ies lose doubleheader
THE BATTALION Page 11
THURSDAY. MARCH 23, 1978
the St
k in lift
? his eye
I By DERRICK GRUBBS
he Texas A&M baseball team
Bl’ered its third loss at C.E. “Pat
Plsen Field Wednesday afternoon
dropping a 5-4 decision to Min-
;ota before bowing to the USC
ijans for the second time in as
ny days 8-5.
he Aggies lost to USC 5-2 Tues-
in the first game to be played in
new $2 million stadium and are
now looking towards Rice as being
the first victims when the Owls
come to town for a three-game SWC
series this weekend.
The twin losses Wednesday leave
the Ags in the throes of a four-game
losing streak, their longest of the
season thus far.
In the first game against Min
nesota, A&M led 4-2 going into the
top of the sixth when, after retiring
the lead batter, Aggie starter Randy
McDonald walked the next two
Gophers in succession. At that
point, A&M coach Tom Chandler
brought in reliever John Pockrus.
The first batter Pockrus faced was
first baseman Joe Lentsch who be
lted a three-run home run over the
rightcenter field wall to put Min
nesota in front 5-4.
pinks hadi
i from In
incil, but
dnner is
'g to
lations.
that Gft;
zier
nt when
iks
immadll
vide woii
are thei Catcher Kyle Hawthorne,
fly ball
left field for an out. The junior from
Beaumont went hitless against the USC Tro
jans and the Aggies lost the USC game 8-5.
They also lost to Minnesota 5-4.
Battalion photo by Debbie Killough
utton says Hogs slumping
A&M threatened in each of its last
two at-bats, but could not produce
the tying run, allowing the Gophers
to come away with their first victory
of the year against six losses.
The Aggies got only six hits off
Minnesota righthander Scott Ro
senthal, who went the distance and
picked up the win, his first decision
of the season.
McDonald, a freshman making
his first start as an Aggie, gave up
two runs on four hits in the first in
ning to put A&M in the hole early.
They narrowed the margin in the
second when catcher Kyle Hawth
orne slammed a solo home run over
the leftfield wall for his ninth four-
bagger of the season. That ties the
school record set by Byron Barber
back in 1961.
The Aggies scored one in the
fourth on an RBI double by first
baseman Rodney Hodde, and took
the lead in the fifth when second
baseman Randy Woodruff singled,
advanced to third on a throwing
error by Rosenthal that put
shortstop Tommy Larsen on second
and scored on a wild pitch.
Larsen scored when leftfielder
Gary Bryant looped a single into
center field.
The three-run homer by Lentsch
off Pockrus gave Minnesota the
edge they needed to hang its first
win over A&M in three years.
Pockrus was charged with the
loss, making him 2-1 on the year.
|McDonald pitched the first 5% in-
inings, giving up six hits, walking
]five and striking out seven.
The Gophers collected seven total
hits, led by third baseman Dan
McEachern, who was 2-for-2 with a
pair of RBI’s.
Woodruff paced the Aggies, going
2-for-2.
In the nightcap against USC,
A&M committed four errors while
the Trojan bats proved too powerful
for the Aggie mound corps to
handle.
COUts M United Press International
jllastos! S'l LO\JIS-If momentum is ev-
office filing in the drive to become the
id a lof# n ’ s c °ll e g e basketball champ,
theCot r^ semifinalists Kentucky and
r . kansas are lucky they’re playing
y 100 lick other.
Eikansas coach Eddie Sutton and
at they*
C °melm UC ky coach Joe Hall gave al-
y f Jt identical evaluations of their
i’t get K* 15 "^clnesday when asked how
h cJB ^ been playing on their way
ntsaye* COmin g P art °f die final four.
Butal* e ve k een pretty much in a de-
' . Ihp the last part of the season,”
lall said during a four-way tele-
.,p I hone news conference with Sut-
5 | Digger Phelps of Notre Dame
|Bill Foster of Duke. “We really
to come back in the next two
Sutton had a more blunt discrip-
J of the play of his Hogs in the
. stli w games, particularly of their
tough press
kno"!
if a
of theiil
have A
team. HL,
lvantatfU 0lmanCe a S a,nst
Cloyed by UCLA.
s ll P JlVe were horrible, he said.
c ' ,an d .lithe Arkansas-Kentucky match-
mp. the second half of a double-
er Saturday at the Checker-
ime — is seen by the coaches
solved as a game between teams
Jtheir way down, the after-
wins first game should feature
^ tarns at their best.
Phelps said his Fighting Irish are
the top of their game, ready to
se their depth to outlast Duke and
EKLV Ur it to Monday night’s nationally
•artuu [vised finals.
[This is the best we’ve played,’’
ilps said of his 23-6 Irish. “We’ve
ked right now. The intensity we
in our last game is really what
ejvebeen working for, because we
were really low-key in the first five
months of the season.”
Foster’s young Blue Devils —
two freshmen, two sophomores and
junior sparkplug Jim Spanarkel —
may have been a little shaky at first,
scaling heights no one expected
them to reach in what was to have
been a rebuilding year. But he says
his troops are just fine right now.
“I was more nervous ^gainst
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Rhode Island and Penn,” Foster
said of two of the teams Duke beat
to reach St. Louis.
“I feel better and more confident
after our last victory, over
Villanova. ”
“At this point in the season, I
don’t think anyone is going to put in
any tricky plays,” said Sutton,
whose team leads the nation with 31
victories. “We re not going to ditch
what got us to St. Louis.”
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USC pounded out nine hits, led
by third baseman Dave Engle, who
was 4-for-4 with four RBI’s and
scored four runs. He also hit for the
“cycle ”, meaning he clubbed a
single, double, triple and a home
run in his four at-bats.
The Trojans touched Aggie starter
Perry Swanson for five runs on
seven hits through the first five
frames and held a 6-2 lead going into
the bottom of the sixth.
A&M got back into the game at
that point on a two-out, three-run
home run by right fielder Shelton
McMath over the scoreboard in
left-center field to cut the margin to
6- 5. It was McMath’s fourth round-
tripper of the season.
Chandler brought in junior Mark
Thurmond to hurl the final two in
nings. Senior Jim McWilliams had
turned in two frames on the mound
in relief of Swanson and yielded
only one unearned run.
After walking the first man he
faced, Thurmond served up a
gopher ball that Engle belted over
the right field wall to complete the
“cycle,” and provide USC with 8-5
margin of victory.
Swanson was pegged with the
loss, leaving him 2-1 on the year.
Righthander Ernie Mouritson got
the win for the Trogans for his third
win of the year without a loss. He
got relief help from Jeff Shattinger
in the sixth after McMath’s three-
run blast.
The Aggies got eight hits in the
game, led by Bonner and catcher
Buster Turner who each had a pair
of singles.
When they did get runners on,
the Aggies had trouble in moving
them around as they hit into eight
double plays in the three games
against USC and Minnesota.
A&M will take its 16-10 record
into the series with Rice this
weekend in hopes of improving
their 7-9 record at home. They were
7- 6 while playing at Travis Park in
Bryan and are 0-3 at Olsen.
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