The Battalion SPORTS Wednesday, May 23,1990 Sports Editor Clay Rasmussen Two great teams, two great sports, two bad endings It’s the end of May and the Texas A&M baseball team and the Los Angeles Lakers find they have something in common. The Lakers are at home in L. A. after being knocked out of the NBA playoffs by Phoenix and the Aggies find themselves idle in College Station. The Aggies, who dropped five of their final six games, went from being a contender for the Southwest Conference baseball title to failing to receive a spot in the SWC’s tournament. You have to go back to head coach Mark Johnson’s first year at A&M’s to find a season that the Aggies failed to make a trip to the National Collegiaite Athletic Association’s regional baseball tournament. In 1985,Johnson led the Aggies to a 39-16 record (12-9 in SWC play) as the A&M failed to return not only to the regionals, but didn’t receive a spot in the SWC tournament. Johnson’s Aggies built on their first-year disappointment — establishing what many believed would be a dynasty to equal Cliff Gustaffson’s Texas Longhorns. During the course of the next four seasons, A&M gained four berths in the SWC tournament and received four bids to the NCAA’s regional tourney. Johnson’s success story at A&M culminated last year when the Aggies went 58-7, were ranked No. 1 for 11 weeks in Baseball America’s Poll. A&M was one win away from a trip to Omaha and a shot at the Collegiate World Series. 1990 may have been a disappointment for Johnson, but you can bet he won’t dwell on the Aggies failure, but look for a way to recapture the magic that A&M baseball held in 1989. Robertson named baseball team’s MVP From Staff and Wire Reports The Texas A&M baseball team finished its regular season play and named left-handed pitcher Rich Robertson as the Marion Pugh Most Valuable Player as well as the C.E. “Pat” Olsen Outstanding Pitcher for the 1990 season. The 6-4, 168-pound junior from Waller finished the season with a 10- 1 record and a 1.77 earned run aver age — the lowest ERA in the South west Conference. Robertson threw 106 strikeouts in 99.1 innings for the third-most in a single season in A&M history. “Without question. Rich Rob ertson was the MVP of this team,” said A&M head coach Mark John son. “He had a truly outstanding season for us. He gave us a chance to win every time he crossed the line.” Robertson started in 13 of the 15 games in which he played and was second on the team with seven com plete games with three complete- game shutouts. Robertson also had one save on the year. He was earlier named as the sole A&M representative on The Asso ciated Press All-Southwest Confer ence and United Press International baseball teams. Rightfielder Brian Thomas re ceived the Wally Moon Award for the team’s most improved player. Thomas, a freshman from Ore gon who was expected to be redshirted this year, was inserted into the lineup to add some offense to the team. He quickly built a .290 batting average and saw defensive action when rightfielder Dan Robin son was injured in mid-March and Thomas was put in as a replacement. The Marion Pugh Spirit Award was awarded to junior David Rollen who led the Aggies with a .297 bat ting average, tied for the lead with eight homeruns and was second with 37 RBI. The Spirit Award is given to the member of the team who is a tough competitor, working hard every day of the season. A&M finished the season with a 43-17 record, the fifth-best record in the school’s history. Opportunity knocks for Odie Aggie netter awarded spot in NCAA championships From Staff and Wire Reports Texas A&M tennis team member Shaun O’Donovan received a berth for the 1990 National Collegiate Athletic Association Men’s Tennis Championship held this week in In dian Wells, California. O’Donovan faces Bryan Jones, a sophomore at North Carolina, in the first round of singles competition May 23. While O’Donovan is ranked 68th in the Volvo/Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Association poll, his oppo nent Jones is ranked 52nd. “Jones is a solid baseline hitter and tough first-round opponent,” said assistant coach Tim Drain. As the first Aggie selected to the men’s competition since Kimmo Al- kio in 1985, O’Donovan is one of seven players selected, from the Southwest Conference in a tourna ment field of 64. A&M head coach David Kent said he is optimistic about O’Donovan’s abilities. “This is a real opportunity for Shaun. I think he can do well out there. “He has the ability to raise his level of play.” O’Donovan, a 5-8, 150-pound se nior from Pietermaritzburg, South Africa gathered a 17-7 spring record and received All-SWC honors as the Aggies’ No. 1 player. He helped the A&M men’s team finish the season with a 18-7 dual match record. During the regular season, O’Do novan hit two hot streaks, winning seven in a row for a 7-0 dual match record and winning another six to change a shaky 17-9 record into a solid 23-9. O’Donovan has defeated many ranked opponents including No. 16 David Kass of Michigan and No. 21 Luis Ruette of Texas Christian. On May 9, the Volvo/ITCA named O’Donovan as the recipiant of the Region VI Head Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship Award, making him eligible for national honors. Homestead Savings Moves to Shiloh Center May 29 Homestead Savings Association of College Station moves to new, ex panded facilities at 2553 South Texas Avenue, effective Tuesday, May 29, President William F. Phillips Jr. an nounced. The Shiloh Shopping Center which Homestead will anchor, will he re named “Homestead Place,” Phillips added. “This move will triple the floor space for our headquarters, expand our inside tellers from 3 to 6, increase our drive-in lanes from 2 to 3 and provide more seating for customers and more parking for cars.” The local banker noted that Home stead has known for some time that the building it has occupied since forma tion in 1977 was too small. “Our customer base continues to in crease and our services have expanded. But we are committed to move very slowly to incur debt. That policy al lows us to make profits while some in stitutions with more elaborate facili ties posted losses. We have waited for an opportune time to make a move and the Shiloh deal fell into our lap. Our customers have been more than pa tient while we addressed the need for larger quarters. We think our move will make a positive statement about the thrift industry in the community. Our new offices are highly visable, right in the heart of College Station and convenient for our customers. We are very excited about the benefits this move will mean to our customers.” Homestead is College Station’s only locally-owned savings and loan asso ciation. Phillips helped form the insti tution and is the only president to direct the 12-year-old banking busi ness. Homestead Savings Association of Texas 2553 South Texas Avenue in College Station DRIVE THRU BANKING from 8 - 6 Monday - Friday LOBBY HOURS from 9-3 Monday - Friday Locally Owned and Managed Runntfi’ with the wind , .. Photo by Jay Janmi University of Houston’s Leroy Burrell celebrates as he finishes the 200 meter dash in 19.61 sec onds, the world’s fastest time under a)) condi tions, Saturday at the Frank G. Anderson Track |Al Complex. Because of excessive winds, Burrel gace will not be credited with the world record. *‘ xa eel ACC, Pac-10 dominate field of NCAA regional baseball hopefuls “N jnd Utive G( “T KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Atlantic Coast Conference and the Pac-10 South dominate a field of 48 teams vying for the NCAA Division I baseball tournament championship. The only ACC team chosen as a top seed was North Carolina, while the Pac-10 had Stanford and Arizona State se lected as No. 1 teams in the eight- regional, double elimination tour nament. “Those conferences had such out standing selections and well-de served selections,” said Gene McAr- tor, chairman of the NCAA Baseball Committee. The pairings were announced Monday. Conference winners got 26 auto matic bids to the regional tourna ments, which will be played May 24- 28. Each regional will send its cham pion to the College World Series to be played at RosebJatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb., June 1-9. The eight top seeds with region are: North Carolina, Northeast; Mi ami, Fla., Atlantic; Louisiana State, South I; Florida State, South II; Ar kansas, Midwest; Texas, Central; Stanford, West I; and Arizona State, West II. Top-ranked Stanford (52-10) will face Campbell (15-31), champions of the Big South Conference, in a first- round game at Stanford. Defending champion and 13th- ranked Wichita State (44-17) will meet Georgia Southern (46-16) in the Midwest Regional in Wichita. The ACC teams selected were 12th-ranked and top-seeded North Carolina (49-12), which goes against No. 6 Rutgers (33-17) at Waterbury, Conn.; No. 2 Clemson (42-20), which plays No. 5 Creighton (46-20) in the Central regional at Austin, Texas; No. 4 Georgia Tech (46-23), which goes against No. 3 Hoys (41-21) in the South I regional at BrEf 1 1 ton Rouge, lui.; and .Vo. 2 \