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© St. Petersburg Times, published May 23, 2002
HOOVER, Ala. -- Ben Harrison hit a three-run homer and Jimmy Ramshaw pitched a complete game for Florida, which beat Georgia 7-2 in the first round of the SEC baseball tournament on Wednesday.
The third-seeded Gators (41-15) play Alabama today. No. 6 Georgia (30-26) faces Mississippi State in an elimination game.
The Bulldogs were only outhit 6-5 but committed four errors for their sixth straight loss.
Florida was trailing 2-0 when Harrison homered over the right-centerfield fence. The Gators added a run in the seventh and three more in the eighth.
Ramshaw (5-3) allowed five hits and one earned run, striking out seven.
In other games, sophomore Lane Mestepey pitched a complete-game six-hitter and Sean Barker hit his sixth homer of the season to lead LSU to a 2-1 win over Auburn in the first round. ... Scott McClanahan hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Adam Pavkovich was 3-for-3 to lead Alabama to a 12-2 victory over Mississippi State. ... Senior Gary Bell recorded a career-high 13 strikeouts and scattered six hits to lead top-seeded South Carolina to a 10-1 win over eighth-seeded Arkansas.
C-USA: South Florida, behind 13 hits, won 10-0 against Louisville in the first round of the tournament at Grainger Stadium in Kinston, N.C.
Tonight the Bulls face East Carolina.
"We got some breaks," USF coach Eddie Cardieri said. "We hit some balls off the end of the bat, we dinked a couple, we squibbed a couple. Earlier in the year we hit a lot of balls hard right at people that didn't fall and that's just baseball."
USF (32-25) led 2-0 before opening the fifth with seven consecutive singles, eventually building an 8-0 lead.
In the other games, Turner Brumby drew a bases-loaded walk in the ninth to give Tulane a 6-5 win over Saint Louis. ... Sam Narron allowed three hits in 81/3 innings and East Carolina took advantage of TCU miscues for a 5-1 victory.
SUN BELT: Adam Summerell and Brad Eldred each had two home runs in Florida International's 12-1 win over New Orleans in the first round in Mobile, Ala.
ATLANTIC SUN: Top-seeded Central Florida scored six in the seventh to defeat No. 6 Samford 7-5 in the opening round in DeLand. The Golden Knights face Troy State, a 7-6 loser to Stetson, at 3 today.
FLORIDA STATE: Junior middle linebacker Jerel Hudson, projected as the starter next season, accepted a plea of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, on Wednesday morning. He had been involved in a brawl last March in a bar and charged with misdemeanor simple battery.
As part of the plea bargain, an adjudication of guilt was withheld. He also will be on probation, must perform 20 hours of community service, take an anger-management course and pay court fines and costs of $215.
Hudson, 21, who played well in relief of injured star Bradley Jennings against Georgia Tech and then Virginia Tech in the Gator Bowl, was arrested after two police officers saw him "straddling" a fellow FSU student and punching him in the head and face.
SOUTH FLORIDA: USF junior defensive tackle Lee Roy Selmon tore an ACL while playing basketball recently and will miss this season. Selmon played in 1998 and 1999 for the Bulls as a platoon starter before using 2001 as a redshirt season. Coach Jim Leavitt said Selmon plans to return for his senior season.
NOTRE DAME: Matt LoVecchio will transfer less than a year after he was replaced as the starting quarterback.
The school didn't say where LoVecchio, from Franklin Lakes, N.J., would transfer.
LoVecchio, 20, started 10 games before being replaced by Carlyle Holiday for the third game of last season, as Notre Dame was trying to avoid the first 0-3 start in the program's history.
WISCONSIN: Lee Evans, who set a Big Ten record last season with 1,545 yards receiving, had surgery to repair torn ligaments in his left knee.
NCAA MEN: Georgia's Matias Boeker began his NCAA singles title defense by beating Yale's Steve Berke 6-2, 6-3 in the first round in College Station, Texas.
Second-seeded Peter Handoyo of Tennessee was eliminated, falling 6-1, 6-2 to Ryan Newport of Texas A&M.
NCAA WOMEN: Florida's Jessica Lehnhoff raced out to a quick lead and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Pennsylvania's Alice Pirsu in Stanford, Calif. UF sophomore Lindsay Dawaf lost to Stanford's Erin Burdette 6-2, 6-3. Dawaf and Lehnhoff paired in doubles for two wins to make the quarterfinals.
NCAA WOMEN: Georgia's Summer Sirmons shot 4-under-par 68 for a share of the second-round lead at the NCAA Championships in Auburn, Wash. Sirmons matched Duke's Virada Nirapathpongporn at 3-under 137 on the Washington National Golf Course.
In team competition, Arizona took a six-stroke lead over Duke. Florida was in fifth, eight strokes back and USF slipped to 24th.
SOUTH CAROLINA: A review board has denied Brent Delahoussaye's appeal for an unconditional release from his scholarship to transfer to Clemson and play as soon as next season.
"This is one of the most vindictive decisions," said Delahoussaye's attorney, Eric Bland. "If the university feels good about what they did here . . . amazing."
Delahoussaye, a sophomore, can still become a Tiger. He would have to sit out a year, however, before finishing his final two years of eligibility.
DUKE: Kris Humphries, the Hopkins High junior considered the best high school player in Minnesota, orally committed.
-- Times staff writer Brian Landman contributed to this report.