#16 Gamecocks Sweep Visiting Tennessee

Baseball: Relievers blaze path to sweep

Written by NEIL WHITE
nwhite@thestate.com

Posted on 03.21.10

COLUMBIA, SC - For all those Gamecock fans that left the Clemson game two weeks ago worried about USC’s pitching, Tyler Webb and his band of relievers provided a ray of sunshine on a rainy day against a different team wearing orange.

The freshman left-hander combined with three others on a one-hitter in a 4-0 victory against Tennessee on a wet Sunday afternoon at Carolina Stadium. And that one hit came on a bunt that could not be fielded because Webb slipped on the grass in the sixth inning.

The No. 16 Gamecocks got solo homers from Whit Merrifield in the fifth and Scott Wingo in the seventh to provide enough offense to clinch the sweep. Not even a two-hour rain delay before the start of the game was enough to slow down USC, which won its 10th in a row to improve to 16-4 overall and 3-0 in the SEC.

Webb, Michael Roth, Jay Brown and Matt Price combined for 11 strikeouts, as Webb (1-1) picked up his first win and Price earned his first save.

“I’ll take a one-hitter and shutout any day of the week,” USC coach Ray Tanner said.

It was a far cry from a 19-6 loss to Clemson two weeks ago, when USC allowed 16 hits.

Webb, who could not find the strike zone in a starting stint against the Tigers, threw 52 of his 78 pitches for strikes Sunday while effectively mixing his fastball with off-speed pitches.

“I’ve tried to throw more strikes and get better each time,” he said.

Tennessee coach Todd Raleigh, whose team dropped to 10-10 and 0-3, was impressed with what he saw.

“They threw great. You have to tip your hat to them,” Raleigh said. “Their pitchers were aggressive. They threw a lot of breaking balls.”

Webb tossed 5ð shutout innings and entered the sixth inning with a no-hitter. But he walked Khayyan Norfork to start the inning, and lost his no-hitter when he slipped to the ground trying to field P.J. Polk’s bunt.

“I got tripped up, and my feet slipped,” Webb said. “It was a good bunt.”

Tanner agreed.

“It was a pretty good bunt,” he said. “It’s a hard play to make when they’ve got their fastest guy going down the line.”

However, Webb recovered to get a double-play groundout on a nifty stab by third baseman Adrian Morales, who stepped on the bag and threw across the diamond. Raleigh called it the turning point.

“I thought that was down the line for a double,” he said.

Tanner saw it the same way with runners on first and second and no outs.

“That was a big play,” he said. “That balls rolls through and runners are going everywhere.”

Tanner then brought in the left-handed Roth to face Cody Hawn, Tennessee’s top power hitter. The move worked when Roth got Hawn swinging to end the inning with the tying run on second.

“You can’t lose (sight) of the Roth strikeout of Hawn. That was a big pitch,” Tanner said.

The Gamecocks broke up Tennessee starter Stephen McCray’s shutout when Merrifield led off the fifth with a home run to left field, his team-high fifth home run of the season.

That would prove to be the difference in the game as well as the first time USC opened the SEC season with a sweep since 2001.

“Any time you can sweep in the SEC, it’s huge,” Merrifield said.

USC doubled its lead when Wingo hit a long fly ball in the seventh that drifted over the left-field fence off Tennessee reliever Will Locante. Brady Thomas added an RBI double and Adam Matthews followed with a run-scoring single in the eighth for insurance.

Wingo said the Gamecocks did not want to let up after clinching the series win Saturday.

“We don’t take games off. We could have come to the park and not showed up,” he said. “Our confidence is real high right now.”

Tanner is feeling it as well.

“It was a big win for us, no question,” he said. “I like Tennessee’s team. We caught them at the right time.”