Wednesday, May 25, 1988/The Battalion/Page 5
Sports
■■
Aggies blow perfect shot at UT
tal/Bryan
3-1407
Center 1
irkway/C.S
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I
By Hal L. Hammons
/ * Hj Assistant Sports Editor
S54.00 And the jinx co
:ount of S25[ntinues.
If there were a
ny unbelievers
remaining abo
utTexas A&M’
Ik j s inability to del'
• Zl eat t ^ ie Universi
■ Ta < ty of Texas in b
• aseball before 1
< . et! ast week’s Sout
MMM^hwest Conleren
Bnce tournament,
th< v must now'
Hamong thet
f \ hrongs of skept
Hal L.
Hammons
Fries
akes
7 ries
"ries
"ries
oast
luce
He deck was positively stacked in th
ciggies’ favor. Texas’ loss Thursda
y to Baylor and Friday’s game agains
tlrkansas in the loser’s bracket mea
nttwo important strikes against Tex
as. One: A&M had two shots at UT,
Hh only one win necessary for a to
urnament crown. Two: The Longho
ms couldn’t pitch either of their two
aces — Eric Stone and Kirk Dressen
dorfer.
And the most important intangible
wa s in A&M’s favor as well. UT was
obviously indifferent to the idea of
Hining. And the Aggies wanted th
e Horns. Bad.
To make matters positively ridiculou
s, practically everyone at George Col
e Field hated UT almost as much as
A&M. Agreed, that would only be a
Hind 500 people — spread out over
the two days. But an edge is an edge.
So the bottom line is that everyone in
Fay etteville wanted A&M to win. Th
Hggies for revenge. The fans for h
Hed. The UT players and coaches f
or an extra day’s rest before regional
Hipetition. The media to get out of
Arkansas a day early.
W^ll, almost everybody. Preston Wat
son and Brian Cisarik seemed to car
e somewhat.
H Aggie player told me Friday nigh
t Watson would have to pitch the ga
me of his life to win. Shouldn’t have
opened your mouth, big guy.
Watson, he of the huge ERA and equ
ally sizeable inconsistency, completel
y uaffled the A&M batters for nine i
* **■ W* !C nnings, giving the UT sluggers no le
Ags seeded No. 1 in South
as NCAA regionals begin
The Texas A&M baseball team
will travel to Starkville, Miss, for
the second straight year to com
pete in NCAA post-season play.
But unlike last year when the Ag
gies were the underdogs of the
regional competition who came
within one win of the College
World Series, A&M will be the fa
vorite to advance to Omaha this
year.
A&M earned the No. 1 seed in
the South Regional after compil
ing a 50-13 record and being
ranked fifth in the nation. The
playoffs consist of eight double
elimination regional tournaments
and A&M was one of eight teams
selected as a No. 1 seed in the 48-
team field.
The Aggies will face sixth-
seeded Middle Tennessee State,
34-24-1, in the tournament’s first
round Thursday at 2 p.m. at host
Mississippi State’s Dudy Noble
Field.
No. 2 seed Mississippi State will
play fifth-seeded Western Caro
lina in the second game Thursday
night at 7:30. Third and fourth
seeds Cal-Fulierton and Missouri
square off Friday.
99
ad to make up — and giving the shell
-shocked Texas pitching corps a muc
h-needed breather.
Cisarik was enough on the offensive
side to win a game with two offensiv
e squads, so his stick provided more t
han enough to counter the fearsome
two-hit Aggie attack. “More-than-en
ough” meaning going 4-for-5 with fo
ur RBI and a two-run homer.
The seven-run seventh broke open t
he close game and turned it into a 10
the two innings had given the Ags a
4-0 lead. And they were looking for
more with one out, a runner on, and
relief coming out of the UT bullpen
far earlier than the Horns would ha
ve liked.
And then the rain came.
I and the rest of the writers in the pr
ess box were positive we had seen ou
r last inning of baseball in Fayettevill
e of the year. A day too late, granted,
Analysis
sad
I
*9
\ bacon
;akes
enter
-0 rout. It was thought it also would
give the Aggies more incentive to wi
n the final game Sunday.
After all, all the above reasons for A
&M to win still applied. And the pitc
hing situation was considerably wors
e; starter Ruben Grajeda had appear
ed in a grand total of three games all
season — for a total of five innings.
Not exactly what a team would look
for in a championship game starter.
It looked like appearences might not
be deceiving after all as the second in
ning developed. Two runs in each of
but acceptable, seeing we’d be out of
the state by late afternoon.
The “30 minute maximum” delay ga
ve way to a 15 minute extension. Th
en they announced a “final decision”
in 10 more.
“What was the delay?” we wondered.
Actually, two factors were involved.
An eagerness by A&M Coach Mark
Johnson to finish the game and capi
talize on a rare opportunity was one
of them. A sky that seemed to be cle
aring at an alarming rate was the oth
er.
UT Coach Cliff Gustafson was willin
g to call the game, declare UT and A
&M co-champions, and split town. B
ut Johnson wanted to stay, the sun w
anted to shine, and after 85 minutes
worth of rain delay, the game was re
sumed.
Face it, coach: You asked for it.
The Horns erupted for four runs in
the bottom of the second to tie tfie g
ame and give the Aggie supporters a
n alarming premonition of pending
disaster.
That expectation was not unwarrent
ed.
Five more runs in the next four inni
ngs spawned a powerful feeling of d
eja vu in the Aggie faithful. Blown o
pportunities in the series in Austin al
lowed Texas to squeak by with two cl
ose wins that easily could have gone t
he other way.
It seemed A&M was ready to come b
ack when they scored three runs in t
he seventh. But UT bounced right b
ack with three of their own.
But the Aggies weren’t through quit
e yet. They had another chance to bl
ow. With two out in the bottom of th
e ninth, A&M had the bases loaded
with leading hitter Chuck Knoblauc
h at the plate. To make it even more
appealing, out of the bullpen strode
Curry Hardin, A&M Consolidated e
x and the Aggies’ favorite punching
bag.
And Knoblauch crushed Hardin’s se
cond pitch into left field. A prettier li
ne drive could not be asked for.
Well, perhaps a line drive that wasn’t
right to an outfielder would be pretti
er.
That, another example of the Aggies
snatching defeat out of the jaws of vi
ctory for UT’s benefit, comes as clos
e as possible to proving the existence
of an A&M mental block that strikes
when the Aggies see orange.
When I hit the booming metropolis
of Starkville, Miss, tonight, I fully ex
pect to hear the Aggies say they want
more than anything in the world to g
o to the College World Series and fac
e Texas in the championship game.
A chance to redeem themselves on n
ational television with a win that wou
Id make up for five earlier losses.
But you’ve got to wonder.
Houston’s success due to
Astronomical’ mound staff
Station
ITV, ITTSBURGH (AP) — The con-
- iv^nnCtribution by Houston’s remarkable
J IVl'JIWpji c j 1 j n g sta ff to jhe Astros’ impres
sive start has been . . . well, Astro
nomical.
jCy Young Award winner Mike
^Scbtt, off to a 6-0 start that’s the best
of his career, doesn’t believe there is
Bother starting staff in baseball to
tiyal Houston’s, which has a com-
bified 21-7 record and 2.47 earned
run average.
|»: i Bob Knepper, also 6-0, has a .089
earned run average — the best in the
majors. He has allowed only five
Rned runs in 50‘/s innings,
tf BNolan Ryan, at 41, is still throwing
I la humming fastball. He is 4-2 with a
* |D3 ERA and has already flirted
Hh what would have been a record
llpjjth no-hitter. Jim DeShaies is only
r. belts.hoses 3-|, but his 1.69 ERA is the second-
Ipest in the National League to Knep-
195 * pei’s. Danny Darwin is 2-3 with a
* 13.74 ERA.
•■"—••^ JScott said pitching wins pennants,
igljd the Astros have the kind of
pitching it takes to win the NL West
Bfempionship. The Astros have a
Itwo-game lead over the Los Angeles
(Podgers.
'vehicles jHOur pitching is the best I’ve ever
||eten for five guys going out there ev-
I Q95 ei 7 day,” Scott said. “There’s noth-
I w dug even close. If it keeps up, we’ll
ggh it.
iAstros
starters have produced
quality starts — at least six innings
pitched, three or fewer earned runs
— in 35 of 41 games.
Scott shut out the Pirates 3-0 on
four hits in a rain-shortened S'/a-in-
ning game Monday night for his
sixth straight win, the longest streak
of his 10-year career.
Scott said any one of the Astros’
“Fantastic Five” would be the No. 1
starter on most major league staffs.
“And I mean on the best of
teams,” he said. “We’re struggling
with our hitting a little bit right now,
but we’re probably pitching as good
as we can.”
Or as good as anyone can.
“Our starting pitching has just
been excellent,” Astros manager Hal
Lanier said. “I knew we were strong
coming out of spring training, but
no one could have known it would
be like this. It’s been a much deeper
staff than I thought it would be.”
When Lanier does have to go to
his bullpen, he has one of baseball’s
best closers in the dependable Dave
Smith, who is 1-2 with a 3.24 ERA
and nine saves. Smith, 33, has 93
saves since the start of the 1985 sea
son.
Bobby Bonilla of the Pirates, one
of the NL leaders in nearly every
major offensive category, said one
word describes the astounding As
tros’ pitching: awesome.
“It’s good for us to face the good
pitching, because you don’t get any
better unless you face the best,” he
said. “When you play Houston, you
know you’re going to face a lot of
good pitching and you have to ac
cept the challenge.”
Scott has beaten the Pirates twice
in the last week, allowing only two
earned runs in 15 innings.
“I’ve been in a pretty good
groove,” said Scott, who was 18-10
when he won the Cy Young Award
in 1986. “Really, I’ve been in a good
groove since the end of spring train
ing. I haven’t had a bad day all sea
son.”
Opposing hitters have had plenty
of bad days and nights trying to hit
Scott’s trademark split-finger fast
ball, which was nearly unhittable
Monday night.
“It was the best I’ve had all year,”
said Scott, who is 58-31 over four
seasons since learning the split-fin
ger from San Francisco Giants man
ager Roger Craig.
Pirates manager Jim Leyland said
he tells his young hitters when they
face the Astros to “just go out there
and battle your butts off.
“If a pitcher wins 20 games, he’s
probably going to lose 10 or 11, so I
tell them to go out there and try to
put one of those losses against them.
You’ve got to stay mentally tough
against them because they’re so
good.”
1LTEFI
yota
hoses
fied
Blackout halts
tied 4th game
BOSTON (AP) — The fourth
ame of the Stanley Cup finals
etween the Edmonton Oilers
and the Boston Bruins was post
poned with the score tied 3-3 and
i®:23 left in the second period
when a power failure hit Boston
Garden Tuesday night.
I NHL President John Ziegler
met with officials from both
teams for several minutes and de
cided not to continue play even
Ifjvhen power was restored because
most of the crowd had been evac-
iiated for security reasons.
[ The game could not be re-
Iplayed in Boston Wednesday or
■Thursday nights, when the Bos
ton Celtics will be at the Garden
•for the first two games of their
NBA Eastern Conference Finals
against the Detroit Pistons.
| The loss was caused reportedly
by a failure in a Boston & Maine
Railroad power plant that sup
plies most of the Garden’s power.
Thrown bat costs
Guerrero 4 games
NEW YORK (AP) — Pedro Guer
rero of the Los Angeles Dodgers was
suspended for four days and fined a
reported $1,000 Tuesday by the Na
tional League for heaving his bat in
the direction of New York Mets
pitcher David Cone Sunday.
The Dodgers said Guerrero won’t
appeal and they will continue to pay
him during the suspension.
That means Guerrero, third in
the NL with a .326 batting average,
will miss three games in Philadelphia
and one in Montreal.
“I think it’s all right, but I’m con
cerned that the pitcher doesn’t get
(suspended or fined),” Guerrero
said. “I’m being suspended four
days and he’s still pitching. The
president of the league did the right
thing, but he should have done
something about the pitcher.”
Mets second baseman Wally Back-
man said the punishment was too le
nient for the offense Guerrero com
mitted.
Pirates stump
Houston 5-4
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sid
Bream hit a sacrifice fly in the
bottom of the ninth inning after
Bobby Bonilla tied the game with
an RBI single as the Pittsburgh
Pirates overcame two Alan Ashby
homers to beat the Houston As
tros 5-4 Tuesday night.
Ashby’s fifth homer of the
year, a solo shot in the top of the
ninth off reliever Jim Gott, 2-1,
gave Houston a 4-3 lead.
Barry Bonds opened the bot
tom of the ninth with a bunt sin
gle off Larry Anderson, 1-2. Af
ter Jose Lind struck out, Andy
Van Slyke, who went 4-for-5, sin
gled to move Bonds to second.
Bonilla then singled to right
and Bream followed with a long
fly to left.
It was Pittsburgh first victory
against Houston in five games
this season and the Pirates’ third
win in 10 games. It was the As
tros’ second loss in the last eight.
Houston took a 1-0 lead in the
first against Doug Drabek on a
two-out RBI double by Glenn Da
vis, who went 3-for-4.
Davis singled in the fourth and
Ashby followed with a homer
over the right field wall to give
the Astros a 3-0 lead.
R.J. Reynolds’ fourth-inning
RBI single ended a 16% innings
Pirates’ scoreless streak against
Houston and Van Slyke pulled
Pittsburgh to 3-2 when he led off
the sixth with his seventh homer
of the season.
The Pirates tied it in the sev
enth on Bonilla’s RBI single off
Juan Agosto, who has allowed
five of the seven runners he has
inherited this year to score.
“Four days? If that’s all he got, a
lot of are going to be throwing their
bats,” Backman said Tuesday.
The bat-throwing occurred in the
sixth inning of the Mets’ 5-2 win
over the Dodgers. After two inside
fastballs, one of which was fouled
off, Cone threw a curve which
glanced off Guerrero’s shoulder.
Guerrero glared at Cone, then
threw his bat in the general direction
of the mound, missing Cone by
about 20 feet.
As he began to walk slowly toward
Cone, he was grabbed by Mets
catcher Barry Lyons and third base-
man Howard Johnson as both
benches emptied and Cone shouted
at him “It was a curve ball.” No
punches were thrown.
“A bat can become a potentially le
thal weapon, one against which an
other player really has no defense,”
National League president Bart Gia-
matti said in a statement announcing
the suspension.
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Hatcher wins
NL honors
NEW YORK (AP) — Houston As
tros left fielder Billy Hatcher, who
hit .536 and scored six times last
week, has been named the National
League’s Player of the Week and
shortstop Kurt Stilwell of Kansas
City won the American League
honor.
Hatcher’s spree included going
ll-for-15, a .733 average, in a week
end series with St. Louis. Two of his
three runs batted in during the week
were game-winners as the Astros
won five of six to take over first place
in the National League West.
Stilwell hit .391, scoring nine runs
and driving in 10. He had a slugging
percentage of .870 and an on-base
average of .545.
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