By MONTE DUTTON
Had Iowa won the women’s basketball championship on Sunday, Caitlin Clark might have been named a finalist to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate.
She’s too young. It violates the Constitution. That doesn’t seem to stop anyone else these days.
Iowa didn’t win the game Sunday. South Carolina did, as well as every other game during the season.
The Gamecocks, in spite of the fact that they lost every starter from the season. before, had everything: inside, outside, all around the court.
Clark did all she could. She may be the best Iowa athlete since Bob Feller or Nile Kinnick.
I have previously railed against the notion that Clark should be compared to Pete Maravich. What Maravich and Clark had in common on a basketball floor was the astonishing number of assists they didn’t get because their passes were too snazzy for their targets to complete the play.
I was just happy to be in the living room watching the game.
Meanwhile, far from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Furman Paladins were active if not successful.
Mercer rallied from a 4-0 deficit to force extra innings and claim a 5-4 victory over Furman in nine innings of Southern Conference softball on Sunday afternoon at Sikes Field in Macon, Ga.
The rally swept the Paladins out of Georgia smarting from three losses to the Bears.
The victory gave Mercer the three-game series sweep and improved the Bears to 18-19 overall and 7-2 in Southern Conference play. The Paladins dipped to 18-21 overall and 3-6 in the league.
Mercer (18-19, 7-2 SoCon) got on the board for the first time in the bottom of the fourth on Tori Hedgecock’s school-record 17th home run of the season, a solo blast down the left-field line, to cut the Furman lead to 4-1. The Bears pulled within a run at 4-3 in the sixth when Kassidy Moore singled off reliever Lauralee Scott and Avery Barton followed with a two-run homer to center.
Laura Vigna singled to start the bottom of the seventh and Alyssa Woods followed with a triple to the left field wall to tie the game. Scott, however, retired three of the next four batters to strand Woods at third base and salvage extra innings.
The game remained knotted at 4-4 until the bottom of the ninth. Wood led off the inning with an infield single and moved to second base when Janessa Plummer put down a sacrifice bunt and reached on a dropped ball at first base.
The Paladins intentionally walked Hedgecock to load the bases and Scott struck out Kassidy Moore before Woods sprinted home on a wild pitch to end the contest.
Ouch.
Mercer’s Grace Taylor (8-8) tossed seven shutout innings of two-hit relief to earn the victory. Scott (7-4) suffered the loss after allowing four runs on four hits and four walks in 3-1/3 innings.
Furman (18-21, 3-6) opened the scoring with three runs in the top of the first inning with the benefit of just one hit. Ashlee Lykins worked a base on balls and Caitlin Goldwait beat out an infield single to start the rally.
After Kiley Perry lined out, Sylvia Burrough’s was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Lykins beat a throw to the plate on a fielder’s choice to score the first run. Ansley Chiang reached on an error by the pitcher to double the lead, and Burroughs scooted home on a two-out error by the Bears’ third baseman to give Furman a 3-0 advantage.
In the top of the second, Lykins and Goldwait started another rally with a single and hit by pitch, respectively, but a double play left the Paladins with a runner at second base and two outs. Burrough’s delivered the fourth run of the game with a two-out, RBI single to center field.
Burroughs and Lykins combined to make the play of the day in the bottom half of the third inning. With a runner on second and two outs, Janessa Plummer popped up a bunt that Burrough’s dove to catch. She jumped to her feet and fired to second base and Lykins, the center fielder, snagged the throw on a sprint from outfield to tag the base and end the inning.
Barton and Woods each went 2/-4 and combined to drive in three Mercer runs.
Goldwait finished 2/4 with a pair of runs and was hit by a pitch for the Paladins.
Furman next hosts Samford in a three-game SoCon series at Pepsi Stadium next weekend.
No. 46 Charlotte blanked Furman, 4-0, Sunday at Halton-Wagner Tennis Complex in Charlotte, N.C.
The 49ers (17-7) won the top two doubles matches to score the doubles point. Lucia Quiterio and Ares Teixido Garcia posted a 6-4 victory over junior Ellie Schulson and freshman Macy Hitchcock at flight one, and Sara Suchankova and Shona Nakano defeated juniors Jess Dawson and Sara Snyder, 6-2, at No. 2. The 3 match was unfinished.
In singles play, Charlotte scored at Nos. 2, 2 and 6 for the win. Quiterio held off Snyder, 6-4, 7-6(4), Lucie Petruzelova topped freshman Maeve Thornton, 6-2, 6-0, and Nakano slipped past junior Marissa Pennings, 6-3, 7-6(6).
Furman (10-11) concludes the regular season Saturday when the Paladins travel to Johnson City, Tenn., to take on ETSU in a battle of the SoCon’s unbeaten teams, beginning at 11 a.m.
Men’s tennis wraps up its home schedule this week when it hosts East Tennessee State and Wofford in back-to-back matches at Mickel Tennis Center.
Furman entertains ETSU on Monday at 5 p.m. before hosting Wofford on Wednesday at 3.
The Paladins (10-10, 3-1 SoCon) have won three consecutive matches entering the week after topping The Citadel, 6-1, last Friday in Greenville.
East Tennessee State enters the matchup first in the SoCon with an 8-9 overall record and an unbeaten 5-0 mark against conference opponents. Wofford currently sits at 7-10 on the season and 2-4 in league play.
Furman owns a 43-2 advantage all-time over Wofford while trailing East Tennessee State 24-21.
The Paladins conclude the regular season on Sunday, April 14, when they travel to Macon, Ga., to face Mercer at noon.
Senior Walker Crosby (E) tied for 11th to lead the Paladins in the final round of the Mason Rudolph Championship.
Crosby birdied No. 1 then turned at 1-over. He added birdies on Nos. 14 and 18 to finish the day with a 2-over 73 and finish the tournament 11 strokes behind individual champion Gordon Sargent (-11) of Vanderbilt, who won the tournament by four strokes with a three-day total of 64-69-69=202.
Senior Ross Funderburke (+7) fired a team-low 69 to pace the Paladins on Sunday.
No. 3 Vanderbilt (-30) won the tournament by 18 strokes over fifth-ranked Ole Miss (-12). Ninth-ranked Alabama (E) finished third, followed by UNC Wilmington (+4), which took fourth place. Middle Tennessee State (+10) completed the top five. Furman (+13) finished seventh.
Furman competes at the Southern Conference Championship, April 21-23, in Greensboro, Ga.
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