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Monday • February 23, 1998
The Battalion
Sports
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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.
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