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The Battalion • Page 11
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Briefs Lady Aggies go out in style with sweep of SFA
Barone gets second
signee this spring
The Texas A&M men’s basketball
team signed Derrick Hart of Lon Morris
Junior College to a national letter-of-
intent yesterday.
Hart, a 5-8, 185-pound guard
earned all-conference honors
averaging 23.5 points, 7.6 assists and
3.1 per steals. He made 160 three-
pointers, connecting on 46.1 percent,
leading Lon Morris to a 22-10 record
and the conference title.
“One of the things we set out to do
was bring in what we considered a
couple of combination guards,” Barone
said. “We want to get away from
describing our guards as point guards.”
Hart is the second player signed by
A&M in the spring signing period.
Transfer joins Lady
Ag basketball team
The Texas A&M women’s
basketball team signed Melissa
Rollerson to a national letter-of-intent
yesterday. Rollerson averaged 17.5
points and 9 rebounds a game for
Trinity Valley Community College.
“Melissa will make an immediate
impact on our basketball team at the
small forward position,” Harvey said.
“She is a very well-rounded player who
can put the ball on the floor and drive
or shoot the three-pointer.”
Rollerson played two seasons at
Trinity, leading the Lady Cardinals to a
66-3 record and the 1994 NJCAA
championship and a second-place
finish at the 1995 national tournament.
Allen invited to join
USA Baseball camp
Texas A&M outfielder Chad Allen
was one of an additional six players
to receive invitations to the USA
Baseball spring camp which begins
June 7. Last year Allen participated
in the 1994 Fall Trials in Homestead,
Fla.
From the 40 players invited to the
camp, the top 26 will be chosen to
compromise the USA Baseball team.
This summer, the team will play a
36-game, 15-city tour in preparation
for the 1996 Olympic Games in the
Atlanta.
Tim Moog/THF. Battalion
Senior Beth Gerken nails a Lady Lumberjack runner who tries to slide in underneath the tag.
Rangers fall to Yankees in season opener
□ Cy Young runner-up
jimmy Key is now 6-0
on opening day.
NEW YORK (AP) — Other
than a few empty upper-deck
seats and an umpire wearing an
old-fashioned chest protector,
things looked pretty normal for
the New York Yankees on open
ing day.
Jimmy Key was on the
mound, the other team couldn’t
put much together against him
and New York won 8-6 over
Texas on Wednesday.
Key won his third straight
opening day start for New York
and improved his career record
in openers to 6-0. The Yankees
won at home in their season de
but for the sixth straight time.
Danny Tartabull homered
and drove in three runs, Bernie
Williams hit a solo homer and
Pat Kelly went 3-for-4 for New
York, the pre-season favorite to
win the tough AL East.
A crowd of 50,245, about
6,500 fewer than last year’s
record attendance figure,
watched the game on a warm
spring afternoon. The replace
ment umpires included Bill Dee-
gan, who called balls and strikes
in the majors from 1970-80. He
was back on the job Wednesday
and once again wore the bulky,
balloon outside chest protector.
Key, the runner-up in Ameri
can League Cy Young award
voting last season, lasted five-
plus innings and gave up seven
hits, but Texas wasn’t able to
put together a rally against him
until the sixth inning. By that
time. New York had a 5-1 lead.
Tartabull’s homer made it 1-
0 in the second, and he drew a
bases-loaded walk to make it 2-
0 an inning later. Don Matting
ly had an RBI groundout and
Mike Stanley singled to short
stop to drive in a run before the
inning ended.
Superstitious Arrant taking up the slack
□ The number one singles
;r will not be without his
hair and bandannas.
playei
long
By Kristina Buffin
The Battalion
He refuses to play with short hair and
without his lucky bandanna, junior tennis
player Blake Arrant never plays without one
of his wide variety of bandannas that in
cludes a Harley Davidson and a Speed Rac
er.
“I started wearing bandannas a long time
ago,” Arrant said. “It has become a supersti
tion now, if I cut my hair short, I play terri
ble. I cut it right before
nationals and I couldn’t
put the ball in the court.
Arrant came to A&M
from Nacogdoches High
School where he earned
All-Region honors as a
junior and All-State hon
ors as a senior.
“In Nacogdoches I
just hit with my brother,” Arrant said.
“When I came to school here I played as
the number five and six seed. There were
better guys on the team who I could hit
with and it helped a lot.”
After Aggie ace Mark Weaver graduated
last year. Arrant was promoted to the num
ber one singles spot after his success at the
number two spot.
“He (Blake) has done an outstanding job
filling shoes that were tough to fill,” coach
David Kent said. “He has won more and
competed more than I thought. I am proud
of him and his record. He doesn’t have
Weaver’s record yet but he does have one
more year.”
Arrant said he is a player that likes to
play and performs well under pressure.
“Playing under pressure is fun,” Arrant
said. “High pressure is what you want. I re
member when we played Tulane and it was
tied 3-3. I was playing in the last match and
was serving for the match at 5-4. When you
win it is the best feeling to clinch the match.
The pressure makes the match.”
This season. Arrant has a good record but
said that he lost some close matches that he
should not have.
“I have had a good season,” Arrant said.
................. ’ ........................ “The first seven
matches that I lost
this season were all
in the third set. I
could have been 10-1
but I lost a couple of
points that could
have turned it
around.
“The close match
es make me play better. I come out saying
that I will play my best and give in 100
percent.”
Arrant has steadily improved since his
freshman year. Kent said that this im
provement is a result of his hard work and
determination.
“He has gotten better,” Kent said. “The
last few matches he has played against top
players and has been right there. I can’t ask
him to win every match, just compete. At the
regionals I’m excited because I know he will
"It has become a superstition
now, if I cut my hair short, I
play terrible."
—junior Blake Arrant
□ The softball team
wins its last two home
games as they attempt
to make the NCAA
Regional Playoffs.
By Jim Anderson
The Battalion
Going out in style.
That’s what the Texas A&M
softball team did as they con
cluded their regular season
home schedule with a sweep of
Stephen F. Austin. The Lady
Aggies shut out the Lady Lum
berjacks 7-0 in the first game
and took the nightcap 6-1 be
fore 303 at the Texas A&M soft-
ball complex.
The victories pushed the Lady
Aggies record to 28-20 and im
proved their overall record
against SFA to 21-4. SFA fell to
24-27.
Texas A&M softball coach
Bob Brock believed the victories
came at the right time for the
team as it fights to make the
NCAA Regional Playoffs.
“As the season comes to a
close, we are starting to peak in
our play,” Brock said. “ We can
always improve but I’m very
pleased with the overall team ef
fort that we showed tonight
against a scrappy SFA team.”
Junior Erin Field picked up
the victory in the first game, up
ping her record to 14-13. She
helped her own cause at the
plate with three hits and two
RBI, including an RBI double in
a game-breaking three run
fourth inning.
“Hitting wise I feel that I had
a good day,” Field said. “I was
putting the bat on the ball, hit
ting it hard, and fortunately
they were falling in for me
tonight.”
The second game saw the
Lady Aggies go ahead early with
a big three run first inning,
highlighted by run scoring hits
by Field and Beth Gerken. That
was more than enough for
sophomore pitcher Heather Hay
den, who scattered six hits in al
lowing one run. The win im
proved her overall record to 5-3.
“Heather pitched well
tonight,” said Brock. “We got two
solid pitching performances.”
See Softball, Page 1 3
Peaks of performance
just a moment away
Bart Mitchell/THE Battalion
Junior Blake Arrant hits a forehand back to
his opponent during a recent practice.
rise to the occasion.”
Part of Arrant’s success is also attributable
to the support of his family. Arrant’s father
comes to every tournament to see Blake play
no matter how far away the tournament.
“His dad is his best fan,” Kent said. “He
doesn’t butt in and he goes with Blake
everywhere. It is a fine tribute to Blake and
See Arrant, Page 13
T here are
mountain
tops and
valleys in life. I
bet you’ve
heard this
somewhere be
fore. If not, you
already know
this through
firsthand experience.
The sports world represents
life with a mountain top of
highs that come with playing
the game.
In running, it’s the runner’s
high that is the peak that
pushes a runner to their best.
My own experience gives testi
mony to this fact. As a distance
runner, I noticed around the
fourth of fifth mile that the
“second wind” would come and
a new burst of energy would
push me through to finish the
race I started.
Other sports have “highs”
that keep the competitors
fighting for victory.
Three years ago during the
1992 NBA final, Michael Jor
dan hit 35 points before half
time against Portland. That 35
points included six, three-
pointers in a row. That’s a per
formance that will not be for
gotten in the near future.
Michael Jordan’s pre-retire
ment days proved that the
“zone” was real. He could slam,
lay-up, hit from the top of the
key and even behind the three-
point arc. He couldn’t miss.
Football’s “high” is the hail
mary pass. Many fans remem
ber the elation they felt when
Troy Aikman laid up a pass to
Alvin Harper in the last two
NFC championship games
against the San Francisco 49ers.
The passes should have been
uncatchable. He never missed.
In golf, the hole-in-one is
the “high.”
Golfers throughout the
years have attempted to make
a hole-in-one for money or oth
er incentives, like a car. These
golfers have
made the week
ly highlight
reels of the
sports news
shows across
the nation.
Soccer has a
“high” that Pele
made famous.
The bicycle kick is a rare phe
nomenon that few athletes
have mastered. The player is
facing their goal and they kick
the ball back over their head
into their opponents’ goal,
landing on their back or com
pletely flipping over.
In baseball, the grand slam
would be considered the “high”
of the game. With the bases
loaded, two outs and two
strikes, the batter hits the ball
out of the park.
Aggie baseball fans are fa
miliar with this scene. Remem
ber last Sunday?
Most people I’ve talked to
will not soon forget Jeff Bai
ley’s last-minute heroics with
his grand slam against Texas
Tech to put the fightin’ Texas
Aggies past the Red Raiders at
Olsen Field.
That grand slam gave the
Aggies the tie for the lead in
the Southwest Conference with
Rice. That’s a high the baseball
team and fans will ride the rest
of the season and one that will
be played over and over again
in the minds of Aggie fans in
years to come.
Highs in sports come few
and far between because of the
athletic ability it takes to mas
ter them.
When athletes get into the
zone and can’t miss, memories
are made.
The history making perfor
mances that mark mountain
top performances throughout
the years are re-runs in the
hearts and minds of sports fans
everywhere.
They make the valleys
worth the effort.
DOUGLAS JEWELERS
Class of’75
1667-B Texas Ave.
Culpepper Plaza
693-0677
Texas A&M
University Watch
by SEIKO
•
A Seiko Quartz timepiece officially licensed
by the University. Featuring a richly
detailed three-dimensional recreation of the
University Seal on the 14kt. gold finished
dials. Electronic quartz movement
guaranteed accurate to within fifteen
seconds per month. Full three year Seiko
warranty.
All gold $285.00
2-tone $265.00
with leather strap $200.00
poekcl watch $245.00
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