Wednesday, May 20, 1987/The Battaiion/Page 5
Sports
^Ags get NCAA playoff bid
'^despite rough SWC tourney
I
his
From Staff and Wire Reports
,ale °lai;B)espite a quick removal from the
" n 8 < Solthwest Conference Baseball
| ■mim Tournament, the Texas Aggies got
soifie good news Monday when they
ll,ne nti were extended an invitation to the
e ‘^ici Islteam NCiAA post-season tourna-
* 0lt f ment.
"WMnnifwhich finished the year
( 'hiel with a 41-20-1 record, will travel to
billed Stai kville, Miss, to face Purdue in
'let ini th$ first round of the Mideast Re
in ,idm giclial Thursday at noon.
I jiincirM'he Aggies enter the regional-
:■(! ihiiii^Bled third behind Oklahoma State
) ;u the(Ind top-seeded Mississippi State.
Purdue, which will be making its
iiienta fi rsl appearance in the tournament,
I uesdai iaifies a 36-21-1 record into post-
ibertB season play.
tioduct was the fourth SWC team to
jctoran 8 e C l bid following Houston, Arkan-
;il iniel! sas and SWC tourney champion
ii lenn frefcrs. Houston will take on Indiana
K have Stale at the Central Regional in Aus
tin, and the Longhorns will also be at
home in Austin to face Lamar.
Arkansas heads to the South I Re
gional in Huntsville, Ala. to battle
Middle Tennessee State.
A&M did not get into the playoffs
the way it wanted to, however, as the
Aggies dropped a close game to Ar
kansas and then another to Houston
to exit the SWC tourney last week
end at Disch-Falk Field in Austin.
In the Arkansas game Friday af
ternoon, the Razorbacks got off to a
quick 4-0 start against the Aggies
and held off an A&M rally to pre
serve a 4-3 victory.
Even though A&M battered Ar
kansas pitchers for 13 hits, all sin
gles, the Aggies couldn’t get the runs
across in the late going, stranding
runners at third in the last three in
nings.
The Aggies cut the Razorbacks’
lead to 4-3 in the eighth on hits by
Chuck Knoblauch, John Byington
and Tim McWilliam, but Knoblauch
was then called out at home and Eric
Albright was the Final put-out to end
the game.
In Saturday’s elimination game
against the Cougars, A&M held on
to an 8-5 lead until the seventh in
ning when the Cougars tied it. UH’s
four runs in the eighth sealed the
win.
Houston center-fielder Lonnie
Walker drove in five runs to help the
Cougars, and he had four extra-base
hits, including a home run, a double
and two triples.
Despite the weak showing in the
SWC tourney, A&M Coach Mark
Johnson was pleased with the team’s
bid to the NCAA tourney.
“I think it’s great,” Johnson said.
“We play for two major goals — to
win conference and go to regionals
— so we’re happy to be going to a re
gional anywhere.
lie dir«;
agency
“it is in
iv dirro:
avs’ Motta to announce today
ir he will be in Dallas or New York
*
y
who
ageno
mgton
-, shab
never Ii
told hr
;irls am
lie was
with lli
DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Mav-
eri( ks Coach Dick Motta will an
nounce today whether he will stay
\v|th the NBA team or continue
seeking a job with the New York
Kliicks, Mavericks majority
owner Donald Carter said.
■Carter also said he got an apol-
og\ from Motta for any misun-
dirstanding that resulted from
recent statements Motta made to
New York newspapers, and that
there is no question in his mind
the coach will return for an
eighth season.
■“He apologized for anything
that hurt the Mavericks,” Carter
said.
■ He does not want to hurt the
Dlllas Mavericks organization in
an\ way, shape or form. If he said
anything to hurt them, Coach is
going to apologize.”
^Carter met two hours Monday
with Motta, who has been
talking with the Knicks about
their vacant coaching position.
The coach is scheduled to de
clare his intentions by 5 p.m.
Motta said after the meeting that
“I have no comment. I won’t say
anything until Wednesday. Car
ter’s doing all the talking. Every
thing went pretty good.”
Cartel said that because he had
given Motta until Friday to make
his decision, the two did not dis
cuss New York, the draft or even
basketball at their meeting Mon
day.
“Coach Motta went to New
York with my permission,” Carter
said. “And in the course of that
trip, some of the words and ac
tions definitely created some mis
understandings.”
Carter said the meeting Mon
day was to go over some remarks
attributed to Motta during his
trip to meet with Knicks officials.
“But it was never the coach’s
intent to say anything negative
about this city, this team or the
(Dallas-Fort Worth) metroplex,”
Carter said.
Motta was quoted as saying he
was not sure the Mavericks could
win a championship and that pre
vious draft choices the Mavericks
had accumulated did not get
them center they wanted.
Motta “in no way, can under
stand how anyone would misin
terpret what he said about our
center,” Carter said.
“The statement he made was
that we never got our center
through the draft, which is cor
rect.”
Carter said someone asked him
if he had invited Motta to return
next season, and that “I told them
that as far as 1 was concerned, he
never left.”
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x
Lady Aggies are Omaha-bound
A&M trips Lady Techsters for Series berth
From Staff and Wire Reports
The Texas A&M softball team
will be on familiar ground Thurs
day when it takes on Central
Michigan at 8:30 p.m. in the Col
lege World Series in Omaha,
Neb.
The second-ranked Lady Ag
gies advanced to the series by
sweeping Louisiana Tech in a
best-of-tnree series last weekend
at Bee Creek Park in College Sta
tion.
It will be A&M’s fourth trip in
Five years to the World Series.
The Aggies won the whole thing
in 1983 and were runners-up in
1984 and 1986. The Lady Aggies
missed the trip in 1985 because
they were eliminated in the re
gionals by Louisiana Tech.
A&M defeated No. 8 Central
Michigan twice during the regu
lar season by scores of 4-2 and 6-
1.
A&M got off to a quick start in
the series by capturing game one
4-0 on Friday. A&M catcher
Erika Eriksson drove in two runs
in the first to give the Lady Ag
gies a 2-0 lead, and Zina Ochoa
drove in two runs in the third to
give A&M the winning margin.
“We’ve been hitting the ball
real well the last 15 or 16 games,”
A&M Coach Bob Brock said. “We
have a lot of speed this year and it
puts a lot of presure on a team.”
A&M took Saturday's game by
edging the Lady Techsters 2-1.
The Lady Aggies scored quickly
again in the game when pitcher
Shawn Andaya’s sacrifice fly
brought home Julie Smith, who
led off the game with a double.
Mizera then cracked her sev
enth home run of the year to put
the Lady Aggies up 2-1.
Louisiana Tech’s lone run
came in the seventh inning when
pinch runner Sue Stewart scored
on a double steal.
“I was hoping we could score
early,” Brock said. "We let down a
couple of times, but I'm just tick
led to death we were able to hold
on.
Pirates overcome Astros for win
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pitts
burgh scored the go-ahead run in
the seventh inning with the help of
Houston shortstop Dickie Thon’s er
ror and Mike Diaz hit a solo homer
as the Pirates beat the Astros 5-2
Tuesday night.
With the score tied 2-2, the Pirates
loaded the bases with one out in the
seventh when reliever Dave Meads,
3-1, hit Rafael Belliard with a pitch,
pinch hitter Bill Almon singled and
Barry Bonds walked.
Larry Andersen replaced Meads
and Bobby Bonilla grounded to sec
ond. It would not have been a dou
ble play but Thon dropped Bill Do
ran’s throw. Belliard scored and
Johnny Ray’s sacrifice fly scored Al
mon.
The Pirates added a run in the
eighth. Andy Van Slyke singled and
took second on Andersen’s wild
pickoff throw. Sid Bream’s
grounder advanced Van Slyke to
third and Mike LaValliere singled
him home.
John Smiley, 3-1, got the victory,
despite squandering the 2-0 lead he
inherited in the fif th inning from Pi
rates starter Brian Fisher. Don Rob
inson worked two scoreless innings
for his seventh save.
Fisher checked the Astros on four
hits and the Pirates led 2-0 when the
rains came in the fifth. Smiley then
came on to retire the first three hit
ters he faced until Glenn Davis hit
his fifth home run of the season with
two out in the sixth.
Parish's 30 points powers Celtics by Pistons
BOSTON (AP) — Robert Parish
scored 15 of his 31 points in the
third quarter when Boston took con
trol, and the Celtics went on to a
104-91 victory over the Detroit Pis
tons in the opener of their NBA
Eastern Conference final Tuesday
night.
Boston’s 44-40 halftime lead
dropped to 48-47 on Adrian Dant-
ley’s short shot in the lane. Then
Parish scored 13 points in a 26-14
run that gave the Celtics their big
gest lead of the third quarter, 74-61,
with 1:05 left.
Detroit cut the margin to 75-68
going into the fourth period, but
Boston maintained a lead of from
seven to 15 points the rest of the
way.
Boston, which is 33-1 in its last 34
games at the Garden, will be home
again for Thursday night’s second
game of the best-of-seven series.
Kevin McHale scored 21 points
and Dennis Johnson and Larry Bird
18 each for the Celtics, who had just
one day off after their seven-game
conference semifinal victory over
the Milwaukee Bucks. Detroit, which
beat Atlanta 4-1 in the other semifi
nal and hadn’t played since Wednes
day, was led by Isiah Thomas with
18 points and Dantley with 17.
The Pistons, who lost their 15th
straight game at Boston Garden
since their last victory there on Dec.
19, 1982, took their biggest lead, Hi
ll, on Joe Dumars’ short jumper
with 5:06 left in the first period.
But Johnson hit consecutive bas
kets that started a 14-2 spurt and
Jerry Sichting followed with a 15-
foot juniper, giving Boston the lead
for good at 17-16 with 3:30 left in
the period.
Sichting played in place of injured
guard Danny Ainge, who missed the
game with a sprained right knee suf
fered in Sunday’s clinching victory
over Milwaukee.
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