USC Batters Deep-Six Georgia in Opener, 11-5

Long on starting pitching and supposedly short on power, USC came out swinging Saturday in its College World Series opener against Georgia.

The Trojans ripped a season-high six home runs among their season-high 18 hits and got the usual strong effort from pitcher Mark Prior in an 11-5 victory before 19,958 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

USC (45-17) came into the World Series with 44 homers, 50 fewer than the Trojans hit last season and the lowest total among the eight World Series participants.

But it was the Trojans, not Georgia, who looked like a team from the homer-happy Southeastern Conference.

Catcher Alberto Concepcion hit two homers and a triple and had five runs batted in. First baseman Bill Peavey also hit two homers, and third baseman Michael Moon and center fielder Brian Barre each belted one. Every Trojan starter had at least one hit.

“I heard they were going to move back the stadium fences here and raise them next year,” Georgia Coach Ron Polk said. “I wish they had done that about 3 1/2 hours ago.”

Stadium modifications to the hitter-friendly park would not have helped SEC champion Georgia (47-21) in the first inning. Peavey followed Concepcion’s two-out homer against Jeremy Brown (7-4) with a towering shot over the 26-foot-high batting eye in center field that is 411 feet from home plate.

“We weren’t trying to hit the ball out of the park today--we just took advantage of what they gave us and got some good swings,” said Peavey, a fourth-year junior who had his first multiple-homer game.

Prior (15-1), selected by the Chicago Cubs with the second pick in last week’s amateur draft, was not as sharp as he was in last weekend’s super-regional victory over Florida International. But the 6-foot-5, 225-pound junior right-hander struck out 13 and walked only one in seven innings.

“I didn’t have the command of my curveball that I had last week,” said Prior, who gave up four runs and nine hits before giving way to Anthony Reyes.

Georgia players, who roughed up Prior when he was a freshman at Vanderbilt in 1999, said Prior dominated Saturday with his control. Prior has 202 strikeouts and only 18 walks in 138 2/3 innings.

“When a guy paints corners inside and out and throws that hard, it’s tough,” Georgia first baseman Mark Thornhill said. “There’s a night and day difference between what he was then and what he is now.”

USC was ahead, 6-0, when Georgia scored three runs in the fourth on a two-run homer by Jeff Keppinger and a balk by Prior that allowed Adam Swann to score from third.

Moon, a freshman, led off the home half of the fifth with a homer against Jody Friedman into the right-field bleachers to increase the lead to 7-3.

Georgia pulled to within 7-4 in the seventh when David Coffey hit a two-out single and Keppinger followed with a triple.

Peavey, however, answered with a leadoff homer into the left-field seats and the Trojans added three runs in the eighth on Barre’s leadoff homer to right and Concepcion’s two-run shot to center.

USC’s home run output tied the Trojans for second in the World Series record book. In 1998, USC watched as Louisiana State blasted eight homers in a 12-10 victory over the Trojans.

Barre, who has a team-high 13 homers, said USC cannot try to duplicate the power surge when they play Miami, a 21-13 winner over Tennessee, on Monday.

“We have to stay station-to-station and not get greedy,” he said. “We have to come out Monday and do what we’ve done all year--manufacture runs, get good pitching and play good defense.”

Barre, Concepcion, Peavey and second baseman Anthony Lunetta all had three hits.