Thursday, January 28,1988/The Battalion/Page 13
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By Anthony Wilson
Sports Writer
B In 1988, the Texas A&M baseball
|eam will be trying to improve on a
eason that saw it win 44 of its 67
antes and miss advancing to the
lollege World Series by one game.
In doing so, the Aggies will return
even of its eight position players, in-
Part one of a two-part series
luding the Southwest Conference
layer of the Year for 1987, Scott
.ivingstone, and three talented
ophomores who carry big sticks:
ohn Byington, Chuck Knoblauch
nd Terry Taylor.
A&M Head Coach Mark Johnson
lays he thinks hitting will be the least
This worries this year.
‘The strength of our team’s going
to be in our hitting,” Johnson said.
We’re returning quite a bit of our
power. Not that we had an over-
tbundance, but we had 57 home
runs and we’re returning guys who
iiit52 of those.”
A&M set a school and SWC re-
ord in 1987 by batting .347 as a
team. Leading the way was third
jaseman Livingstone.
Livingstone, a senior, batted .403
with 19 home runs and 18 doubles.
Although he missed 10 games of the
eason with a separated shoulder,
Livingstone set a school record with
72 runs scored. His 76 runs batted in
anks second in the Aggie record
book. Entering this season, Liv
ingstone is well within reach of all of
A&M’s career batting records.
During the summer, Livingstone,
second-team All-American, made
the Olympic team by helping the
United States capture a silver medal
■in the Pan American Games.
“Scott carries a big stick and does
a good job defensively,” Johnson
id. “There’s a lot of pressure on
:ott to do well because he’s return-
ig as an All-American. It means a
otof teams will be gunning for him
nd maybe pitching around him. It
neans John Byington, who’s hitting
behind him, has to have a good
year.”
Last season “Big John” Byington
had a record-setting season of un
heard of proportions for a fresh
man. Byington rewrote the books
with school records in hits, with 96,
RBIs, with 78, doubles, with 22, and
total bases, with 171. He also placed
in the top three for a season in at
bats, runs and home runs. Byington,
the 1987 SWC Newcomer of the
Year, hit .372 with 19 dingers.
Classmates Knoblauch and Taylor
also had superb freshmen seasons.
Knoblauch played in all 67 games,
hitting .341 with 89 hits, third best in
school history, and 20 doubles. His
23 stolen bases was third best for an
Aggie. Knoblauch was named to the
A1I-SWC team.
Taylor led the team with 48 walks
and hit .305 with 16 doubles and six
homers. The second baseman was
also an integral part of the school re
cord 85 double plays the team
turned last season.
Johnson is hoping the three fresh
men, who batted in the four, five
and six positions most of the season,
will be able to avoid the dreaded
sophomore jinx.
“We have three sophomores, who
were second-team freshmen All-
Americans,” Johnson said. “They’re
probably under more pressure than
anyone else because now they have
some goals and statistics in front of
them. Coming in as freshmen, they
could have hit .280 and people
would have said, ‘Great year.’ No
body knew what they could do.
“Now they’ve set a standard — a
high standard. That sophomore jinx
thing — I don’t believe in jinxes —
but 1 do believe there’s some cre
dence there. You say, ‘We’ve got a
guy, we know can hit .350. Now he’s
got to prove it again this year.’ Last
year they didn’t have to prove any
thing.” ,
A&M’s biggest asset this season
may be its experience.
“If you look at our position play
ers, we basically have the same
group back with a couple of
changes,” Johnson said. “We have
some new guys, but we have a lot of
old guys in the positions.”
Byington is once again scheduled
to be the designated hitter. Liv
ingstone and Taylor will man their
infield positions. They will be joined
by junior Jim Neumann at first base
and seniors Maury Martin and Eric
Albright at catcher. Knoblauch will
move from centerfield to shortstop
to replace Ever Magallanes.
In the outfield, senior Tim Mc-
William will be positioned in left
field and sophomore Daron Dacus
in right field. Junior transfer Kirk
Thompson is the leading candidate
to be the Aggies’ centerfielder.
Thompson transferred from San
Jacinto Junior College, where he was
a starter on its national
championship teams the past two
seasons.
Seemingly, the only question mark
A&M has this season is the pitching.
Graduation depleted A&M’s 1987
senior-laden staff.
“We graduated 26 wins off our
pitching staff,” Johnson said. “Half
of our wins were lost. That’s the real
crux of the problem — can our other
pitchers and our new pitchers come
on. Those are questions that are un
answered until we start playing.
Pitching may be a strength, too. But
it’s a question mark right now.”
The top returning pitcher is se
nior Sean Snedeker. Snedeker
posted an 8-2 record with a 4.05
earned run average in 1987. He
racked up 60 strikeouts in 86.2 in
nings.
Also returning will be junior Scott
Centala. Centala had a 6-3 record
and 4.97 ERA last season.
Johnson will be looking for contri
butions from junior college transfers
Nick Felix, Jeff Jones and Fred Ris-
cen.
“We’ve got some new junior col
lege transfers who were the work
horses in their programs,” Johnson
said. “But I wouldn’t label anyone a
workhorse right now.”
A&M’s pitching staff lost a top-
notch prospect with the loss of Brian
Bohanon. Bohanon, the state’s pre
miere high school pitcher last year,
signed a letter of intent with the Ag
Third baseman Scott Livingstone will lead the Texas A&M baseball team into another seaso.
Battalion file photo
gies, but opted to play professional
ball when he was drafted in the first
round by the Texas Rangers.
It was the second time in three
years A&M has lost a pitching pros
pect to the pros. But Johnson said
the lost scholarship hurt most.
“Obviously we felt he was ex
tremely important because we spent
a lot of time recruiting him,” John
son said. “We felt like he could come
in and be an accomplished pitcher
fairly quick.
“It’s hurt us because you go all the
way up until the end of June before
you find out the guy’s going to sign.
So we can’t go out and recruit with
that scholarship. All the other guys
have signed. The blue-chip guy who
has done extremely well in the pre
vious season is not available.”
A&M’s defense should be as good
as last year’s, with Knoblauch’s play
at shortstop the only question mark.
Knoblauch has not played short
since he broke his leg his senior year
in high school. Filling AI1-SWC
shortstop Ever Magallanes’ shoes
will be a big task.
“We have Knoblauch and Andy
Duke playing shortstop,” Johnson
said. “Both of them are good ath
letes. But, they’re not Ever Magal
lanes. That’s not a derogatory com
ment about Chuck or Andy. It just
simply says that Ever Magallanes was
an exceptional college shortstop.
And they don’t come around too of
ten. It’ll be difficult to replace his de
fensive play.
“Chuck Knoblauch has not played
shortstop for two years. If he im-
E roves every day, he has a chance to
e an outstanding shortstop. Cer
tainly he’s not as good as Ever right
now.”
In preseason polls, A&M was
ranked sixth by Baseball America
and 15th by Collegiate Baseball.
Johnson said the high rankings were
nice, but that preseason polls in col
lege ball don’t mean much.
“It’s hard to say that because a
team was good last year, they’re
going to be good this year,” Johnson
said. “They may have lost three of
their guys who were juniors. Or they
may have picked up two junior col
lege transfers who were All-Ameri
cans. So teams change rather
abruptly, much more so in baseball
than in football and basketball.
“I’m not opposed to our high
ranking. I think sixth in the nation
may be a little off. But who knows?
“But we’re flattered by the atten
tion we’re getting in the national
polls. We think there’s some justifi
cation for it.”
WMNMMHIHM
along with
Presents:
BORA! BORA!
Sat. Jan 30 Zephyr Cookout
Sun. Jan 31 Superbowl Party
_ For more Rush info, call:
Tom 696-9440
TAMU
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