News digest, poll updates, March 4

Clemson-N.C. State times changed
First pitch for Clemson's games at N.C. State Friday and Saturday has been changed to 3 p.m. from 6:30 p.m. because of weather concerns.

Stingers move start up
Florence-Darlington Tech's Thursday home game with Mercyhurst Northeast has been pushed up to 12:30 p.m. because of weather concerns.

Gardner to be honored
College of Charleston is putting a display on the outfield wall at Patriots Point to honor former Cougar and current New York Yankee Brett Gardner. Gene Sapakoff of The Post and Courier in Charleston has a story.
Gardner

Kelly honored
Mike Kelly, who hit 25 home runs for the Greenville Braves' 1992 Southern League Championship team, has been selected for induction into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. Kelly was a standout player at Arizona State.
Kelly

PollsPerfectGame.org
NCAA DII: 1. Tampa. 22. Erskine.
NAIA: 1. Missouri Baptist.
PG

NJCAA
DI: 1. Johnson County. 14. Florence-Darlington Tech.
NJCAA

State scoreboard, March 4

Bluefield 6, Southern Wesleyan 3 - SW: Drew Carson 4-5
Coastal Carolina 5, The Citadel 1- CC: Casey Schroeder 2-3, HR, 2 R
College of Charleston 8, Virginia Tech 3 - CofC: Champ Rowland 2-4, RBI
Florence-Darlington Tech 2, Mercyhurst Northeast 1, G1 - Tech: WP Brandon Hester
Florence-Darlington Tech 6, Mercyhurst Northeast 4, G2 - Tech: Nick Jobst 2nd save of DH
Francis Marion 10, St. Augustine's 5 - FM: Zac Lennis 2-2, 3 RBI
Mars Hill 10, Limestone 7 - Lime: Logan Conley 3-5
Newberry 9, Anderson 7- NC: Ben Herring 5-5, 3 R, RBI
North Greenville 3, Brevard 1 - NG: Drew Lipscomb 3-3
Presbyterian 11, Wofford 6 - PC: Jacob Midkiff 3-5, HR, 4 RBI
South Carolina 11, High Point 3 - SC: Kyle Martin 2-4, HR, 4 RBI
USC Upstate 12, Winthrop 3 - Up: Cody Brittain 2-4, HR, 2 R, 4 RBI
Walters State 8, Spartanburg Methodist 5, G1 - SM: Dominique Jackson 3-4, 2B,  R, 2 SB
Walters State 5, Spartanburg Methodist 0, G2

Postponed
North Greenville at Lincoln Memorial, DH

News digest, poll updates, honors, March 3, part 2

Skole gets 400th win at ETSU
Former The Citadel football and baseball player Tony Skole got the 400th win of his tenure as head coach at East Tennessee State as the Buccaneers beat Radford, 9-1, Tuesday night. Skole played for the Bulldogs' 1990 College World Series team.
Skole

Hunter profiled
The Post and Courier in Charleston has published a feature on Skylar Hunter, the standout closer for The Citadel.
Hunter

Polls
D2Baseballnews.com
National: 1. Tampa. 14. Erskine. 26. USC Aiken.
Southeast Region: 1. Mount Olive. 3. Erskine.
D2

Honors
Colonial Athletic Association pitcher of the week
Taylor Clarke, College of Charleston
CAA

News digest, poll updates, honors, March 3

Schedule changes continue
* Southern Wesleyan's Tuesday home game with Bluefield has been postponed until noon Wednesday.
* Spartanburg Methodist's Tuesday home doubleheader with Walters State has been postponed until 5 p.m. Wednesday.
* Anderson's Tuesday home game with Erskine has been postponed. No makeup date was announced.

Bracketology projections
CollegeSportsMadness.com
As of Monday
* South Carolina as the No 8 national seed and a regional host.
* Clemson going to the Columbia Regional.
* College of Charleston going to a regional in Chapel Hill.
CSM

Polls
CollegeBaseballcentral.com: 1. Virginia. 14. South Carolina.
CBC

CollegeBaseballInsider.com composite of 5 national polls
1. Virginia.9. South Carolina.
CBI

Honors
Peach Belt Conference
Pitcher of the week: Kyle Boraski, Lander.
Freshman of the week: Alex Conaway, Lander
PBC POW

Conference Carolinas
Player of the week: Jae Roberts, North Greenville
CC POW

NCAA DI  attendance leaders
Average: 1. LSU 10,593. 3. South Carolina 7,388. 7. Clemson 4,670.
Total: 1. LSU 116, 528. 5. South Carolina 36,941. 15. Clemson 23,351.
Attendance

State scoreboard, March 3

Armstrong State 12, Claflin 2 - Cla: Sixto Guerrero 2-3, R
Coker 5, St. Andrews 1 - Cok: Miguel Frias 1-4, 3 RBI
Georgia 5, Furman 3 - Fur - Blake Chisolm 3-4
Georgia College 7, North Greenville 3 - NG: Drew Lipscomb 2-4, R
Lander 3, Newberry 2 - Lan: Weston Lawing 2-5, 2 RBI, GW 2B B9
Paine 3, Voorhees 0, G1
Paine 10, Voorhees 0, G2
South Carolina 10, Charleston Southern 4 - SC: Alex Destino grand slam
USC Beaufort 11, Brewton-Parker 7, G1 - USCB: Bryan Lewallyn is coaching wins leader
USC Beaufort 8, Brewton-Parker 5, G2 - USCB: Clay Fenwick 2-3, 3 RBI
Winthrop 5, Clemson 4 - Win: Roger Gonzalez 3-run HR

Postponed
Anderson at Erskine
Bluefield at Southern Wesleyan, to noon Wednesday
Mars Hill at Limestone, to 2 p.m. Wednesday
Walters State at Spartanburg Methodist, to 5 p.m. Wednesday

Canceled
College of Charleston at Virginia Tech

Schedules change

Weather-related schedule changes just keep mounting.

* Limestone's Tuesday home game with Mars Hill has been pushed back to 2 p.m. Wednesday.

* College of Charleston's scheduled Tuesday game at Virginia Tech has been canceled and the starting time for Wednesday's game with the Hokies has been moved up to 3 p.m.

* Newberry has added a pair of home games with Davis & Elkins this weekend: 5 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday.

* Furman has picked up a home game against Winthrop at 5 p.m. April 6 to replace Sunday's canceled game against Campbell.

* Southern Wesleyan added a Monday game with Truett-McConnell ... and lost, 12-6.

Koerner was on, to put it mildly

Clemson pitcher Brody Koerner gets ready to throw
a pitch in the ninth inning against South Carolina. (Rudy Jones photo)

The Tigers share congratulatory handshakes after the game. (Rudy Jones photo)

Brody Koerner gets hugged by teammate Clay Bates
in the postgame team huddle (Rudy Jones photo).

It may go down as one of the all-time pitching performances in the long Clemson-South Carolina rivalry.

Tigers senior Brody Koerner pitched a four-hit shutout in his first-ever appearance in the rivalry as Clemson rolled to a 7-0 victory at Carolina Stadium on Monday, winning the regular-season series over the Gamecocks for the first time since 2010.

Koerner allowed only one runner to reach third base in becoming the first pitcher to shut out the Gamecocks at home since 1998.

"It's definitely big," said Koerner, who won the Bob Bradley Award as Clemson's most valuable player in the series. "We were confident coming in. They're a good team, but we came out on top tonight."

Koerner said some adjustments have helped him with the command of his fast ball. That certainly was the case Monday.

"I'm just really excited about how we played tonight," said Clemson coach Jack Leggett. "We played really well. Brody was outstanding on the mound. I don't think I've ever seen seen anybody go from start to finish as in command as he was. he had a great pace to his game.

"Clemson obviously deserved to win the game today and, over the course three games, they deserved to win the series," said USC coach Chad Holbrook. "They played better than we did. Koerner was extremely impressive today.

Their pitchers, over the course of three games, pitched extremely well and their position players, their better players, stepped up and drove the ball and hit the ball," Holbrook said. "Their good hitters made plays and our good hitters couldn't do much and you have to credit their pitching staff for that. They outplayed us today and we'll go back to the drawing board and try to get better.
Reed Rohlman had three of Clemson's 10 hits. Tyler Krieger and Steven Duggar added two apiece.

"I thought we played really well offensively," Leggett said. "We put together some innings, got some situational hits when we needed them. We ran the bases well, we played really good defense and put together what I consider a complete game against a good team.

"It was a good series. We're both good teams. We just happened to play a little bit better tonight."

Things were considerably less upbeat on the USC side.

"We didn't come out with energy at all," said Gamecocks first baseman Kyle Martin. "(Korner) came right out of the gate throwing strikes and we didn't seem prepared for it. We didn't swing the bats at all like we'd hoped."

Holbrook didn't like  hearing his players saying they had trouble finding a sense of urgency.

"That's he joke," Holbrook said, testily, then pausing to gsather his thoughts. "If you can't get up to play Clemson in our own ballpark in 70-degree weather, I've got the wrong players in the locker room if that was the case. That's an excuse."

Holbrook indicated lincup changes may be in the offing.

"I've got to try to find the right combinations because offensively we just haven't been good enough the last couple days. I've got good hitters in our dugout. I've just got to figure out the ones to put in there.

"Other than that, congratulations to Clemson. They played better. They've got a good, solid team. They pitched extremely well. They played defense. They deserved to win."

The Gamecocks committed four errors.

Jack Wynkoop, the winning pitcher on Saturday, earned the Tom Price Award as USC's most valuable player.