Winston-Salem Journal from Winston-Salem, North Carolina • 23

Winston Salem Journal Baseball C3 C5 9 Golf C6 Auto Racing C8 Monday May 29 2000 4' I ILf 11 w3jK Elf 1 PB I Bft jf t'' ife IpM vfJr jf RfM Ilk I I 05' 7 jf 1 jMki to' WlrW a JL bt LI mmmI Tj wB 4r Al Gamecocks too much for Deacs South Carolina rallies from another deficit to end Wake season By Dan Collins JOURNAL REPORTER COLUMBIA SC One comeback led to another yesterday at the NCAA Baseball Regional game between South Caro lina and Wake orest The Gamecocks the No 1 seed spent the final seven innings coming back to an 8 4 victory and the Deacons spent the next three hours coming back to Winston Salem with their 2000 season in the books Down 3 0 after two innings South Carolina rallied past Wake orest with a three run fifth knocked starter Danny Borrell from the game in the seventh and took control with consecutive homers from Brandon Pack and Marcos Rios It was the 20th come from behind victory for the 55 8 Gamecocks who advanced to next Super Regional match up against Louisiana Lafayette Wake orest closed its season at 41 20 1 looked at the board and we had a lot of frames Coach Ray Tanner said of the 3 0 deficit said in the dugout been there before fellows This is not something new So battle our way And we were able to do that a tremendous effort from our players They play The Deacons also played hard and at times well They got a leadoff homer from Cory Sullivan in the first a two run homer from freshman Ryan Johnson in the second and a gutsy starting effort from Bor rell And they might have pulled off the upset forc ing a second game if it had not been for two critical lapses against a team ever ready to capitalize on any generosity from its opponent The first came in the fifth when Jason error at second base opened the door for a three run Gamecock uprising The second came in the sev enth moments after Borrell was lifted when fresh man Ryan Braun proved unable to hold South Caroli na at bay And one lapse as it turned out would lead to the other See DEACONS Page C3 The horne field advantage nieans a lot in the NCAA tournament C3 UNC eliminated by Penn Slate C3 ap photo I Ml iBfWiUH'JE I Wake orest's Corey Slavik (23) makes it back to first base in the second inning against South Carolina Montoya has no problem whipping Indy field 11 CART champion dominates Indianapolis 500 winning easily over runner up Lazier THE ASSOCIATED PRESS INDIANAPOLIS Juan Montoya detoured from auto civil war yesterday with a dominating Indianapolis 500 victory that might just be the strongest case yet for which side is best Montoya the defending champion of the more established Championship Auto Racing Teams series made car owner Chip Ganassi look brilliant for his decision to return to the Indy Racing biggest event after a four year absence Montoya over whelmed the rest of the 33 car field leading 167 of I he 200 laps and taking the checkered flag with his closest competitor still in the fourth turn on the mile oval As the driver crossed the finish line while thrusting his fist in the air Ganassi shouted into his radio: world famous Montoya 24 fended off a late challenge from Buddy Lazier the 1 996 race winner passed team mate Jimmy Vasser to retake the lead 21 laps from the end and raced on to become Indy's first rookie champion since Graham Hill in 1966 Many will view the victory by team as a win for CART whose big name teams and driv ers had boycotted Indy since the IRL began in 1996 But there was nothing political about the slow post race ride that Montoya and Ganassi took around the 212 mile oval atop a convertible with many of the 400000 spectators screaming their approval of the win by most dominant team JUAN MONTOYA: He led 167 of 200 laps in winning Indianapolis 500 iwwKMMK Late pass of Labonte gives him lead far good Kenseth rolls to win See INDY 500 Page C8 wlJsl MO WR I Ki MMf Ma 1 iwreaMB 1 HBHb' twt'i HB "Ji HH KHHH BMjaMBK'BMr HHhi KW i IJWlBlr 11 AP PHOTO Matt Kenseth celebrates his Coca Cola 600 victory Rookie starts 2 1st but moves up quickly to win first Winston Cup race Earnhardt is third By Mike Mulhern JOURNAL REPORTER CONCORD Yes there are other rookies out here besides Dale Earnhardt Jr and the guy who was his best buddy the last couple of years on the Busch tour Matt Kenseth finally got a chance to shine last night And shine Kenseth did taking advantage of Dale late race tire problems to grab the lead with 26 laps to go and then holding off Bobby Labonte to win the rain in terrupted Coca Cola 600 pretty Kenseth said after his first Winston Cup vic tory by half a second for car owner Jack Roush "I have beaten Dale Jr I know what happened to him used to being overshadowed by Dale Jr beaten me in the championship the last two years and won three races already this year a great driver And real good friends it certainly feels great to win our first race We were junk last week in The Winston but Robbie (Reiser his crew chief) did a great job in getting it competitive My heart started beating pretty hard there when I took the lead from Bobby (on lap 375) I was starting to get emotional at California (where he nearly won) because I know how I was going to think But then we ended up losing the race there This time when 1 took the lead I was thinking is a long way back there and I think he can catch just had to hold off Bobby We started off a little quicker which surprised me but I never really thought we had it until two to go two laps to go it started getting a little teary in there and I had to keep my head about me and make sure I hit my marks and didn't mess up any comers" The story of the race was Dale Jr who clearly had the dominant car leading 175 of the 400 laps And as hot as this kid is he may be able to eat up a good chunk of that 445 pomt deficit and get back in the Winston Cup battle See KENSETH Page C8 AP PHOTO 'it' Steve Park (1) starts to spin as Matt Kenseth (17) drives past on the low side during the Coca Cola 600 Rice shoot LA to 3 1 lead over Portland il big third quarter is difference in Game 4 win THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PORTLAND Ore So many coaches have tried to make Shaquille a better free throw shoot er After his 3 year old daughter advice he was perfect course she really doesn't know the game but today I called her and said dy loves said she said luck Daddy and bend your so that game is for who shoots about 50 percent from the line wras 9 for 9 yesterday includ ing 6 for 6 in the fourth quarter as the Los Angeles Lakers used a dominant second half to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 1 03 9 1 for a 3 1 lead in the Western Conference finals felt like Pete Maravich that guy from said grinning at the reference to his old school Glen Rice celebrated his 33rd birthday with his biggest game of the playoffs for the Lakers who can advance to the finals for the first time since 1991 with a homecourt victory on Tuesday always knew if we play the type of game that capable of playing we can win O'Neal said think cer tain people forgot that we were a pretty good road Rice scored 21 points as the Lakers swept two on the road from the Blazers who had been 5 0 at home in the postsea son before tins past weekend told Glen to do the same thing I did on my said my birth day I shot it every time I told him you get it shoot Rice scored 12 points in the decisive third quarter third quarter was definitely the See LAKERS Page C9 Shaquille O'Neal scored 25 points in Los win over Portland MZ fsl HP gi I IB vjBPfegfiB: Southern Conference hoping to expand League no longer worried about defections By Tommy Bowman JOURNAL REPORTER What began as concern over ru mors of possible defections in the Southern Conference has turned to talk of expansion have any reason to be lieve any (of our members are) in terested in going Alfred White the commissioner of the Southern Conference said riday a day after the spring meetings in Myrtle Beach SC end ed The Colonial Atliletic Associa tion looking to replenish its dwin dling number of members hopes to lure schools away from the South ern Conference that been able to sit around the table with all of (the Southern Conference presidents) I think that would Wliite said we talked most about at the meetings was expan sion not defection All of the presi dents supported working on expan Tom Yeager the commissioner of the CAA said that his league was close to wrapping up plans for ex pansion and addition of football be fore Richmond announced last week that it was leaving the CAA for full membership in the Atlantic 10 The Richmmid Times Dispatch reported that the plan in cluded six current Southern Con ference schools Citadel Col lege of Charleston Davidson ur man UNC Greensboro and VMI announcement left the CAA even more depleted after recent defections of East Carolina See SOUTHERN Page C7 1.