Clemson-USC baseball article in USA TODAY

Mar 1, 2007, 4:07 PM

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/other/2007-03-01-sc-baseball_x.htm

South Carolina has gem of a diamond rivalry

By Andy Gardiner, USA TODAY
The creative hijinks of past decades might be missing this weekend, but the competitive level will be off the charts when Clemson and South Carolina resume one of college baseball's fiercest rivalries.
The Tigers, 7-1 and ranked in the top five of the three major college polls, will host Saturday's game before the teams shift to Columbia for Sunday's rematch hosted by the Gamecocks, 8-1 and also in the top five of all polls. (Clemson was ranked second in the USA TODAY/ESPN coaches' preseason poll and South Carolina fourth. The first regular-season poll appears Tuesday.)

Both schools have sold out their 6,000-seat stadiums, and the games will draw blanket media coverage in the state.

The programs have become perennial challengers for the NCAA title, but the richness of their rivalry is based on more than success:

?They are the largest schools in a state with only 4.3 million people, so fan bases run wide and deep.

?Although only 135 miles apart, they compete in different leagues. Clemson is in the Atlantic Coast Conference and South Carolina in the Southeastern.

?While other schools in similar situations, such as Florida-Florida State, and Tulane-LSU play only twice a year, the Tigers and Gamecocks play four times. They meet again in April.

"It's hard for me to believe there is a better rivalry in baseball," South Carolina coach Ray Tanner says. "The teams have a mutual respect for each other, the games are always sellouts and the fans really get excited. It's a wonderful stage for competition."

The schools first played in 1899. The Tigers have a 162-111-2 overall edge, but the series is 14-14 since 2000. The teams have played as many as six times a season and as few as once. Tanner and Clemson coach Jack Leggett settled on the four-game set in 2001.

"In this state, like no other I've seen, people are split right down the middle," Leggett says. "You're either for South Carolina or you're for Clemson ? there's no room in the middle. There is a feel to these games unlike any others."

Tom Price has been a part of the rivalry since he was a USC undergraduate in the early 1950s. He has been the Gamecocks official scorer, sports information director and radio voice. He misses the days when fans were more actively involved.

There was the year a low-flying plane dumped a live rooster on second base while the Gamecocks were in the field. And the time the USC cheerleaders draped a broken-down cow with an orange blanket that read "Miss Clemson 1949" and let it loose in the outfield.

"You don't see pranks like that anymore," Price says. "But the talent level today is so much greater than it was back then."

South Carolina's most accomplished recent alum is Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts; catcher Landon Powell is a promising rookie in the Oakland Athletics organization. Clemson boasts Orioles pitcher Kris Benson and San Diego Padres shortstop Khalil Greene.

"What really enhances the rivalry is the quality of players on both teams," says Greene, who lives in Greenville, S.C., in the offseason. "The coaches take a lot more stock in those games, and you target those games as soon as the schedule comes out. They're just a lot more meaningful. You want to win every one."

Especially if those games come during the College World Series. In 2002 Clemson took the regular-season series 3-1 but lost twice to the Gamecocks in Omaha.

"After we lost to Texas in the finals there were still 2,500 people waiting for us at the airport when we got home," Tanner says. "I apologized for not winning the championship, and a lot of people said they thought we did because we beat Clemson twice."

The Tigers reached the final eight last season and have played in the CWS three times since 2000. South Carolina made trips in 2002-04. Both look at this weekend as a possible prelude to Omaha.

"The baseball season is a marathon, and there are a lot of things to play for," Leggett says. "But getting to Omaha is the goal, and these games can help in that respect."

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Clemson-USC baseball article in USA TODAY

Re: Clemson-USC baseball article in USA TODAY

because they USC fans constantly think they are better

shoot, we are 14-14 since 2000, that is an even match up***

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