'»1995
The Battalion
SPORTS
9
Friday, April 6,1990
Sports Editor
Richard Tijerina
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No. 16 Ags host high-flying Owls
By ALAN LEHMANN
Of The Battalion Staff
When the Rice Owls fly into Olsen Field
this weekend to face No. 16 Texas A&M,
they'll have yengeance on their minds.
The teams will meet for a 7 p.m. game
Friday and a 2 p.m. doubleheader Satur
day.
The Aggies beat Sam Houston 5-2 Tues
day to improve to 32-9 on the season and 4-
2 in Southwest Conference play. A&M has
beaten Rice 14 consecutive times dating
back to 1985.
Howeever, Rice looks looks tougher this
season. The Owls are 25-15 and 5-3 in SWC
action. They opened SWC play with a
sweep of Baylor in Waco, and took two of
three from Texas Christian before drop-
S two close games to conference-leading
is.
A&M sophomore third baseman Travis
Williams said that Rice will be harder to
beat this season than last year, when A&M
won 9-2, 4-1 and 6-3 in Houston.
"I think Rice is going to be tough,” Wil
liams said. ‘‘They’ve got some good pitching
and some guys who can hit. We’ll have our
hands full.
"They got after us when we went up
there last year. It was tough for us. These
SWC Standings
(28-5)
.M (32-9)
Team
Texas (32-10)
Arkansas (28-5;
Texas A&l
Rice (25-15)
Houston (29-13)
Baylor (24-14)
Texas Tech (24-
TCU(22-16)
18)
SWC Record
5-0
5-1
4- 2
5- 3
5-4
2-7
2-7
1-5
are going to be three crucial games, so we’re
going to have to just get up and get after it.”
Coach Mark Johnson agreed, citing
Rice’s showing against Texas earlier this
year.
“The thing we’re most worried about is
that they’re pitching the ball real well,”
Johnson said. “They’re playing solid de
fense and are putting the ball in play.
Against Texas, they had some opportuni
ties to win the ball game — they outhit Tex
as.”
Rice dropped a pair of games to Texas 2-
1 and 5-2, and the third game was canceled
because of rain. In the 2-1 loss, Rice starting
pitcher John Polasek almost outdueled
Texas ace Kirk Dressendorfer.
“They’re a team that’s destined to try to
make something happen in this conferen-
Crenshaw finds
‘Little Ben’ putter
e:
Trey Witte (25) tags SHSU’s John Carmichael out at second base in Tuesday’s 5-2 A&M win.
Photo by Scott D. Weaver
ce,” Johnson said “They feel like they’re
loaded, and they have a chance to beat us.
It’ll be a tough series for us because of the
type of ball club we have.
“We have a good ball club, but we’re not
going to score a lot of runs, which means we
can’t afford to make little mistakes. Every
inning, we’re going to have to hook up well
and concentrate well, the pitchers are going
to have to do a good job and not give them
the edge with a walk or a hit or anything.”
So far this season, the Aggie pitching
staff hasn’t given up a lot of either. A&M
pitchers have a combined .260 earned run
average and are allowing opposing hitters a
weak .206 batting average.
Sophomore Ronnie Allen will pitch Fri
day for the Aggies. The righthander is 5-1
with a 1.75 ERA this season. Allen has been
dominating, allowing only 41 hits and 17
walks in 62 innings.
Lefthander Rich Robertson will work the
first game of Saturday’s twinbill, and south
paw Pat Sweet will pitch the nightcap.
Robertson has been overpowering this
season. The junior from Waller hurled
complete-game shutouts at Texas Tech and
Baylor to raise his season record to 7-0. His
ERA is a sparkling 1.09, and he’s struck out
76 batters in only 58 innings, while allowing
only 26 hits.
Sweet is 4-3 with a 4.39 overall ERA. The
senior from South Gate, Calif, has shown
good control, walking only 18 batters in 56
innings.
“It looks like in the Southwest Confer
ence this year, more than the other years
I’ve been here, it’s going to be a dogfight,”
Johnson said. “Anybody can beat anybody,
and there’s been a lot of close ballgames. It
looks like it’s going to be that kind of con
ference race.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The 50-foot
utt went dead into the hole like there was a
oming device inside the ball.
Caddy Carl Jackson turned to Ben
Crenshaw and told his Masters boss of 16
years: “I think ‘Little Ben’ is letting us know
ne wants to be in on the action.’’
“Little Ben,” held hostage for almost
four weeks by a thief, is not only back but
the magic putting blade of former cham
pion Crenshaw is being brought off the
tench as a starter on Thursday in the 54th
Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club.
The decades-old putter, a Wilson 8802,
was stolen out of Crenshaw’s golf bag after
the Doral tournament.
For 27 days, the putter that helped
Crenshaw win the 1984 Masters was a pawn
in a quick buck scheme. Crenshaw offered a
reward of $2,000, no questions asked.
There were no takers.
“I was worried, real worried," Crenshaw
said. “I didn’t know how I was going to play
the Masters without it. Nowhere in the
world of golf is putting such a major part of
the game as it is at the Masters. I was just
sick about it. I thought the putter was gone
forever.”
It’s the same putter that Crenshaw used
to hole a 60-footer on the 10th green six
years ago, sending a message to the field
that it was his year to win the green jacket.
But where had the putter gone which
was the only club stolen out Crenshaw’s
bag? Crenshaw’s missing putter report to
the police was going unanswered.
Suddenly, magically, it was returned to
Crenshaw last weekend. It was the longest
of longshots the way it happened.
“The friend of an aspiring tour profes
sional recognized it for what it was and got
it to me,” Crenshaw said. “I offered him
$2,000 but he wouldn’t take a dime. He said
the putter had been sold and resold proba
bly three times.”
Crenshaw had worked for weeks trying
to break in a new blade, a “Cleveland Clas
sic” which looks a lot like the Wilson.
“I was starting to putt pretty good with
the Classic and decided not to rush putting
Little Ben back into the lineup until Tues
day,” Crenshaw said. “Then that little devil
let me know he was ready for the varsity.”
Crenshaw has been using the putter since
high school.
“I bet I’ve seen 200 Wilson models but
this one is special, it just feels different,”
Crenshaw said.
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