Junior Colleges California Baseball

USC repeat: Gritty Gamecocks simply refuse to lose in Omaha

FACTS AND FIGURES
— Attendance for South Carolina's series clinching victory was 26,721, a TD Ameritrade Park record.
— Five batters were hit in the final game, good for fifth all-time in the CWS.
— The eight teams combined for nine home runs, the lowest total since eight were hit in 1974.
— There were 33 sacrifices, the most since 1955 when there were a CWS record 39.
— South Carolina became the sixth program to go back-to-back, joining Texas, Southern California, Stanford, LSU and Oregon State.
— The Gamecocks have won 16 straight NCAA Tournament games and 11 in a row in the College World Series, both records.
— Most Outstanding Player Scott Wingo was hit by five pitches during the College World Series, tying the record of Rice's Aaron Luna set in 2006.
— Wingo was hit by 17 pitches during the season and a school-record 63 during his career.
— Until shortstop Peter Mooney hit a solo shot in the sixth inning of the final game, South Carolina was on pace to become the first team since Ohio State in 1966 to win the College World Series without hitting a home run.
— South Carolina has won 16 straight NCAA Tournament games, eclipsing the record of 15 set by Texas set in 1983-84.
— The Gamecocks have won 11 in a row in the College World Series, beating the record of 10 shared by Southern California (1972-74) and LSU (1996-98).
— South Carolina's team ERA of 0.88 is the fourth-lowest in CWS history.
Gamecock relievers went 4-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 19 innings and did not allow an extra-base hit.
— Michael Roth started three games on the mound for South Carolina, matching a CWS record. He became the second pitcher to start two decisive games in the championship series, joining Mike Stutes of Oregon State in 2006-07.

You look at the way South Carolina was poured into more jams than an acre of peaches, and you think no way did these guys win their second straight national championship. And in five games? C'mon.

But they did. They did because champions are made of grit and fire and a stubborn streak that says we will not lose no matter what.

Bases loaded and nobody out? Careful, these guys have got you just where they want you.

“It's really hard to understand,” USC coach Ray Tanner said after the Gamecocks downed Florida 5-2 in Game 2 of the College World Series championship series Tuesday night to secure the title. “I mean, so many things happened in the games that we played — the extra-inning affairs, the bases loaded, the double plays.

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Bill Bradley

Early life

Bradley was born on July 28, 1943 in Crystal City, Missouri, the only child of Warren, a banker, and Susan “Susie” (ne Crowe) Bradley (d. 1995), a teacher. Politicians and politics were standard dinner-table topics in Bradley’s childhood, and he described his father as a “solid Republican” who was an elector for Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election.

He began playing basketball in fourth grade. He was a basketball star at Crystal City High School, where he scored 3,068 points in his scholastic career, and was twice named All-American. He received 75 college scholarship offers, although he applied to only five schools.

Bradley’s basketball ability was enhanced by his unusually wide peripheral vision, which he worked to improve by focusing on faraway objects while walking. During his high school years, Bradley maintained a rigorous practice schedule, a habit he carried through college. He would work on the court for “three and a half hours every day after school, nine to five on Saturday, one-thirty to five on Sunday, and, in the summer, about three hours a day. He put ten pounds of lead slivers in his sneakers, set up chairs as opponents and dribbled in a slalom fashion around them, and wore eyeglass frames that had a piece of cardboard taped to them so that he could not see the floor, for a good dribbler never looks at the ball.”

Basketball

College

Playing at Princeton, 1964

Considered the top high school player in the country, Bradley initially chose to attend Duke University in the fall of 1961. However, after breaking his foot in the summer of 1961 during a baseball game and thinking about his college decision outside of basketball, he decided to enroll at Princeton University instead. He had been awarded a scholarship at Duke, but not at Princeton (the Ivy League does not allow its members to award athletic scholarships). In his freshman year at Princeton, Bradley averaged more than 30 points per game for the freshman team, and at one point during his freshman season, he made 57 consecutive free throws. The following year, as a sophomore, he was a varsity starter, in Butch van Breda Kolff’s first year as the Princeton coach.

Bradley was named to The Sporting News All-American first team in early 1963, in his sophomore year, and the coach of the St. Louis Hawks believed he was ready to play professional basketball at that point. The AP and United Press International polls both put Bradley on the second team, establishing him as the top sophomore player in the country. The following year, as a junior, The Sporting News again named him to its All-American team (the only junior) and additionally named him player of the year.

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