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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 19, 1990)
Y The Battalion w St "ORTS Monday, March 19,1990 Sports Editor Richard Tijerina 845-2688 JAgs put in a little overtime for Knight J resolve K erbecaK houses |' have iiiiig,t:i| k of ailing smep:i;' By ALAN LEHMANN Of The Battalion Staff eople cl elieves :| I 846- he All gTo- jiving more Call 145 re in- ntact luals 3051 in at Extra effort pays off. The No. 17 Texas A&M baseball team proved that as it beat Missouri 9-6 and 3-2 in two extra-inning games Saturday afternoon in front of 2,618 fans at Olsen Field. Coupled with the Aggies’ 9-1 win Friday, A&M swept Missouri and improve to 23-7 on the season. The. Tigers fell to 7-6. Earlier in the week, the Aggies had won the Aggie-Continental Classic Tournament at Olsen Field. A&M ended the tournament with a 5-1 record in the round-robin affair. St.John’s Finished with a 3-3 record while Washington State and Iowa State were each 2-4. Collegiate doubleheaders are scheduled as a seven-inning opening game and a nine inning nightcap. However, if the First game goes into extra innings, the second is sched uled for seven innings. Both of Saturday’s games went into extra innings and A&M re- cieved late inning boosts from some unlikely heroes. In Saturday's opener, junior co captain Blake Pyle hit a three-run home run in tne bottom of the eighth inning to snap a f>-6 tie. It was Pyle's First homer of the season, and he said that it came at a good time. "I couldn’t have picked a better time for it,” Pyle said. In the nightcap, First baseman Jeff Bernet slapped tne winning single in the bottom of the ninth inning. Ber net has played sparingly at First base this season and has hit only .152, but said he was happy to contribute. “I was in the spot that everybody dreams about being in,” Bernet said. “Luckily, I came through.” The pitching star in Doth victories was reliever Kerry Freudenberg. He earned both wins, pitching two shut out innings in the First game and hurling two more in the Final game. Freudenberg struck out four bat ters and allowed only one hit in the four combined innings. The dramatic win in the nightcap couldn’t have happened without a from the ui little extra effort impiring I Aggie second baseman led off the bottom of the ninth inning with and grounder to shortstop Bill Mon- drella. His throw was wide and pulled the First baseman off the bag. However, first base umpire Randy j Christal called Witte out. | Coach Mark Johnson asked i Christal for an appeal and home plate umpire Harry Crenshaw ruled Witte safe. Jason Marshall laid down a sacri fice bunt to move Witte to second, Photo by Scott D. Weaver Coaches and trainers attend to injured right and concussion after a collision with Trey Witte fielder Dan Robinson, who suffered a broken jaw during the weekend sweep against Missouri. where Bernet’s single gave A&M the Friday’s game wasn’t as exciting, ers for nine runs and ten hits — four win. The Aggies abused two Tiger pitch- of them for extra bases. Sophomore itacl F Missouri sweep ace Ronnie Allen went the distance on the mound for the Aggies, scat tering six hits and allowing only one unearned run. - v The game was scoreless until the Aggie third. Centerfielder Tim Holt led off with a double off the left Field wall. Two outs later, he scored when Travis Williams reached on an error. In the fourth, A&M added four more runs. With one put, Witte reached on an error and moved to second on Marshall’s single. John Wood followed with a single that scored Witte and moved Marshall to third. Holt followed with an infield hit that drove Marshall home and moved Wood to third. Wood scored on a single by right Fielder Dan Rob inson, and Holt scored on a sacrifice fly by freshman Brian Thomas. After the Tigers scored an un earned run in tne Fifth, the Aggies scored three in the seventh and one in the eighth. Robinson led off the seventh with a home run. That shot — a line drive down the left Field line — was his sixth home run of the season, giving him the team lead in that depart ment. Thomas followed with a double into the ri^ht-center Field gap and Travis Williams walked. Tiger coach Gene McArtor removed starter Mike Munro and brought in reliever Bunky Moeller. Moeller was greeted by desig nated hitter David Rollen’s double off of the center Field wall. The shot drove home Thomas and Williams, but Rollen was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. The scoring was capped in the eighth when back-up shortstop Sean Drinkwater walked and scored on Cornelius Patterson’s groundout. Allen, who improved to 4-1 with the win, was never in deep trouble. He struck out six, walked only one and was aided by three double plays turned behind him. “I had most of my pitches work ing, although my change up wasn’t there very often,” Allen said. “The defense got me out of a lot of jams.” The Aggies were in more than their share of jams Saturday. In the opener, A&M starter Rich Robertson got into trouble early. The lefthander had been flawless in his previous starts, going 5-0 with a 0.90 earned run average. But Rob ertson gave Up two runs on three Ti ger hits in the first inning. After walking the leadoff man, Robertson gave up three consecutive hits. Catcher John Wood helped him though by picking off a would-be base stealer. Robertson then ended the threat with a strikeout and a See Sweep/Page 12 Robinson hurt, out indefinitely By ALAN LEHMANN Of The Battalion Staff Saturday was a brutal day for Ag gie right fielder Dan Robinson. In the Fifth inning of Saturday’s opener, he dove for a bloop hit and collided with second baseman Trey Witte. Robinson’s upper jaw was broken and he suffered a concussion on the play. He was removed from the field on in a wheelchair and taken to the hospital by ambulance where his mouth was wired shut. Witte, who suffered a slight We were down, because he was hurt badly. He'll need a lot of prayers." — Blake Pyle, A&M co-captaln hyper-extension to his left knee in the collision, said that neither of them called for the ball. “Nobody called for it,” Witte said. “It was one those balls that was right in between, and everybody was going all out for it. “I thought I had hit him in the shoulder, but I didn’t realize that I had hit him in the face until I got up and saw the blood everywhere.” Alan Cannon, A&M sports infor mation director, said that Robinson would be out indefinitely. A&M co-captain Blake Pyle said that Robinson’s injury both dis turbed and united the Aggies. “We were pretty worried about him, but we had to go out and Finish the game.” Pyle said. “We were down, because he was hurt pretty badly. He’ll need a lot of prayers.” Coach Mark Johnson said that the collision shook the Aggies. “It’s a downer when that kind of thing happens,” Johnson said. “It’s a little hard to play after an accident like this.” Robinson is the Aggies’ team leader in home runs, RBI, stolen bases and walks and is second in bat ting average. « Spring lockout comes to an end after agreement run you :! DO ess ment uni) tion dds way NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball players and owners agreed to a four-year contract late Sunday night, ending the 32-day lock out and paving the way for the start of the season on April 9, a source involved in the negotiations said. The settlement brought an end to a bitter dispute that kept players locked out of ; spring training since Feb. 15, the second- longest work stoppage in baseball history. According to a source familiar with the agreement, 17 percent of players between two and three years of major-league service I will become eligible for arbitration. Using this year’s service class, 14 of 83 | two-to-three year players would have been l eligible. Both the union and owners refused to I confirm the settlement. Rich Levin, a I spokesman for the commissioner, said a | news conference would be held between 1 I a.m. and 2 a.m. EST Monday. “We’ll have an announcement in a little | while,” Commissioner Fay Vincent said. The season had been scheduled to start on April 2 with six games. With the new' : starting date of April 9, players will have exactly three weeks to train before opening day. Baseball fans from kids to President Bush had urged the two sides to get to gether and make a settlement, and after [ many hours on Sunday they did. The key issue emerged as salary arbitra tion eligibility and it dominated the negotia- | tions the last few weeks. Word of a settlement came about 11:30 p.m. EST after the players and owners had spent the entire day working on a formula I to solve arbitration eligibility. The agreement came in the 34th nego tiating session since talks began on Nov. 28, | and it came after 362 of 410 exhibition l games had been canceled. The cancelations have been devasting to l local economies in Florida and Arizona. The seventh work stoppage in baseball history began on Feb. 15, when owners ; lockea the gates to training camps, the third [ lockout in baseball history. The union I staged midseason strikes in 1981 and 1985, and owners were fearful that players would walk off the Field late in the year, jeopardiz- c ing the World Series and as much as 80 per- I cent of the national television money. Owners began negotiations by proposing See Settlement/Page 12 fans take SWC Tourney by storm photo by Phelan M. Ebenback Arkansas guard Lee Mayberry (I) celebrates with another Razorback player and coach after the 96-84 victory over Houston to win the SWC Tournament. The Razorbacks, Cougars and Longhorns all received NCAA Tournament bids. Arkansas, Three SWC teams receive NCAA bids By CLAY RASMUSSEN Of The Battalion Staff DALLAS — Arkansas fans took over Reunion Arena for the Southwest Con ference Post-season Classic last week. They might as well have renamed it Bar nhill Arena South. The Razorbacks' men’s basketball team felt right at home, rolling through the tournament, en route to their second straight SWC title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It wasn’t exactly the “40 minutes of Hell” that Arkansas promised Saturday to deal out to SWC runner-up Houston, but it dished out enough destruction to maintain die passionate romance be tween the team and its 12,000 howling followers on hand to witness the slaugh ter. After Arkansas rolled through No. 8 seed Southern Methodist 84-63, and waxed No. 4 seed Baylor L15-75, the Ra zorbacks awaited their next victim. Unfortunately for the Cougars, Hous ton stood between Arkansas and a sec ond SWC title. The Cougars entered the finals after struggling throughout the first and sec ond rounds of the tournament. In its first game against No. 7 seed Rice, Hous ton trailed on and off in the first half be fore finally gaining the upper hand late in the second half. The Cougars won, 90-81. That win set up a showdown with Texas Saturday. The Longhorns ad vanced to the second round after beat ing Texas A&M 92-84. Texas was determined to avenge an earlier loss to Houston. The Cougars seemed to be in control during much of the game, and at one point Ted by 21 points. After Longhorns’ coach Tom Penders was assessed his third technical foul and was ejected, Texas battled back to within two points. But that was as close as Texas would get, and the Cougars held on to win. 89-8o. The final game was set. Houston, with shades of Phi Slamma Jamma surfacing at times, were looking to shut down the Razorbacks’ potent offense. But instead, the Cougars were out- manned, outclassed and outnumbered. Arkansas downed Houston. 96-84 to win the Tournament. “Clearly, they are the better basketball team,” Houston coach Pat Foster said af ter the loss to Arkansas. “They were much sharper, much quicker than we were, and tney deserve to go to the play offs as the No. 1 representative of the SWC.. “We gave it a tremendous effort, but there was nothing we could do.” Meanwhile, Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson was beaming like a proud fa ther. “It’s just a great pleasure to look back on the season and realize that the nu cleus of this team is just babies," Rich ardson said, referring to sophomores Lee Mayberry, Oliver Miller and Todd Day’s Alf-Tournametit Honors. The rest of the league now jxmders the future of Arkansas basketball, as the Razorbacks return to Dallas to play North Carolina this week in the NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks advanced to the Sweet 16 with their win over Day- ton Saturday. The Cougars also gained a bid to the Tournament, but bowed out quickly af ter a first-round loss to the University of California at Santa Barbara. Texas gained a bid to the national tournament and beat Georgia in its first round game and squeaked by Purdue to join Arkansas'in the final 16 teams in the Tournament. *