April 14,i| Sports ~~ ' Tuesday, April 14, 1992 s site' The Battalion Page 3 | mp sa l site for Itj ve waste.' we fromnu, - hospitals i'J some indusiitl; a is about ii ’aso, has drawn (. lose who wjl Residents!™ dubbed "Sal d stand here; say I'm goii] not that east, any of the Id STEVE O'BRIEN Sportswriter :utback 1 are just OK changes k ons thisyeai, iver last year wehao ; have well freshman p ess, the Fac concern oie ill the •weeks ago, have suppos ownasthe’ rding poi o Hickman, iy and huir; ve are go® id. jld likeTjf dent body pi iced the hill orrectnesss: ty Senate so. ruture is now, baseball team 3 efore the 1992 Southwest Con ference baseball season had even started A&M head coach Mark Johnson was concerned. But he wasn't the only one. There was concern around the league that the new 1992 schedule would wear teams out. The sched ule, which doubled the amount of conference games each team would have to play, required each team to host a three-game series with each club in the conference. That meant teams would end up playing each other six times before everything was said and done. The best teams, most people thought, would eventually find their way to the top of the standings. Johnson was one of the ones who thought the schedule would weed out the weaker teams. But there still seemed to be some concern that the season would last too long. Tonight, 31 games into the 1992 schedule, the Aggies are, for all prac tical purposes, out of the SWC cham pionship race. The Texas Longhorns won two-of-three from A&M last weekend, extending their conference lead to 6 1/2 games with only 10 games left. But the two losses to Texas over the weekend did more than dampen the Aggies' chances at a conference crown. A&M will havb to play near per fect baseball the rest of the season to qualify for the NCAA regional play offs. On Sunday, after the Aggies' only See O’Brien/Page 4 its A&M looks to gain momentum tonight vs. SFA By Steve O'Brien The Battalion There will be a renewed sense of ur gency when the Texas A&M baseball team plays Stephen F. Austin today in a doubleheader at Olsen Field. First pitch is at 5 p.m. Last weekend, the Aggies lost two-of- three games to the Texas Longhorns, dropping their overall record this season to 26-15. To qualify for the NCAA tour nament, the Aggies will probably need around 40 wins. With only 15 games left, time is run ning out on the Aggies. "(Winning) is the main thing right now," A&M pitching coach Jim Lawler said. "We've got to regroup. The NCAA regional is a very prevalent thing in front of us. If you look at it from that stand point, it doesn't matter who we play. "We've got 15 games left and Stephen F. Austin is two of them tomorrow night. They're critical." The Aggies have qualified for the NCAA tournament in five of the last six seasons and have won at least 40 games in seven of the last eight years. The last time the Aggies failed to win 40 games was in 1985 when they went 39-16. A&M's only victory against Texas was Sunday when sophomore left-hander Kel ly Wunsch held the Longhorns to three runs on three hits in six innings of work, helping the Aggies to an 11-5 win. "Kelly had sort of been hot and cold in that third starting spot," Lawler said. "I .I,, - > '< * r# m “ ' 7 r- ‘Tv v ^ jX* » ^ v V '-y* ; s- V,. - VS ; : 7T ^ :7%. ■ KARL STOLLEIS/The Battalion After losing two of three games to Texas last weekend, the Aggies need to gain momentum against SFA tonight at Olsen Field. | | CL IdtU ^G424-€' I think he allowed himself to goto another intensity level and really focused against Texas and stayed with it." The Aggies were originally scheduled to open their season against the Lumber jacks on Feb. 3 but rain washed out the game and its postponements. A&M and SFA will make up that game tonight after changing a single game into a twinbill. Righthander Trey Moore is scheduled to start game one for the Aggies and left hander Paul Barber will start the second game. Lady Aggies finally return to home field The Battalion News Services The Texas A&M softball team hosts Southwest Texas State University in a doubleheader today at the Lady Aggie Softball Field. Game One starts at 4 p.m. and game two is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. The Lady Aggies enter the twinbill with a 31-17 record. Last weekend, the team competed in the Mizzou Invitational, finishing in sec ond place. A&M lost the championship game to the tournament's host team, the Universi ty of Missouri, 8-0, on Sunday. For the tournament, second baseman Stephanie Schulte was named the tourna ment's outstanding hitter. She hit .667 in two-day competition. The tournament helped Schulte break out of an 0- for-17 slump. Jennifer Mortensen and Dana Mitchell will pitch in tonight's doubleheader. Mortensen is 19-10 on the season. In the NCAA national statistics, she ranks second in the nation in victories with 19 and second in saves with three. She is also ranked 27th in the nation in ERA, with a 0.68 ERA. Mitchell is 11-4 on the season after 12- 4 on the season after picking up three wins over the weekend. frua Aggie A&M Spring Blood Drive April 13-17 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Commons Blood mobiles at MSC & SBISA THE BLOOD CENTER at Wadley Another service of APO, ORA and Student Government