Monday • April 10, 1995 MM Baseball team sweeps Dallas Baptist Roger Hsieh/THE Battalion Sophomore outfielder Chad Allen is tagged out at home plate by a Dallas Baptist player this week end. The Aggies move into first place in the conference after UT’s win over TCU. Lady Aggie tennis team goes 1-1 The A&M women’s tennis team moved to 9-10 on the season with a 5-1 loss to BYU and a 5-1 win over Utah. Sophomore Nancy Dingwall posted the team’s only victory in Saturday’s match against BYU. The team won four of the five wins in straight sets on Sunday. “Now we just have to focus on the Baylor and Texas matches,” said Lady Aggie coach Bobby Kleinecke. “Both matches will be very tough.” The team will go on the road this week for the last two games of the regular season. They will face Baylor on Tuesday and UT on Saturday. Men’s tennis team brands Mustangs The Aggie men’s tennis team improved their Southwest Conference record to 2-1, 9-7 overall by defeating Southern Methodist University 5-2 on Friday. Carlos Tori, the number two seed, defeated Kevin Epley 6-2, 6-4 while teammates Eric Horan, Eduardo Martinez and Ricardo Rodarte also defeated their opponents in straight sets. In doubles play, the Aggies won all three matches. Blake Arrant and Bernardo Martinez defeated Alfred Hanser and Paul Stephens 8-4 and the teams of Horan and Rodarte and Tori and Krause won their matches. The Aggies will next face the Rice Owls when they travel to Houston on Saturday for a dual match. Golf team to play in All America Invitational The Texas A&M men’s golf team will compete in the 40th All America Intercollegiate Invitational today and Tuesday at the Old Orchard Golf Club near Houston. The tournament will consist of 36 holes being played on Monday and 18 holes on Tuesday. In addition to A&M, 15 other teams will compete including Southwest Conference schools Houston, Baylor, Rice, Southern Methodist and Texas Tech. Drexler sinks buzzes beater against Denver DENVER (AP) — Clyde Drexler banked in a 30-foot shot at the buzzer Sunday, giving the shorthanded Houston Rockets a 123-120 win over the Denver Nuggets. The Rockets, who won for just the third time in seven games without starters Hakeem Olajuwon and Vernon Maxwell, clinched a playoff spot for the third straight season. The Nuggets, who lost despite shooting 55 percent from the field, lost their third straight game and fell into a tie with the Sacramento Kings for the last Western Conference playoff berth. Drexler, who finished with 34 points, took the inbounds pass at half court with 2.4 seconds left, dribbled twice and fired his winning shot. □ Strong pitching was the key to the Aggies' weekend success. Staff and Wire Reports The Texas A&M baseball team continues its winning ways Saturday, winning both games of a doubleheader from Dallas Baptist University at Olsen Field to take a three-game sweep of the week end series. The Aggies extended their winning streak to nine games and improved their overall record to 26-13-1. In the second game, the Aggies used five home runs, including two by se nior first baseman John Curl, to take a 9-1 decision. Sophomore pitcher Ryan Rupe, now 3-1 on the year, took the win by working five innings, giving up just two hits and one walk while striking out six batters. Also hitting home runs for A&M were senior shortstop Robert Harris, junior first base- man Jeff Bailey and junior out fielder Chad Alexander. It was Alexander’s sixth round tripper of the season. The game and the series sweep was never really in doubt after the second inning when the Aggies racked up six runs to take a 6-0 lead. In the first game Saturday, freshman pitcher John Sneed pitched a seven-inning com plete game, walking just one batter while allowing seven hits. The first-year player also walked just one while collect ing three strikeouts. The score was tied 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth inning when sophomore Jason Stephens stepped up to the plate and knocked a solo home run to give the Aggies the lead and the final score of 4-3. In Friday’s series opener, the Aggie bats made an opening statement to the Dallas Baptist pitching staff by pounding five pitchers for a total of 11 runs on 14 hits. Every Aggie starter col lected at least one hit in the 11- 5 shellacking. A crowd of 1,672 at Olsen Field saw senior pitcher Justin Atchley record a complete game, his third straight for the team. Although Atchley, now 6-2 on Q Robinson maintains leading role with 26 points and 1 8 rebounds. INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — David Robinson had 26 points and 18 rebounds Sunday as San Antonio won its 15th straight game, 101-87 over the Los Ange les Lakers. Robinson barely missed his first triple-double of the season, getting eight blocked shots in the Spurs’ club-record 26th road win. San Antonio, the NBA’s hottest and best team with a 56- 18 record, continued its domi nance of the Lakers, winning the season series 3-1 after sweeping them 4-0 last season. It’s the first time the Spurs have won consecutive series against Los Angeles since the 1982-83 and 83-84 seasons. Coming off a 23-point victory over Utah on Friday night, the Lakers saw their seven-game home winning streak end when the year, allowed 11 hits, the hitters provided plenty of fire power to keep Dallas Baptist at a distance. Atchley continued to display extraordinary control, walking just one batter while striking out four. Curl’s two home runs in the nightcap Saturday gave him 10 dingers for the season. Last sea son, Curl hit just two home runs and the Aggie season leader, Harris, managed only seven. See Baseball, Page 8 they couldn’t sustain a fourth- quarter rally. Los Angeles started the final 12 minutes trailing by 17 points, and cut the deficit to 92-84 on Cedric Ceballos’ putback of a 3- point attempt by Eddie Jones with 3:28 remaining. Ceballos later had the ball on a breakaway, but fumbled it away as Vinny Dpi Negro grabbed it and threw the ball downcourt. An other time, Ceballos fought for an inside basket only to have Robin son take it away. Sedale Threatt sank a 3- pointer to pull the Lakers to 95- 87 with 56 seconds remaining, but they ran out of time. Ceballos led Los Angeles with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Vlade Divac added 18 points. Robinson scored only nine points in the first half, but he regained his shooting touch and scored the Spurs’ final six points of the third quarter to give them an 82-65 lead head ing into the fourth. Women’s gymnastics team wins national championship □ The Ags edged out rivals UT and Miami of Ohio for the title. Staff and Wire Reports The Texas A&M women’s gymnastics team became Na tional Champions this weekend by winning the 1995 NAIGC Collegiate National Gymnastic Championships held at Virginia Tech University. The Aggie women received their highest point total, 142.55, to outscore their two closest rivals, the University of Texas and Miami of Ohio, by less than a point. “It was a great team effort as we placed seven of our nine athletes into the event finals, “ head coach Steve Waples said. Denise Bean, a sophomore chemical engineering student, became the 1995 National Vaulting Champion on her last vault of the day. Bean also placed third in the bars, third in the floor exercises and fourth in the all-around competition. Also placing for the team were Michelle Bergeron, who became National Champion in the floor exercises and took third in the beam and second place overall, and Kobi Del Castillo, who placed fourth in the beam. Waples said the ieam had a strong overall performance. “Our depth and dominance on floor exercise and balance beam, along with some great individual performances on vault and bars, are what did it for us.” The University of Texas came in second with a point total of 142.10. Other schools participating in the contest were the University of New York at Buffalo, Southwest Texas State and Notre Dame. Spurs defeat Lakers 101-87, post 15th consecutive win Hoop dreams, Rec Sports realities T here’s really no feeling like it. As game time approaches, you feel a little churning in your stom ach, your heart will start pumping- a little faster and your head feels a little light. Once you’re out on the court, the adrenaline takes over and you forget about everything else except play ing, fulfilling your role on the team. Every possession means so much, every bas ket puts the other team in more trouble, every defen sive stop takes you even closer to a win. And if you win, you cele brate, but not for long, be cause once the playoffs start, there’s always another game right around the corner. NCAA Tournament time? March Madness? Nope, it’s better. It’s Texas A&M Intra mural Basketball Playoffs. Not just intramurals mind you, but “D” League intramurals, the best collec tion of overweight, out-of- shape basketball players on the A&M campus vying to outlast each other. Our team has a measly six players, but has some how defied all logic by going 4-2, including winning our first playoff game last Thursday night. It was an emotional roller coaster, as we jumped out to a 28- 14 halftime lead, then all but blew it in the second half. We ended up winning 48-43, after a cou ple of our players hit some clutch free throws in the fi nal minute. Call it male bonding if you will, but there’s nothing finer than sweating out a victory as a team. When the season started, we all knew each oth er from work, but had never actually played together. This factor proved to be a tough to surmount in the first couple of games. No one had played competitively since high school, save some members experiences on oth- See Georgandis, Page 8