Clemson-USC Baseball Capsules

by TigerNet Staff - Sat Mar 04 09:08:16 GMT-04:00 2006

Where: Game 1 (Sarge Frye Field, Columbia), Game 2 (Doug Kingsmore Stadium, Clemson)

When: Today and Sunday

Time: 1:30 p.m. (Saturday), 2 p.m. (Sunday)

Tickets: 1-800-CLEMSON

TV: none

Radio: 104.9 in the upstate

Records: Clemson 5-1, College of Charleston 7-2

Pitchers:

Game 1: Clemson, Jason Berken (2-0, RHP, 0.00 ERA). USC, Aril Hemby (0-1, LHP, 0.00 ERA). Game 2: Clemson, Stephen Faris (1-0, RHP, 0.00 ERA). USC, Forrest Beverly (3-0, LHP, 3.38 ERA).

What to Watch:

The series between the two teams has been very tight recently with USC holding a slight edge of 13-11 in games played between the two schools since the 2000 season. The Gamecocks and Tigers have split the four contests played in each of the last two seasons with USC winning the first two games of the year and Clemson coming back to take victories in the mid-week Wednesday night games played in April. The Tigers offense is led by junior outfielder Tyler Colvin, who is batting .450 (9-for-20) in six games played with four home runs and six RBIs. Senior third baseman Herman Demmink is hitting .364 (8-for-22) with sophomore outfielder Brad Chalk at a .333 (6-for-18) clip. Sophomore second baseman Taylor Harbin has been bothered by an injury early in the year and has only played in one of the first six games. Harbin earned All-ACC honors and was a freshman All-America selection in 2005. After struggling against left-handers for much of last season and seeing three lefties in their first six games this year, Clemson finally figured one out last Sunday, getting 10 hits and eight runs off Mercer starter Hunter Abercrombie.

About South Carolina:

USC leadoff hitter for eight of the first nine games, junior oufielder Cheyne Hurst, is off to a fast start with hits in seven of nine contests on the year. He has the team's second highest batting average at .394 (13-for-33) and has also scored eight runs. Hurst hit his first career homer, a two-run shot, in last Friday's 15-0 win over Duquesne. Hurst got off to a great start in his first career game at Carolina with a 5-for-6 performance in the 5-4 victory against Elon. Hurst was the first player since Steve Pearce last year vs. Niagara (2-26-05) to have five hits in one game. After three weeks of play, Robbie Grinestaff has contributed with a solid bat in the lineup. He is currently batting .286 on the season with an SEC-high four HR and 14 RBI. The junior designated hitter had a pair of three-run homers in both the 15-0 and 6-3 wins over Duquesne this past weekend. He finished the series with a .455 batting average (5-for-11) and scored a team-high six runs in the weekend series and also had a team-high seven RBIs as the Gamecocks swept the Dukes. He was a perfect 3-for-3 with three RBIs in the 15-0 victory. Freshman first baseman Justin Smoak had his best weekend of his young career at Carolina. Smoak went 3-for-3 with two doubles, one homer and five RBIs in the 12-4 win. He became the first USC player this season to have multiple doubles in a game and tied a USC individual high on the year with four runs scored and five RBIs in the victory. Smoak has reached base seven consecutive times heading into the Clemson series with five hits and two walks. Smoak raised his season batting average 0.70 points this weekend to .333.