May 31, 2004

Charleston, SC - Last winter, redshirt freshman Justin Smith was a longshot to make The Citadel's travel roster. When he took the mound at Riley Park on Sunday for the Southern Conference Tournament championship game, he had one victory and two college starts to his name, and was generally unknown even among Citadel fans.

Nervous? Nah.

"With the excitement and enthusiasm in our dugout, I expected nothing less than exactly what we got," said Smith, a 6-3, 194-pound right-hander from Clinton. "People were talking about what we were going to do after the game. We knew that, the way we were focused, we were going to win."

Smith didn't let Western Carolina score until the eighth inning and that was it, an 8-1 complete-game victory to send The Citadel into the NCAA Tournament.

"I knew he had it in him," catcher Will Coker said. "We all did. But there was just so much pressure on him. I knew he had his stuff. I just made sure he threw it in there and didn't try and pick at the corners or anything. Western is real aggressive. They would swing and our defense played about as good as we've ever played." Some of the confidence in and within Smith came from his impressive outing against South Carolina on May 12 at Riley Park. The Bulldogs lost 6-1 in 10 innings but Smith went 6-2/3 strong innings to start the game.

He attacked Western Carolina with mostly fastballs, collecting two strikeouts and one walk, and got great help from errorless teammates, including a pair of double plays.

"I love pitching on this team," Smith said. "The way these guys play defense is one of the reasons I came here. These are the hardest working guys you'll see."

Smith, 2-0 and eager, has to be considered a viable option in next week's NCAA Regional.

"Every now and then you could tell he was trying to throw a little harder than he does," Coker said. "I would give him a sign with my hands and settle him down. But he just kept throwing them in there and getting them out."