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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 1987)
Friday, April 3, 1987/The Battalion/Page 9 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmu■mi i Sports Utah St. drops A&M in women’s softball fract. He t* '/ € - inipuk dealinu, ood so phi sts the oniaiuicamii- g a child, be* id make llingness By Ed Bodde Assistant Sports Editor The out-of-town Aggies beat the local Aggies Thursday night. Utah State, behind the four-hit pitching of Kristie Skoglund, shut out Texas A&M 1-0 in women’s softball before about 50 chilled fans at Penberthy Varsity Softball Field. Utah State managed only three hits in the 40-degree temperatures, but two of them were in the fourth inning when the Aggies scored the game’s only run. With one out, Deb Lefferts bun- led down the line and took second as ball was overthrown. Kristie Skoglund then singled to left field, sending Lefferts to third. Kendra [reton came up to the plate and sent he ball over the head of right fielder Renee Blaha driving in Lefferts. 4&M’s Shawn Andaya was then able o pitch her way out of the inning. Utah State improved its record to 1-6 on the year, while A&M dropped o 32-5. Four of A&M’s losses have some at home. “Playing at home isn’t a conducive ‘l and I hat behead sad aid she wai»( 1 surrogate M out boi that Stern, ui and Mrs. $9 rician, arebeu ^ ^*he of hei umi I not conn 1 ‘heard O'D* ■ • • a won* ons concert atmosphere for us,” A&M Coach Bob Brock said. “I don’t know what it is, but it just doesn’t feel like our home.” A&M’s best scoring opportunity came in the seventh inning. Center fielder Erin Newkirk singled with one away and took second on catcher Carrie Heightley’s ground out. Third baseman Judy Trussell followed with a sharp single to left field advancing Newkirk to third. But Julie Carpenter got two quick strikes on her and popped out to end the game. “We didn’t execute well and didn’t get the runs in,” Brock said. “We’re, hitting the ball well, but our run out put is down. We had one bad inning, but that’s going to happen when you play as many games as we have.” Andaya suffered only her third loss of the season and now stands at 20-3. She finished with six strikeouts and now has 173 for the season. Skoglund got the win for Utah State. The same two teams will battle each other Saturday in a double- header beginning at 2 p.m. he said. k/l II I 1 lion ion -Thelaie Gooden showed symptoms indicative of drug abuse NEW YORK (AP) — It was a mild ctober night in Boston, the fifth ;ame of the World Series between te Red Sox and New York Mets had arely begun and sweat dripped [rom Dwight Gooden’s face. Perspiration seeped from under the brim of his cap, into his eyes and jjoff his chin. Temperature at game me in Fenway Park was 64 degrees nd dropping rapidly after a rain- jhower. Gooden had dark circles under is eyes; his face looked drawn. He pulled at his hat, pulled at his pants, idled at his Mets jersey. He wiped is forehead with his long sleeves. jHe blew on his pitching hand as if it |ere cold. That Gooden was laboring was obvious. He lasted four innings, giv ing up three runs and nine hits as the Mets lost 4-2 in his second World Series failure. Was it nerves, or cocaine? Could the Mets, or should the Mets, have suspected that Gooden had a cocaine problem? “Excessive sweating is a symptom of drug use, but somebody pitching under pressure? It’s hard to say,” said Dr. Stanley Yancovitz, medical director of the Stuyvesant Square chemical dependancy program at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. “It may have been a sign of a problem,” Stuyvesant said. On Wednesday, the Mets pitcher checked himself into the Smithers Alcoholism and Treatment Center in New York for treatment of co caine use. See Gooden, page 10 Baseball team mixes sports with class Players must juggle demanding schedule with academics By Doug Hall Sports Writer You gotta love that spring se mester. Go to morning classes and get out by noon. Eat lunch, watch the soaps on the tube, catch the af ternoon rays, do a little studying and head out for the evening. That is, unless, you’re a mem ber of the Texas A&M baseball team who plays over 60 games a season, practices up to four hours a day on off-days and tries to manage a full academic load. “It does begin to affect you,” freshman second baseman Terry Taylor said. “You spend so much time on the field or on the road that it can get difficult.” Senior left-hander Darryl Fry, who transferred to A&M last year from McLennan Community Col lege, also said it’s difficult to bud get his time between the diamond and the desk, especially during the spring semester. “In the fall, it’s no problem,” Fry said. “I usually take 15 hours and find it a little easier to han dle. “But in the spring, I’d say 12 to 13 hours is more normal. Four classes is about all you can handle. When we travel, we might leave on Thursday morning and not be back until Sunday evening. And during the week, we always play one or two games.” Head Coach Mark Johnson said he realizes the demands on his players are difficult, but he said he expects them to perform in the classroom as well as on the field. “We didn’t do that well last se mester,” Johnson said. “But we didn’t lose anyone because of aca demics, either. Generally, base ball players do better than a lot of other sports. “I’d say a 2.5 to a 2.6 was about normal.” Dr. Steve Crews, the scholastic supervisor for athletes, said base ball players have to do some jug gling with their schedules to make it all work, but they usually do fairly well. “The first thing we look at is the load they are carrying,” Crews said. “We try to get them out of class by one o’clock so they can make practice. “The second thing to consider is their major. If they are an engi neering major with labs, that is usually tough to schedule around. Generally, we cut back in the spring and load up in the fall. Taylor, however, took the op posite approach to academics by taking 12 hours in the fall and 16 hours this semester. He did so in order to get adjusted to the aca- Mark Johnson demies and establish himself on the team. “I only took 12 hours in the fall in order to get used to the school- work and earn a starting spot on the team,” Taylor said. “I just wanted to do good.” Taylor said that although the academics have not been easy, he was pleased with his performance last semester. “I heard so much coming in about how difficult it would be,” he said, “that I came in with the attitude that it was going to be hard. “I didn’t expect it to be like high school, and it hasn’t been.” Johnson said that often it is not the freshmen who have academic trouble, but the junior college transfers. The third year coach said that most of these players go to junior colleges not because of grade deficiencies, but in order to have a chance to play baseball. But making the switch to major college academics can often be tougher than switching to the higher level of baseball, he said. Fry agreed with Johnson. “Last year was a big adjustment for me,” the agricultural econom ics major said. “Junior college was just a lot easier than the academ ics here. “He (Johnson) tells everyone coming in, especially the junior college transfers, that it isn’t going to be easy. But it really doesn’t sink in until it all hap pens.” Despite the number of games they play and the many hours they practice, Johnson said his players will only miss five days of class this semester. That is greatly due, according to Crews, to the fact that the Aggies have such a nice home facility in Olsen Field; “They play most of their gamfes here (36 of 60) because we have such nice facilities,” Crews said. “People just love to come here to play.” V ■ * Aggies to tangle with Bears tonight By Doug Hall Sports Writer The Texas A&M baseball team, which currently owns an eight-game winning streak, be gins a three-game weekend series against Baylor tonight at 7:00 at Olsen Field. Senior left-hander Darryl Fry (6-2 on the season and 1-0 in the SWC) will take the mound to night against Baylor’s ace, sopho more transfer Pat Combs (6-0 and 2-0) in a game that’s very im portant to both teams. “It’s a big series for us,” Fry said. “We think this series might determine who is going to be in the tournament or win the con ference. We’d like to get the first game under our belt.” Both the Aggies and the Bears are coming off last weekend’s vic tories against Southwest Confer ence opponents. The Aggies evened their SWC at 3-3 after taking a three-game series from Texas Tech in Lubbock. Baylor, which owns a 29-6 record on the season, managed to take one vic tory in three games last weekend against national powerhouse Texas. According to Aggie second baseman Terry Taylor, Combs will be a tough opponent to face. “He’s back up to the level of pitching he was at in high school,” Taylor said. “He threw the ball real hard, and then he went to Rice, but didn’t do so well. “Now, he’s up at Baylor and he’s 6-0. It should be interesting.” Although pitchers for Satur day’s double-header, which be gins at 2 p.m., have not been an nounced, Fry said the Aggies need to win all three games. “When you’re at home, you really need to sweep. We’ve got to take them all.” K • i m. 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