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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1998)
ngjjm Monday • February 23, 1998 The Battalion Sports :0l ifesseda vear H ggies get blasted Friday, bounce back with 2 wins against Ole Miss butra iHiej lak dayaiH .7sb r eemfi itors, uilty alesj Decfii italm: BRANDON BOLLOM/The Battalion ior third baseman Craig Kuzmic throws out a sissippi runner at home on an attempted squeeze in the fifth inning of the Aggies’ 3-2 win yesterday. By Chris Ferrell Staff writer With the sky overcast and the temperature dropping, the warm California sun must have seemed like it was a million miles away to Craig Kuzmic and Matt Ward. Last year at this time the pair was playing junior col lege baseball in California, but Sunday, they were the driving force behind the Texas A&M Baseball Team’s 3- 2 victory over the Ole Miss Rebels in 10 innings. Ward, a junior pitcher, turned in his strongest out ing of the season, a nine-inning, seven strike out per formance,'while Kuzmic, the team’s junior third base- man, came up with a big defensive play and the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 10th to cap A&M’s come-from-behind win. Sophomore outfielder Steven Truitt got things go ing in the extra frame with a one-out double down the left field line. Kuzmic followed and missed badly on the first pitch before connecting with the second pitch to bring in the winning run. “He’s been trying to hit the ball too hard,” said Coach Mark Johnson. “He took a wild swing and then came back with a quality swing. And that’s what we want to see out of him. It was a big hit, there’s no doubt.” Kuzmic also came up big for the Aggies in the fifth inning when he threw out an Ole Miss runner at home on an attempted suicide squeeze. Kuzmic, who was 0 for 4 on the day before his game winning hit, said the team did not hit the ball very well but they were able to get big hits when they needed them. “We left a lot of guys on base and had a lot of hits for the number of runs we scored,” Kuzmic said. “I knew we were going to have to keep hitting if we were going to win it. I wasn’t really doing that well but I was excited to get it done. I just wanted to get another chance.” Despite the poor hitting, the Aggies were able to stay in the game behind the arm of Ward. Ward threw only four balls in the first four in nings and struck out seven of the last 11 batters he faced. His numbers got better as the game went on, even though he was not feeling that he was at the top of his game. “My elbow was getting tight about the seventh in ning,” Ward said. “I came in and got a rubdown. I did n’t think I could go seven innings.” With the winds blowing in, the long ball was nev er a threat. Ward said that helped him because he could go after the Rebel batters. “I’m not afraid to give up a fly ball,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t going to go out of the park with the wind blowing in. I just went after them and tried to throw as many strikes as I could.” Johnson said he was pleased to see what Ward was capable of doing against a team that had a solid lineup. “Matt Ward threw an outstanding game for us,” Johnson said. “I think he threw four balls in the first four innings. “He was a guy that coming in, we knew he was go ing to give up a hit an inning. We knew that when we recruited him. It was an interesting match up. I was interested to see what he would do against a good hit ting ball club. I think (Ole Miss is) a good hitting team. As you follow them throughout the season I think they’re going to be a good hitting team.” Johnson said Sunday’s win was big because it showed the Aggies what they are capable of in a pres sure situation. “Those are good for the team because everyone can look around and say we played well under the gun,” Johnson said. The win allowed the Aggies to come back and win the series. A&M was blasted 17-3 in Friday's opener and won the second game 6-3 behind a complete game from sophomore pitcher Casey Fossum. Junior center fielder Jason Tyner was injured in Friday’s game but will be back in the lineup on Tuesday against Sam Houston. Vomen finish third at Big 12 meet By Travis Harsch Staff writer nkt willro up '■AUSTIN — In recent years, the Big Women’s Swimming and Diving ithef unpionships have been a lot like the ncesi men’s Olympic Hockey touma- nt Nebraska and Texas battle for the ivetf i i like Canada and the United States; ryone else is playing for third. On Saturday, the Cornhuskers de- ded the title they won last year in liege Station, slipping past Texas ban 868-818 victory, as Texas A&M yed the role of Finland, taking ne third at the Lee and Joe Jamail as Swimming Center in Austin. Sophomore Tracy Evans was one of , : reasons for the Aggies’ solid finish, TO rning the 1,650-yard freestyle with me of 16-minutes, 33.95 seconds, faking the Big 12 record she set last Evans led by seven seconds at the i-nide mark and never looked back, atingthe field by almost 30 seconds. “1 was feeling a lot better this year,” > said. “I swam faster in the 500,1 d Nam faster in the 200 and so I knew •mile coming faster would happen.” Evans said she was pleased with breaking the record, because she felt last year’s performance was not her best. Another factor in her faster time, she said, was the experience she has gained since last year. “I’ve learned how to adjust to the college scene,” Evans said. “This year, having two years under my belt at A&M under die same coach just gave me a lot more confidence than what I had last year.” One Aggie who did not have any ex perience was freshman Katie Ramos. She did not let that hinder her, though, placing second behind Evans in the 1,650 freestyle with a time of 17:03.84. “I was trying to get focused and worry about my race,” Ramos said. “I didn’t care what place 1 got, I was just trying to race the best race I could.” Sophomore Danielle Guarneri also scored points for A&M, taking second in the platform diving com petition with a score of 603.19. “I just wanted to go out and do my best,” Guarneri said. “I had a good prelims meet, so I just thought I would go out and give it my best.” A&M scored 570 points this year, over 100 more than its score of 464.5 last year and improved on its fourth- place finish from the inaugural con ference championship last year in Col lege Station. Coach Don Wagner said he was pleased with the performance. “We have a lot more depth this year, we recruited some good kids, and they did a good job," Wagner said. “I don’t think we’ve swum to our capacity. We’ve got three kids to the meet (NCAA championships) right now, and I think we’re going to get a lot better.” Wagner said the efforts of Evans, sophomore Monica Stroman, who came in fifth in the 200-yard breast stroke with a time of 2:18.79, and se nior Stacie Karnes, whose time of 2:01.89 in the 200-yard butterfly was good for fourth, stood out for A&M. He said he was pleased with the over all progress the team has made. “Last year, Texas was second, they beat us by 400 points, Nebraska was first, they beat us by 450. This year, Texas beat us by 250, and Nebraska beat us by 300, so we’re improving,” Wagner said. A&M takes second at Aggie Invite By Katie Mish Stoffwriter The Texas A&M Soft ball Team fin ished second in the Aggie Invitation al this weekend in College Station. First place went to Texas-San Anto nio, who defeated the Aggies in extra innings under the tie-breaker rule. The Aggies won four games and lost two in the round-robin tourna ment which includedTexas-San Anto nio, New Mexico State and Penn State. Ashley Lewis and AmyVining each had a win for tlie Aggies and Kristina Gan- dara had one loss and one save. Coach Jo Evans said she felt the Aggies played well during the tour nament, but they have to work on their hitting and capitalizing on op portunities at the plate. “It’s disappointing to lose it when our defense played so well,” Evans said. “We need to be better at putting the ball in play and putting pressure on our opponent’s defense. We struggled a little bit and the plate and we struggled to score runs.” Marianne McGuire, catcher and co-captain of the team, also said the lack of of fense was a prob lem for the Aggies in the tourna ment but the de fense stepped up. “We played decent, but we didn’t hit the ball as well as we have in the last couple of weeks which I think ended up being what hurt us,” McGuire said. Evans and McGuire said there were many freshman players who came up big for the team both de fensively and at the plate. Evans said she was happy with the play of sec ond baseman Rachel Lewis, who had two hits and two RBI in yester day’s games, and Amanda Whalen, who had one hit and one RBI in the final game of the tournament. McGuire said there are some freshmen who probably brought CORY WILLIS/The Battalion Freshman Tiffany Esters runs to first base yesterday against Penn State. The Aggies won by forfeit, 7-0. themselves permanently into the lineup with their tournament play. Ashley Lewis, freshman pitch er and first baseman, said she thinks the team has some points to work on but there are also things it changed for the better in the tournament. “Team-wise, we have a lot of im provement to do before conference, but I think we had a lot of positive tilings, and I think we made a lot of progress,” Lewis said. How to spend your college years. 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