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Sports
Friday, February 28, 1992
The Battalion
Page 3
CHRIS
WHITLEY
Assistant
Sports Editor
April showers
hit Olsen Field
in February
F ans of baseball around these
parts probably would disagree
with the great poet T.S. Eliot. He
thought that "April is the cruellest
month," but it just might be February.
I'm sure Eliot knew what he was
talking about. He just never toured
the Brazos Valley during monsoon
season.
Rain has plagued the area this
year, and it has thrown a wrench into
the Aggie baseball schedule. So far,
six schedule changes have been made
and two road trips have been can
celled in just the first three weeks of
the season.
Admittedly, bad weather comes
with the territory. The outdoor na
ture of the sport makes it susceptible
to its share of rain in most baseball
venues. Unless you put a fiberglass
shell around the field and call it the
OlsenDome, there's not much that can
be done.
On the other hand, the situation
was worsened when the season was
moved up to the first weekend of
February. The reason for this was to
allow for the increase in Southwest
Conference games from 21 to 36.
The increase in games was be
cause of Arkansas' departure from the
SWC — another reason to blame
Arkansas.
The rain cut down the Aggies'
practice time, which might account
for their sluggish beginning to the
season. It was the cancellation of the
opener against Stephen F. Austin that
forced A&M to start off the season in
a conference game on the road, which
is not the ideal way to start a season.
Consequently, they won only one
out of three games and started the
year on a down note.
A&M rebounded'very well last
weekend against’Houston, but then in
the final game of the series, the rain
came pouring down. The Cougars
came back and took the lead before
the Aggies rallied late to win after the
clouds had cleared.
It was intriguing to see the Olsen
Rowdies show up in full force for the
first game of Saturday's doublehead
er, which incidentally was delayed
three hours because of rain from the
night before.
They stayed for an exciting finish
when Rob Trimble's base hit won the
game in the last inning. Then, the
majority of the crowd left. Did they
know that there was another game?
They may have, but the Aggie
faithful saw the rain clouds coming
See Whitley/Page 4
Johnson returns to A&M practice
Freshman ready to play rest of season
By Chris Whitley
The Battalion
RANDALL NICHOLS/The Battalion
Damon Johnson took part in his first official practice
Thursday after sitting out six weeks with a foot injury.
The A&M basketball team has
had to live without Damon Johnson
for six weeks. Even tougher, Damon
Johnson has had to live without the
team.
Yet Thursday brought encourag
ing signs that the two will be reunit
ed soon.
Johnson, the 6-foot-5 freshman
forward, had his first official practice
since a foot injury sidelined him for
most of the Southwest Conference
season.
A&M's leading scorer suffered a
deep bruise in his left foot against
SMU on January 11. He played in
the Aggies next game against Texas
three days later, but was forced to
leave the game at halftime after the
injury became more serious.
Johnson only went through
warmups during the practice session
Thursday, but he said it was a good
feeling to be able to run and jump
again on a basketball court.
"It feels great," Johnson said. "I
was kind of nervous, especially with
the layups. I felt if I got a few
layups, I'd be all right.
"After I got my first layup as fast
as I could and as hard as I could and
found that I didn't feel any pain,
then I didn't have a worry in my
mind anymore."
Before the Injury
SWC (3 games)
Scoring average. 17.0 ppg.
High game 25 pts vs. TCU
Field goal percentage 60 %
Rebound average. 12.7 rpg.
Season (13 games)
Scoring average 16.8 ppg.
High game 27 pts vs. Auburn
Field goal percentage 54.9 %
Rebound average. 8.8 rpg.
A&M head coach Tony Barone
said he is glad to see Johnson back in
uniform, yet he still handles the
player's situation delicately.
"The injury is an injury that we
have to be very careful with," Barone
said. "The stress fracture is not
something that we take lightly. It's
not something that we want to rush
him back to, in terms of playing."
Barone emphasized that the frac
ture has healed and has some
amount of strength, but Johnson has
not been given a medical clearance to
play. The Aggies will play the Uni
versity of Houston in Holfienz Pavil
ion tomorrow at 2 p.m., but Johnson
is not expected to see action.
"He will not play Saturday,"
Barone said. "Sunday, we will look
at practice with him and make a de
cision after the practice whether he'll
be available for the rest of the season
or not."
In the last month and a half,
Johnson has sat on the bench and
witnessed the 5-18 Aggies lose nine
of the last 11 games. The Aggies
were 3-10 before he was sidelined.
"It's been really frustrating,"
Johnson said. "We've been coming
really close in these games, and you
know you can't do anything about it
because of a fractured foot.
"You know that you could have
made a difference in the game.
That's probably the most frustrating
feeling of all."
Barone said it has been difficult
for Johnson to watch the action from
the bench, but he said the freshman
has tried to remain an active member
of the squad.
"I think he's handled it amazing
ly well," Barone said. "Inwardly,
he's a kid who's very serious-mind
ed. This has hurt him dramatically
— not being able to play.
"What we did was we essentially
made him come to practice, and we
made him go on most of the road
trips. Because we felt that if you sep
arate him from the team, you start
feeling sorry for yourself."
Pains actually started developing
in Johnson's foot in the Aggies' game
See Johnson/Page 4
A&M men's tennis
defends 6-0 record
Kent hopes Aggies respond to SWT pressure
The Battalion News Services
The Texas A&M men's tennis team
puts its six-game
winning streak on
the line this after
noon when the Ag
gies take on South
west Texas State Uni
versity at the Omar
Smith Tennis Center.
The matches be
gin at 1:30 p.m.
With a win, the
Aggies would im
prove their record to
7-0, their best start
ever under coach David Kent.
Kent ranks seventh in career wins
among active NCAA Division I coaches.
He said the reason for the Aggies quick
start has been their response in pressure
situations.
"These guys raise their level of play
David Kent
up a notch when the match is on the
line," Kent said. "There's not an ounce of
quit in this team, and that keeps us in ev
ery match.
"We've got experience at the top of
the lineup and talent throughout — that's
a good combination."
The Aggies No. 1 doubles team of
Mark Weaver and Bernardo Martinez
have performed especially well in pres
sure matches.
Three of the Aggies victories have
been decided in the tandems doubles
match. This season, the combination is 4-
0 in dual match competition.
"Mark and Bernardo haven't been
playing together for very long, but they
already have an uncanny feel for each
other," Kent said. "They seem to know
what the other is thinking and they're
very comfortable together on the court."
A&M won't have much time to rest
after today's match. The Aggies host the
University of Northeast Louisiana Satur
day at 1 p.m. at the Smith Tennis Center.
By Doug Foster
The Battalion
Three ranked teams await
A&M in Minnesota tourney
Baseball team risks six-game winning streak
giate Baseball poll.
Johnson said his team has everything
to gain by playing the tough competi
tion.
"It's real exciting to be going to the
Metrodome," he said. "We will be play
ing all ranked teams and they are all
teams that we might not play otherwise,
and I think playing teams as solid as
these will just make us a better ball
club."
The coach also said it will be nice to
know the Aggies will be able to com
plete the tournament despite the weath
er conditions.
"No matter what happens we will
play, and that is good," Johnson said.
"The weather is always good in the
dome. I think the only change our team
may have trouble adjusting to is the roof,
because I understand it's sometimes
tough to find balls looking into that roof.
There are a lot of unknowns about going
Head coach Mark Johnson and his
Texas A&M baseball team will finally be
able to compete in a weekend series
where rain cancellation is not even a
concern.
Johnson and his squad are traveling
to Minneapolis, Minn., this weekend to
participate in the Oscar Mayer Baseball
Classic, which is held in the Hubert H.
Humphrey Metrodome.
A&M will open the classic today
against Mississippi State, and will take
on Florida State on Saturday. The Bull
dogs are ranked eighth in the nation by
Baseball America, and fourth by Colle
giate Baseball. The Seminoles are fourth
in Baseball America and are the No. 6
team in the Collegiate Baseball poll.
The Aggies will complete the week
end Sunday by taking on the host team
University of Minnesota. The Golden
Gophers are ranked 23rd in the Colle-
See Aggies/Page 4
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