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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1982)
sports Battalion/Page 15 February 23, 1982 iccken, Flores A8cM starters TANK MCNAMARA Baseball team opens today /is- W? TOM? TURME.R, EMORMOOS STATE CLASS OF 'ES ? TitlS IS? TVt ESU ATULETIC Ey.CEU£MCE committee. HAVE YOU OPEMEC? OUR 'FlU.TvA»E0OY'S RDSE-0OAA-. by Jeff Millar & Bill Hinds IS-IT TAE ENVELOPE WnWIUE "S 1 RX3T0ALL PICTURE OF TUE E&U ftOTESAL PLAYER. WlTA TiAE&IG EYES ANP WTEREP UMlfORM? by Frank L. Christlieb Sports Editor he Texas A&M baseball team, ranked [iber 14 in the national pre-season polls, ns its season today by hosting the St. -’s University Rattlers in a double- ier at 1. he Aggies’ Rick Luecken, 5-2 with a 2.86 in 1981, starts the first game, and |id Flores, 8-3 with a 4.92 ERA, will start econd game. The second game will start ut 3 this afternoon. atcher Jo£ Szekely, shortstop David Inard and centerfielder Billy Cannon [three top returnees off Coach Tom Chandler’s 1981 squad, which finished 35- 16-1 and 10-10-1 in the Southwest Confer ence. Three newcomers to the Aggies’ start ing lineup will be first baseman Titus Wells, third baseman Grant Priess and leftfielder Ronnie Risinger. The Aggies, who finished with an overall average of .298, will have a great deal of quickness and pitching strength, Chandler said. He said he believes that the Aggies will easily surpass last year’s record of 72 stolen bases. Senior Steve Davis, who finished with a 6-1 record after being inserted into the starting rotation when Luecken was injured last April, will begin the season as a starter. Chandler, who will rely on Bobby Taylor (3-2, 3.82 ERA) as his top reliever, will prob ably experiment with his pitching staff be fore deciding upon a set rotation. St. Mary’s is led by first baseman John Kosub, who had a .333 average last season while helping the team to a 25-16 overall record. The Rattlers, defending co champions of the Big State Conference, compiled a 15-3 record in 1981. St. Mary’s pitching is its weakest point, as Coach Elmer Kosub returns only one starter from last season. David Coveil, who had only a 1-5 record, should start one of today’s games. SEEM EO SUEY PWTiM' UP COMCOe? 1 MU’T OPENEP AMY , MAIL 'CEPT PIAY6CY SINCE JANUAR/. North Stars come back from deficit to win 8-7 exas still sliding Red Raiders’ late rally sinks Longhorns ehi United Press International ie University of Texas bas il team has had so much ill ne this year it probably that there is a sorcerer where with a little doll :d like a Longhorn that has lole lot of pins in it. nd if there is, the sorcerer ’tjust use another pin Mon- ight. He used a stake that aimed right at the Lon- ns’ heart. hanks to a magnificant at the free throw line, pas was finally on the verge of ^ing another Southwest | lonference game — which l|| fculd have been only its second 1 a month. ^Hhe Longhorns were ahead, 1 §56. with less than 70 seconds photo by C. «| P 1 /' But W £ en th , e b L UZ ? er winded it was I exas I ech that vest Louisas the winner, 67-65. ram of Miwf j ust sat there and watched ,1 ttn \l,| said disheartened Texas c j #ch Abe Lemons, “and I still e un a; | n J t |j e |j eve j t p ve neV er felt lis low.” Tech coach Gerald Myers, Ibis in his 11th year with the K Raiders, said: “This defi- ■y was the greatest comeback *?ve had since I’ve been here. ie quite honest it all boiled iwn to our guys not ever giving up when the coach probably had.” The astounding comeback allowed Texas Tech to clinch no worse than a sixth-place finish in the SWC race, which means the Red Raiders will be home next Monday night for a first-round game in the league’s post-season tournament. Texas, meanwhile, lost its ninth conference games in 10 tries and will go on the road for its first-round game. Texas Tech is 8-7 in SWC play, Texas is 6-9. Conference action continues tonight with TCU, still hoping for a finish as high as second place, visiting Texas A&M, which is currently tied for second, and the Houston Cougars, sharing second with the Aggies, traveling the few miles to play Rice. No matter how Rice fares against Houston, the Owls game with Texas next Saturday will decide the seventh and eighth seeds in the SWC tournament. In Lubbock, the Longhorns turned a three-point halftime lead into a nine-point advantage in the opening moments of the second period and Texas still led by nine when James Tandy hit two free throws with 1:31 to play. They were the last in a 23 of 24 performance from the line by the Longhorns. James Swannegan hit what appeared to be no more than a token basket with 1:06 left that trimmed the Tech deficit to seven, but during the next three quarters of a minute the Lon ghorns went into shock. They could not even manage to get the ball past mid-court while the Red Raiders were scoring eight points to go in front. First the Longhorns threw the ball away under a withering Red Raiders press and Jeff Taylor quickly scored for Tech. Then there was a charging foul against the Longhorns and Charles Johnson scored. Next there was another throw away and Steve Smith threw in a jump shot. Fin ally there was a steal of an in bounds pass and a basket by Johnson with 27 seconds to go that put the Raiders ahead. Texas finally got the ball down court only to miss two shots and Smith was fouled on the rebound. He made one out of two free throws to increase the Raiders lead to two with eight seconds left and a wild shot by Virdell Howland at the buz zer failed to go in for Texas. “All we had to do was get the ball in bounds and get fouled,” Lemons said. “We threw the ball directly out of bounds twice, with nobody standing there. Ev erybody played hard.” United Press International BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — It wasn’t exactly playoff hockey. “It’s two points and that’s ab out it,” said Minnesota Coach Glen Sonmor, whose North Stars spotted Hartford a three- goal lead Monday night but ral lied for an 8-7 win. “You’ve got to play better defense than that in the playoffs.” Although the playoffs are still six weeks away, last year’s Stan ley Cup runner-up already has opened a 13-point lead on second place St. Louis in the Norris Division. Hartford, hav ing lost its last six games, is last in the Adams Divison, 21 points out of fourth place and the last playoff spot. “I know they’re not going to be in the playoffs, but we will,” Sonmor said. “We were real sloppy in our end.” Hartford grabbed a 3-0 lead on first period goals by Dan Bourbonnais and Chris Kotso- poulos, followed by Doug Sulli- man’s goal at 6:41 of the second period. The North Stars responded with four goals in a five-minute span. ROCK ’N ROLL... DIRECT FROM AUSTIN SAT. FEB. 27 NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY *4°° advanced admission *5°° at the door TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM TEXAS AGGIE BOOKSTORE AND R0THERS BOOKSTORE TICKET INFO 693-1665 itsfi ft /' ■. *■ - 1 i ev poward Payne’s oach resigns ’.. v. a? Silk Dress Special ...nothing compares to the luxury of silk, the depth of color or the fed of the rich fabric. Silk dresses go anywhere, from work to evening cocktails and beautiful dresses are a classic. For one week My we ijtve wi*-: ^ ry Wright ace ft rent Gil* third ph« om Metn| United Press International third platt, BROWN WOOD — Howard n Quagla jayne University’s head basket- lace tail coach and assistant coach, man Cool fhester Story and Billy Wil- | ace iams, resigned Monday, cott Win4 “The two coaches felt their third platt pignations as of today would obby Sn rive the basketball program a (heavyweAnce to develop under a diffe- sent direction and we agreed,” won thethool President Dr. Ralph A. nts. UT. Jps Jr. said, joints andi The Yellow Jackets suffered rest of the year, third withfl /ere 10 H iipip&f their first losing season in 17 years this season, posting a 10- 17 record. Story had an overall 52-23 record in three years with Howard Payne. Howard Payne was in conten tion for the Lone Star Confer ence title when the league’s lead ing scorer, Kenneth Wallace, was declared ineligible at mid term. Four conference victories were forfeited and the Yellow Jackets effort dwindled for the mmw i iwrfM : jpp g wmr^ ^ - t. r • r ■ ■•••■ • I fpjft .f. i:i Ait» oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo< am, coacMl 11 now h<$ ■ whereas* BOnUS TOKEN DAYS AT GAMES FAMILY FUN CENTER Featuring: Now thru February 28 5 tokens for $ 1 00 30 tokens for $ 5 00 BONUS TOKEN DAYS yiiiss Oexas A&M Untiersitij Scholarship Saturday, crebrmrif 2.~J 7-00 pm TRudder Auditorium student: $3.50 non-student: $550 tickets available at MSC ‘Box Office presented bif J\ASC cHospitJihj