank Small (1972-75) and Mike Curry (1996-98) into fifth place on the USC all-time hits list with 251 in his career … Campbell had a triple in Sunday’s win and is now one behind Mac White (1991-94) and Bill Harley (1930-32) on the career triples list at Carolina … Campbell has 11 for his career with Carolina.

HEMPY
USC had a top performance from Arik Hempy in Friday’s 4-1 win over the Gators … Hempy pitched a USC individual high on the year with 7.2 innings of work, allowing one run on three hits with two walks and a career-high 12 strikeouts … Hempy improved to 2-1 with the win and lowered his ERA to 2.73 on the year … Friday’s appearance was his second longest of his career … Hempy has 43 strikeouts and just 10 walks and 19 hits allowed in 29.2 innings pitched.

CRUSE
Sophomore RHP Andrew Cruse earned his first save of the year with 1.1 shutout innings of work in Friday’s win … Cruse is 2-0 with a 0.90 ERA and 24 strikeouts and five walks allowed in 20 innings pitched.

CISCO
Freshman RHP Mike Cisco earned his third consecutive win in Saturday’s 6-5 victory over Florida … Cisco is 3-0 with a 2.73 ERA … He pitched 5.1 innings and allowed five runs on nine hits.

PELZER
Sophomore RHP Wynn Pelzer pitched 3.2 shutout innings in relief of Cisco to pick up his second save on the season … Pelzer has been stellar out of the bullpen as of late and owns a 1.80 ERA with 27 strikeouts and only nine walks in 20 innings pitched … Opponents are batting only .121 against Pelzer.

BEVERLY
Junior LHP Forrest Beverly improved to 5-1 on the year with a win in Sunday’s game … He pitched five-plus innings and allowed three runs on five hits … Beverly has pitched a team-high 35.1 innings and has a 4.33 ERA.

PITCHING & HITTING & FIELDING
The South Carolina pitching staff is 22-3 with a 2.64 team ERA to go along with 257 strikeouts to only 70 walks in 228 innings … Opponents are only batting .199 (163-for-819) against USC pitching … The USC offense has continued to climb over the past two weeks with the team’s batting average up to .315 (274-for-871) with 195 runs scored … USC also continues to play stellar defense with 13 error-less games in 25 games played … USC leads the SEC with a .983 fielding percentage.

UP NEXT
3-28 – Wofford – 6 pm (denote time change)
3-31 – at LSU – 6:30 pm CT
4-1 – at LSU – 3 pm CT (denote time change)
4-2 – at LSU – 1 pm CT