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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1990)
e Battalion PORTS Wednesday, February 21,1990 7 Sports Editor Richard Tijerina 845-2688 Vince Snyder Sports Writer “ uiesi ' «! a % n ' 0l 'niant t cannot to!, tnts. f’ 'tep.;:. ihat tfc, a threat:. e porters i. »re a Sflyia iV Secretar rker in posed n ales. delivers , t ; rs. Tutwilf, ,the mt ito d, one- linist /ery iialist rts of utwilei, artmenl woman Washinr '<! the snip- ditions, Women’s sports need some Aggie oving also I just realized something is wrong with society’s acceptance of professional women’s sports. Why do we pay to watch two women hit a little fuzzy ball back and forth across a net, when we wouldn’t pay to watch a woman hit a home run? There are certain sports we do accept like women’s tennis, golf and bowling. But what about professional women’s basketball, softball and volleyball ? I mean these are legitimate sports recognized throughout the high school and collegiate levels. But that’s about as far as it goes, besides a one-in-a-million :hance of going to the Olympics. Why is that? Is it because no one wants to pay to iee a woman shoot, hit or spike a ball ? 3r is it because people think there are nough sports to worry about already ? Whatever the reason may be, it seems little unfair. These women have worked just as ard in some of these sports as the men mve, and possibly even harder in the job )fpromoting their image as competitors. And yet, all for what ? A chance to sit back one day and tell heir grandchildren that society only illowed them to play sports in school nd not on a profesional level? Maybe it all falls back on the little support shown or given to the women for their efforts in college. e tombi.'iK ba’s arsenal e than 1, >de ! s ', , 1 I can contest to the lack of fanfare at ter had ici; 1 s durinn j° me t* 12 women s sporting events weeks V l ere at T exas A&M. Maybe this is the ;s has dill pin reason why women’s basketball, r whv (In joftball and volleyball teams have a i send M;.piling chance of making it in the r|yatai!H*rofessional sports market. socritiakB It seems that the only time the stands hail S. (si»Q > Roilie White Coliseum start to fill u t .Mpforn women’s sporting event is when ‘Here is a gimmick involved, and even vi Mat is a dismal half-hearted try. Take for of activilisW stance t ' ie *- )orm show your support the Unitf P rt h e Lady Aggies” contest at a Lady (annulio fggies’ basketball game. P Boy, what support. It’s like taking a dismissediffid to the dentist, and then promising ■stion as i him ice cream afterward. They should t wasnafiBake the contest last all season during he laterssB) me g ames an< j not just for one night, ’ir ; And then for a real kicker, bonus points mil refots'a 011 ^ awar d 2 d to the group of people s'lluTiib r uni a dorm who go to a road game. B A more recent example for the lack of ms appe t^PPOrt toward A&M women's sports dating il: took place last Friday when the Lady le-partv'iwgies hosted the Lady Longhorns. The See Snyder/Page 8 it, Ttitwik ba from d 9-0 Ags sweep twinbill Photo byjayjanner Relief pitcher Steve Hughes (21) comes in for starter Brent Gilbert (30) in Tuesday’s 10-5 victory. He pitched two innings to give Gilbert the win. ByALAN LEHMANN Of The Battalion Staff T he Texas A&M baseball team got by with a little help from their enemies Tuesday. Thanks to Lamar’s generosity, A&M swept a doubleheader 10-5 and 2-1 at Olsen Field. With the wins, the No. 8 Ag gies stay undefeated and are 9-0 on the season.. In the first game, Lamar out hit A&M nine to live, but walked seven Aggies -— six of them scored. Lamar was slightly less gracious in the nightcap — walking only two hatters — but one of them scored on a sacrifice fiv in the bottom ot the ninth inning to give the Aggies the win. In fact, both ol the Aggie runs in the second game were gifts. T railing 1-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning, A&M got a baserunner when pinch hitter Scott Daniels was hit by Lamar reliever Bill Keenan. Daniels moved to third on Tim Holt's perfectly executed hit-and-run single through the t ight side. T hen Keenan started the gifts. On a routine pickoff plav. he faked a throw to third and turned to first. Holt was lean ing toward second, but Keenan's throw saded over first baseman Bobby Stroth er’s head, allowing Daniels to score the tying run. Coach Mark Johnson said he didn’t mind winning ugly. “We’ll take it," Johnson said. “Errors are part of the game.” In the ninth inning, senior right fielder Dan Robinson worked a leadoff walk from reliever Mike Ondiias, and stole second base one out later. After catcher Blake IMe was intentionally walked, Travis Will-aims hit a ground ball that should have been a double-play. But luck was again on A&M's side, and shortstop Chip Kirk hobbled the ball so badly that he didn't get either runner. Sophomore first baseman Jeff Bernet then lifted a flv frail to right field. It was deep enough to score the speedv Robin son. “I was just trying to make sure that 1 got the ball out of the infield,” Bernet said. T was looking for a pitch up in the strike /.one.” Senior pitcher Kerry Freudenberg pitched 3.2 innings of sparkling relief to pick up the win. After coming in for starter Sean Lawrence, Freudenberg struck out nine hitters, and allowed only one hit. “1 had all tny good stuff tonight, and Blake was giving me a good target," Freudenberg said. “The slider, my bread and butter pitch, was working good, but what made the difference tonight was See SweepTage 8 A&M loses Ryan’s son to Texas FROM STAFF & WIRE REPORTS If heredity has anything to do with base ball prospects, Texas A&M Coach Mark Johnson may just have missed a near sure thing. The Texas Longhorns, a perennial col lege baseball power with a tradition of turn ing out major league pitchers, offered Reid Ryan of Alvin, Texas, a scholarship without ever seeing him pitch. But they certainly have caught an eyeful of his father, strikeout leader Nolan Ryan. “Every high school kid is a gamble,” Texas recruiting coordinator Deron Gus tafson said Tuesday. “You don’t know how mature they are physically or mentally, or what they might do a year or two from now. “But Reid’s a pretty good one to take a chance on.” Ryan, a 6-foot, 170-pound right-hander with an 86-mph fastball has committed to play next year for Texas, according to Gus tafson, son of head baseball coach Cliff Gustafson. Johnson said Tuesday that Ryan com mitted to the Longhorns two'weeks ago. He chose Texas over A&M, which also wanted him to play baseball. “We made a run at him, but we knew it would be tough,” Johnson said. “He’d al ways wanted to go to Texas. He and Nolan both told us that up front.” The Ryan family visited A&M earlier this year, and Johnson said that although they enjoyed the campus and the Aggie baseball staff, the senior had his heart set on playing for the Longhorns. “You don’t get all the guys you look at,” Johnson said. “He hasn’t arrived yet, hut he’s got potential. Obviously, there’s pretty good blood in the family.” Years ago, when Nolan Ryan was pitch ing at Alvin, near Houston, Texas also of fered him a scholarship. Ryan, however, signed with the New York Mets and is now the all-time major league strikeout leader, topping 5,000 last season with the Texas Rangers. Ryan said his son, who also plays basket See Ryan/Page 8 Ags hoping date with Hogs isn’t another war story By CLAY RASMUSSEN Of The Battalion Staff Old generals often sit and swap war sto ries. And even though Texas A&M men’s basketball coach John Thornton has led his Aggies only a month, he too has tales to tell. A&M travels to Fayetteville, Ark. Wednesday to battle Arkansas in Barnhill Arena, a coliseum Thornton dubbs as “Fayette-Nam.” Tipoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. “My first experience in Fayette-Nam was back in ’74,” Thornton said. “At that time, Barnhill Arena was an indoor pavilion for rodeos. It was covered with sawdust, dirt and had a sidewalk you had to walk on to get to the floor so that we didn’t get our ten nis shoes dirty. It even had portable bleach ers. “That’s when basketball was wild —really wild.” Thornton said it wasn’t so much the at mosphere as it was the hostile surround ings. “You had to actually take your bench and go to midcourt because there would be peo ple hanging over the rails trying to grab you and throw stuff at you,” Thornton said. “We got hit with coins, snuff cans, ice ... anything. “It’s just a basketball hotbed.” And after more than 15 years, things haven’t changed much. The Razorbacks are 12-2 in the South west Conference and can wrap up at least a share of the league title with a win over the Aggies. Overall, Arkansas is 21-4. A&M is 12-14 overall, 5-7 in SWC play. Despite beating the Aggies 100-84 a month ago at G. Roilie White Coliseum, Ar kansas coach Nolan Richardson is expect ing a battle from A&M. ^ “This is the same A&M team that beat Connecticut,” Richardson said. “Connecti cut is ranked sixth in the nation and is tied for the lead in the Big Fiast.” Richardson went on to say the Aggies haven’t been dominated by anyone they’ve met this season. The only SWC game the Aggies were overpowered in was against Houston last January and their previous meeting with Arkansas. Arkansas hasn’t been without problems, though. The Razorbacks were 1 1-0 in SWC play until they met up with the Iba cousins earlier this month. Richardson’s squad lost to Baylor’s Gene Iba in Waco, then lost to Texas Christian’s Moe Iba in Fort Worth. Arkansas returned to Fayetteville the next week and, with a new offensive scheme, trounced Southern Methodist 77-46. “Earlier this year, they went with a quicker, smaller lineup,” Thornton said. “(Mario) Credit and (Oliver) Miller would alternate, but after their SWC losses they started both Miller and Credit.” But they continue to press opposing of fenses and Thornton doesn’t expect Wednesday to be any different. He said that the Aggies must control the ball and not allow the Razorbacks’ defense to throw their offense off balance and force careless turnovers. “The relentless pressure is what we have to handle to win the game,” Thornton said. “We have to handle the press, handle the half-court traps, handle the double teams. They will keep the pressure on and rip you and convert, rip you and convert and soon See War Stories/Page 8 ■m sweepr ejecting s lie forti| jcratit proi' ti-panv sfi- i he Cut i mitniueii : I , om-p.' 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