Considering all the success he's had at home this season, South Carolina's ability to score runs against Virginia's superb lefthander Sean Doolittle Saturday night was an impressive feat.

In eight starts at Davenport Field this season, Doolittle was 7-0 with 1.07 ERA in 50-1/3 innings of work. He had given up just 29 hits and recorded 52 strikeouts over that span.

But that mattered little against USC, which usually struggles against lefthanders. Using predominately a righthanded lineup, the Gamecocks were able to score six runs against Doolittle before he was lifted with no outs in the fifth and one run across.

"Doolittle is one of the best pitchers in the country," USC head coach Ray Tanner said. "I told our coaches to hide the stat sheets. You have no chance if you look at the stat sheet. His numbers are incredible. He looks unbeatable. You try to find a blemish to get to him and you can't find it."

The setback marked just the fourth time Virginia has fallen at Davenport Field this season in 36 games.

SUNDAY'S STARTER: Ray Tanner said following the game that either freshman Will Atwood (4-2, 5.47 ERA) or junior Forrest Beverly (6-2, 5.55) will start Sunday's 6 p.m. game against Virginia or Evansville.

TANNER WON'T HOLD BACK: Tanner said Saturday that he will throw everything the Gamecocks have in order to win Sunday night's potential regional-clinching victory. In order words, he won't save anyone or anything for a potential winner-take-all game Monday night.

"I can't manage that way," Tanner said. "We're going to try to win tomorrow. It's not like we have a rotation that's so defined we know what we're going to get. If I had that I might look at it differently. We're going to line up our best guys Sunday and go after it."

AGGRESSIVENESS SUCCEEDS AGAINST DOOLITTLE: Maybe USC has found the formula for success against Doolittle. It was apparent early in Saturday night's game that USC's strategy was to swing at pitches early in the count. Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor applauded USC for its aggressive philosophy.

"Their approach against Sean Doolittle was the best I've seen all year," O'Connor said. "I thought Coach Tanner's game plan going in was very good and it was aggressive. We haven't had a team come out and swing at first pitches that aggressively against Sean like they did tonight. It worked for them."

Doolittle had four strikeouts in the first two innings before USC reached him for five runs in the third.

"There hasn't been a club in the country that has hit (Doolittle) like that all year," O'Connor said. "His numbers prove that. He's a great pitcher. I thought the key was the 3-2 walk to Havens. He's a very good prospect but he's somebody that we have to get out in that situation."

INTENTIONAL WALK BACKFIRES ON VIRGINIA: Virginia elected to intentionally walk Justin Smoak in the third inning and pitch to Disher with the bases loaded. But the move backfired, of course, when Disher smashed a grand slam homer. O'Connor insisted after the game that walking Smoak was the right decision at the time.

"I respect a player like Smoak," O'Connor said. "That's why we pitched around him the first two pitches and decided to walk him in that situation. We had to play the percentages and we thought we had a better chance to get Disher out. But that is what makes South Carolina such a good team. He guessed fastball and, unfortunately, Sean didn't hit his spot. He made him pay for it."

VIRGINIA LOOKING FOR BOUNCE BACK: After Saturday's 8-2 loss to USC, the Cavaliers are chomping at the bit for a return engagement with the Gamecocks. But first they must get past Evansville in the first game Sunday at 1 p.m.

"We have Evansville at 1 p.m. and then we'll see these guys again tomorrow night," Virginia's Tom Hagan said. Obviously confident of victory over the Purple Aces. "This team has done an outstanding job of bouncing back all year. I know this team will come out ready to play. The sooner we get back on the field the better. We have to focus on the fact that we're not done. There's a lot of baseball in our future."

Virginia has named freshman Jacob Thompson (10-3, 2.20 ERA) as the starting pitcher against the Purple Aces Sunday afternoon in the elimination game. That means the Cavaliers would have used their top three starters in the NCAA Tournament and, should they defeat Evansville, will have to start someone who has seldom been in that role this season.

"Evansville is a very scrappy team," O'Connor said. "WE have a fight on our hands. They're feeling good and positive about themselves right now. I like our guys on the mound. He hasn't pitched like an 18-year old. He's a special one."

TWO GRAND SLAMS: Even the most ardent of baseball fans can go week or months without witnessing a grand slam. Fans attending the regional Saturday at Davenport Field saw two in a span of two hours. Disher's grand slam in the third inning followed the bases loaded homer by Evansville's Robbie Minor in the ninth inning of the second game, lifting the Purple Aces to a 10-6 victory over hard-luck Lehigh.

USC, VIRGINIA MEET AGAIN ON A BASEBALL FIELD: The winner's bracket game between South Carolina and Virginia Saturday night marked the first baseball game between the former ACC rivals since March 15, 1987.

The last time they met in Charlottesville was April 17, 1970.

The confines of Davenport Field have been quite friendly to the Cavaliers this season. They were 32-3 at home this season entering Saturday night's game.

A BIG CHALLENGE: After defeating Evansville Saturday afternoon, USC knew it had a big challenge ahead in Virginia's Sean Doolittle, one of the top pitchers in the nation and the reigning ACC Player of the Year.

Doolittle, probably the best two-way player in the nation, entered the game with an 11-1 record and 1.87 ERA. He started 14 games in 2006, and allowed just 59 hits in 86-2/3 innings with 103 strikeouts.

"We're probably going to just bunt a lot," Associate Head Coach Jim Toman joked. "Our guys probably don't think we have a chance against him. He has unbelievable numbers. They may be the best numbers I've seen all year. It's going to be a big challenge. They are tremendously tough to beat at home."

Doolittle's only loss this season came against North Carolina State when he surrendered four runs in four innings.

TANNER TOUGHS IT OUT: When Ray Tanner awoke Saturday, the chances of him coaching USC Saturday appeared remote. The USC players and assistant coaches attended breakfast and boarded the buses to Davenport Stadium without him. But when the team arrived at the ballpark, there Tanner was in the dugout.

"When we had breakfast this morning we had a team meeting at Shoney's and Coach Tanner was still in bed," Toman said. "So we didn't know if he would be here. But we got off the bus and he was sitting in a chair in the dugout. He's still not feeling very well but it will take a lot to keep him from the field."

Weakened by the virus, Tanner was not able to holler instructions to his players but did participate in strategy session with Toman and the other USC coaches.

"He didn't yell quite as much, he didn't have a very good voice," Toman said. "But he did the same thing he always does."

Tanner was more active during the second game of the day, he said after the 8-2 victory over Virginia.

THE RIGHT SIDE: With Virginia starting Doolittle, a lefthander, Tanner stacked the top half of USC's batting order with righthanded hitters. The first five batters hit from the right side. Tanner dropped Neil Giesler to sixth in the order. James Darnell batted leadoff for the first time this season and above the seventh spot for just the third time this season.

"He's made some hard contact lately<" Tanner said. "He plays with a lot of confidence. We're trying to play the momentum game a little bit. We threw him up there and tried to have our righthanded bats in there as much as possible. He's done a lot of good things for us."

FIRST EVER MEETING: Saturday's first-round game between USC and Evansville marked the first-ever meeting between the schools in baseball.

USC IN THE POST-SEASON: The victories over Evansville and Virginia Saturday gave a South Carolina an all-time NCAA Tournament record of 83-46. This year marks the 22nd time USC has appeared in the NCAA Tournament. The Gamecocks have reached the Super Regionals in five of the last six seasons.

SMOAK SMOKIN': USC freshman Justin Smoak had two hits and two RBI against Virginia in the Gamecocks' second game of the day. It represented his 18th multi-RBI game of the season and his 19th multi-hit game of the season.

EVANSVILLE SLAMS LEHIGH: Evansville scored seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the final four coming on a walk-off grand slam by Robbie Minor, to stun Lehigh, 10-6, in an elimination game.

Proving yet again that you can't make this stuff up, it was Minor's first career homer in 601 at-bats. Moreover, Evansville had been 0-18 this season when trailing in the ninth inning.

"That's a terrible way for Lehigh's season to end," Evansville head coach Dave Schrage said. "They're a class program. They played their hearts out all the way to the last at-bat."