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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 1988)
Wednesday, April 20, 1988/The Battalion/Page 9 Sports gs dispose of TSU; H next Perfect time is right now for the Aggies to beat UT Loyd Brumfield Sports viewpoint lemberoi llinois t ;n ads was ok I in the a; petition! ask the that it thampi* p acctiffii ' Benoe: Girls'i it nott«| xrkinj t intedMJ ill betoai laid in« i disapf ;ingtot*_ arncti ofll Well, I’m convinced. The Texas A&M baseball team has won this basketball I junkie over. I’m still not much of a professional baseball fan, mind you, but there is noth ing quite like watching the Aggies in action. And now the fun starts. After quickly disposing of Texas Southern in a single game Tuesday, the Aggies j will resume Southwest j Conference play this I sveekend in Austin in ihe series of the year against Texas. I’ve got one of those feelings. This is our year. Fifth-ranked A&M, 43-8 overall, is blistering through the rest of the SWC with an 11-1 record and has won 10 straight SWC contests since an opening loss to Arkansas in Fayetteville. The Horns are also 11-1 and tied for first with A&M. This weekend’s three-game series should just j about wrap things up as far as the conference race |s oes - They play “Gusball” in Austin, as in UT Head Coach Cliff Gustafson, who notched his 1,000th win this year. As all of you know, the Horns are a permanent fixture at the College World Series in Ohmaha. This will probably be true again this year, but it’s time for the boys in maroon to join them. } Even if the Aggies blow’ one game too many this weekend they have the advantage as far as the remainder of the schedule goes. | A&M finishes up at home against Houston and [Texas Christian, while UT has to go on the road to | play Houston before finishing up at home against Arkansas. [ This is it. This is our year. Even though the Horns will have had the entire week off with A&M coming off games against the Houston Astros and TSU, the Aggies should have the edge this weekend. Of course, this is said by someone every year. Last year at about this time the Ags were rolling land even got to play UT here at Olsen Field. The result: A&M lost two of three to the Horns, losing 8- 2 and 10-9, while winning 10-3 in the third and final game. In 1986, A&M was 13-2 in the SWC going into the series in Austin. The Ags were sw’ept there 3-1,5-4 and 16-1 1 and were effectively eliminated from the chase for the SWC crown. However, A&M caught fire in the post-season tournament held at Olsen. The Aggies shut out Arkansas 4-0 and then beat Baylor twice for the tournament title. Baylor’s early elimination of UT kept the Aggies and Horns from, forgive me, locking horns again. But I still say it’s our year. This years’ Aggies seem to have the character it takes to win on the road. Witness the series with Arkansas earlier in the year. Previous Aggie teams might have caved in after the opening 5-0 loss, but the 1988 Ags came back the very next day to smash the Hogs 6-1 and 8-6, letting the conference know they were for real. A&M’s losses, with the exception of aberrations at the hands of Sam Houston State (a team that has traditionally thwarted A&M) and Louisiana Tech (a perennial playoff team nonetheless), have all come against top-notch teams like second-ranked Fresno State and top-ranked Oklahoma State. Conference play has helped the team mature, and a series of weekend sweeps against Texas Tech, Baylor and Rice can do nothing but help the Aggies going into this weekend’s series. A&M has pretty much destroyed its opponents while Texas has won, yet struggled. The Aggies left no survivors against Tech, beating the Raiders 11-3, 10-0 and 5-3. The Horns swept Tech in Lubbock, but not by much. The Aggies didn’t treat Rice, a team that beat UT once, much better. This time the scores were 10-2, 5- 0 and a 17-1 whipping of the Owls, a good team despite their 29-21 overall record. The 5-0 washout featured a no-hitter by the Aggies’ Fred Riscen. UT beat Rice twice in Houston, but lost the middle game of the series, putting the Horns in a tie for first with A&M. So the heat is on the Aggies this weekend. Forget Oklahoma State, forget the Astros— this is the series that really counts. Great, now I’ve probably jinxed the team. Just forget everything I said and go to the series. But, hey — I’m a believer. Photo by Mike C. Mulvey A&M catcher Tom Carcione tags out a Texas Southern baserunner during the Aggies’ 8-4 over the Tigers. A&M will play Texas in a three-game Southwest Conference showdown in Austin Friday and Saturday. By Cray Pixley Sports Writer There was one obstacle for the Texas A&M baseball team before it heads to Austin this weekend to bat tle Southwest Conference co-leader University of Texas for the SWC lead. The obstacle, Texas Southern University, w’as removed with an 8-4 Aggie win Tuesday night at Olsen Field. The Aggies are 11-1 in confer ence play and 42-8 overall. The game started out slow but broke open for the Aggies in the fourth inning. Second baseman Terry Taylor doubled to right field and Scott Liv ingstone knocked one toward first base but was caught out. J [ohn Byington then hit a ground- e double to left field to score Tay lor. Left fielder Tim McWilliam bat ted one to left field to score Bying ton. TSU’s Jaime Castaneda struck out Tom Carcione, and Andy Duke popped out to end the fourth inning and leave McWilliam stranded on third base. The Aggies two-run lead was stalled in the fifth inning. TSU’s Avery Johnson singled and Derrick Young doubled to advance Johnson to third base. On second baseman Erin Adder- ly’s bunt, Johnson tried to steal home but was tagged out by Car cione. Marcus Newsome doubled to cen- terfield to send Young home for TSU’s first run. The score was tied at two after Adderly scored on a sacrifice fly by McKinley Griffin. A&M answered back in the bot tom of the fifth after Mike Easley was walked by Castaneda and Kirk Thompson bunted. Easley was then batted in by a Taylor single to right field. It was Taylor’s first of three RBI for the night. Livingstone followed Taylor’s RBI with a hit to right field that caught the foul line to send Thomp son and Taylor home. Byington and McWilliam came up empty-handed to end the fifth with the score at 5-2. There was little action for either team until the seveth inning. A&M’s Thompson singled and Knoblauch bunted to get on base. Taylor came up to hat and knocked a three-run homer to give the Ags an 8-2 lead and TSU a new pitcher, Joe Quada. Livingstone popped out while Byington and McWilliam singled to get on base. They were left on base after Maury Martin, pinch hitting for Car cione, was thrown out at first base. The Tigers’ last gasp came in the eighth inning. Johnson hit a two-run homer over the 400-foot, fence to score Ramon Rivera who had earlier hit a double to center field. The home run wasn’t enough to inspire the Tigers in the ninth and the Ags finished out the game without batting. The Aggies pitched three men and Anthony DeLaCruz was given the win. The Ags gave up four runs and nine hits with DeLaCruz’s re cord going to 4-1. Jeff Jones pitched three innings and Steve Hughes pitched three innings. A&M’s pitchers compiled 10 strike outs against the Tigers. TSU’s losing man was Castenada who gave up eight runs, 10 hits to drop to a 2-9 record. Wacky Wednesday Coupon ,nhaM evei'' Muffin or cookie. COUPON GOOD WED. 4/20/88 ONLY! Coupon not good in combination with other coupon, (jintil li< k Dessert Shoppe kxC^KtrtxFrozjrnYygttri.-Bakery Store hours* 601 University Drive, College Station 10a.m. to midnight WHAT’S A DEGREE GOOD FOR? 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