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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 6, 1998)
y * Mail day • March 6, 1998 dii t; en s tennis in town to face )tli -, 50th-ranked schools ByAl Lazarus Staff writer re whofl )iir taal (going 4 Urn (A (API- the can Count) [imaryo; ■s indir sses. ria Adn thatsev- owe it inpajd c te Texas A&M Men’s Tennis Team faces a tough weekend as it plays host includir 1 Pepperdine Waves on Saturday and the Miami Hurricanes on Sunday. matches will begin at noon at the Omar Smith Tennis Center, igorda PP*dine is currendy ranked No. 12 and Miami is No. 50. A&M enters Uigur ee ^end ranked No. 33. i e niir ie Aggies (4-2,1-1) suffered a 4-3 defeat at the hands of No. 7 Universi- ty of Texas Sunday in Austin. After winning the doubles point, A&M needed three singles vic tories to win the match, but could only manage two. Cody Hubbell, a fresh man on the men’s team who attended A&M Con solidated, expressed his iyfey dejection in losing to arch-rival Texas. “I’ve lived here in Col lege Station for 19 years, and I have always hated that team (Texas), so it is definitely disappointing," Hubbell said. Although the Hurri canes are not ranked nearly as high as Pepper- dine, A&M Coach Tim Cass is quick to point out they could provide quite a challenge for the Aggies. ryan rogers/the battalion “The last team rankings rtner iior Carlos Tori and the rest of the Aggies will came out in (December), ■rest, a shot at two ranked teams this weekend, and the No. 1 junior player Demo; in the U.S. started school oum e (Miami) in January,” he said, “so that makes their whole team different.” ■ a 'epperdine’s Peter Smith was coaching at Fresno State when Cass was are Thing at New Mexico, so Cass said he knows what kind of team to expect n his former Western Athletic Conference rival. (Peter Smith) is a very good friend of mine. We had the top teams in that | da;: ference (Western Athletic),” he said. “His players always play hard.” "ass said the Aggies are welcoming a chance to face a top-15 opponent jot, ome after facing two (LSU and UT) on the road this season. ‘Our goal is to protect our home court,” he said. “We are at home the ale month of March, and we want to go undefeated.” Hubbell, who won the 5A state singles championship while at A&M Con- iated, said despite what the rankings sayrthc Aggies will not be the un dog against Pepperdine. ‘I think we are definitely the favorite,” he said. “We’re going to have the wd on our side, and we know we are good enough to beat Pepperdine.” ^omen battle conference 3e Oklahoma in Norman . : : By Philip W. Peter Staff writer The Texas A&M Women's Tennis im takes on the Oklahoma mers at 10 a.m. today at the Jer- B. Keen Varsity Courts in Nor- m, Okla. Coming off a 7-3 loss to Jth Alabama Tuesday, Coach bby Kleinecke said the team’s pth is not their primaiy concern, t getting quality play out of the ) players is. “Oklahoma is a solid team,” :inecke said. “They’ve had some •y good matches this year. They d a good team and they brought ouple of people in who play high the lineup. But then they got at pretty badly by (Texas) Tech. I n’t know how to explain that, but now they’re going to play us ex- mely tough. Every time we go d play them, it’s a dog fight.” Although A&M has played and aten the Sooners in Norman, the ;t time they played there it was nil, when the weather is more nducive to outdoor play. This ne, all indications say the match- will be played indoors where sinecke said the home court ad- I ntage is stronger. Hi “They’re tougher indoors than H 'ey are outdoors,” Kleinecke said. 11 those teams that used to play in e Big 8 are used to playing in- iors and that’s an advantage be- use they hit the ball harder. It’s >t as much finesse as it is power mesand quick points. When you ay indoors, you know they’re go- g to attack you so you have to be ady to defend a little bit to start it. That’s just one of the things s’ll have to be ready for.” Indoors or outdoors, A&M se- or Monica Rebolledo remains fo- ised and confident. “Playing indoors is different be- tuse there’s no wind and no sun,” jbolledo said, “but I think we’ve me really well (indoors) in past :ars. We’re just going to play as ird as we can and do whatever it kes to get every single match.” Confidence is not reserved for ie seniors however. Freshman Monica de la Torre found out 30 minutes before Tuesday’s South Al abama match that she was going to play. De la Torre went on to claim Sill : GREG MCREYNOLDS/The Battalion Freshman Eva Marcial and the women will be in Norman to play OU. two of A&M’s three match victories, giving her an understandably high confidence level. “We have a great team,” de la Torre said. “We’ve had some tough matches and we’ve won most of them. It doesn’t matter if they’re in conference or not. Every match we play, we set our minds to win because we know we can do it.” Aggies remain at Olsen for Big 12 stint against Mizzou RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion Junior transfer Ken Sundstrom is thrown out attempting to steal in Tuesday’s 8-6 loss to Michigan. By Travis Harsch Staff writer If to err is human, the Texas A&M baseball team sure has seemed mortal in its last two games. After committing just 22 errors in their first 16 games, the Aggies had six miscues in the two-game split with Michigan. Coach Mark Johnson said the problems have be come contagious for his ballclub as they pre pare to take on Missouri in a weekend series at Olsen Field. “I don’t know why we’re having trouble with that,” Johnson said. “Now it’s become a disease; if one pops up, everybody gets up off the bench and holds their breath.” The three errors in the second game against Michigan did not throw off Chance Caple, who went seven innings, giving up three hits and four strikeouts. Even though the errors were not too costly in the Michigan series, Johnson said the errors have started to become mental blocks for the Aggies. “Once you get snake-bitten on a play, it mag nifies into a pressure play and instead of just a piece of cake, it’s a big play, so we’ll be working on that,” Johnson said. Johnson also said the two games in the mid dle of the week have altered the A&M practice schedule. “We’ve got some defensive things we need to work on,” Johnson said. “We weren’t able to prac tice Monday, because we’ve got to take one day off, so with two back-to-back games, there’s no practice.” A&M dropped two of three last season against the Tigers in Columbia, but still lead the all-time series 18-8-1. Missouri is 8-3 this year, coming off a 9-4 loss to Southwest Missouri State. Missouri is the only team undefeated in conference play, by virtue of their sweep of the Kansas State Wild cats last weekend. The Aggies are expected to throw their usual weekend trio of starters, senior Ryan Rupe on Friday, sophomore Casey Possum in the Saturday matinee and junior Matt Ward will likely take the mound in the getaway game on Sunday. Sophomore Sean Heaney said the series against the Tigers will be a challenge for A&M, but he is confident the Aggies will get the job done. “Missouri’s coming in here 3-0, they’re sup posed to be the team from the North to beat,” Heaney said. “It’s going to be a big series. We’re planning on taking all three, I’m not satisfied with one or two out of three, we need to win all three and get on top.” The first game is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. Freshmen leading way for young team T he Texas A&M Softball Team is coming off a doubleheader sweep over the University of Texas-Arlington. The sweep improved the Aggies’ record to 13-8- 1. A&M still has to play through this week end’s tournament, a tournament in Califor nia and two more doubleheaders before it begins conference play. The Aggies will trav el to Ames, Iowa, to face the Iowa State Cy clones to kick off Big 12 play on March 28. Fresh Heat The Aggie Softball team currently has an average ERA of 1.66 and is allowing oppo nents to hit only .192. Freshman pitcher Ashley Lewis holds the best ERA at 1.07, with six of the 12 Aggie wins. Lewis has only two losses, and leads the strikeout count with 61 of the 104 Aggie strikeouts. Lewis also has pitched more innings than any oth er Aggie pitcher, 58.2. AmyVining, another of the freshman pitchers for Texas A&M, has a record of 5-1, showing’that age'isn’t ah issue for Texas Ag gie pitching. Run Producers Mining is also hitting well, with a batting average of .438 and a .688 slugging per centage, but has only played in six games. Freshman Tiffany Esters is hitting .327 while playing in every Aggie game. She is tied for the team lead in hits with Lewis at 18, and leads the team in runs (11) and stolen bases (12). Overall, the Aggies have five players hit ting over .276, and an overall average of .244. The Aggies have only three home runs on the year but have racked up 50 RBI. Freshman third baseman Amanda Whalen leads Texas A&M in RBI with 10. Air-Tight The Aggie defense has been strong this season with eight players without any errors so far. The Aggies have 31 errors on the year, giving them an overall fielding percentage of .953. They also have turned seven double plays. Senior catcher Mari anne McGuire leads the team in total chances with 120 and has not commit ted an error. Lewis follows McGuire with 119 chances and two errors and sophomore Jamie Smith leads the team in assists with 44. — Katie Mish is a senior journalism major Texas A&M Softball Team to host the Aggie Invitational II this weekend By Robert Hollier Staff writer The Texas A&M Softball Team (13-8-1), coming off a two-game sweep over the Uni versity of Texas-Arlington, will host their sec ond tournament of the season, the Aggie Invi tational II, this weekend. On Friday, the Aggies will play Minnesota at 4:30 p.m. and Bowling Green at 6:45 p.m. On Sat urday, A&M will play Illinois State at noon fol lowed by Bowling Green at 6:45 p.m. They will play Minnesota at 11:15 a.m. and Illinois State at 3:45 p.m. on Sunday. In the Aggies’ last tournament, they did not fare well and Coach Jo Evans said she is looking for better play from the team. “In the NFCA (Tournament), we didn’t come mentally prepared to play,” she said. “We didn’t play hard and that’s a quick way to lose.” “This tournament, like the last one, should give us a chance to play some more good games against some quality competition,” Evans added. “Minnesota will be the team to beat and Illinois State is also a tough, well- coached team.” Freshman pitcher Ashley Lewis said the mo mentum gained from the team’s victories over UTA will be a big key for the team this weekend. “It (the wins) was huge for us,” Lewis said. “It gave us some confidence back that we lost at the NFCA and should help us this weekend.” Evans said although she is pleased with the team’s overall play, she knows they can still improve. “I am very pleased with our team play,” she said. “Our defense has played well, our pitch ing has been impressive and we get the big hits when we need them. It all starts on the mound, though.” “I still think we need to be more aggressive at the plate,” Evans added. “We were able to take advantage of our opportunities against them (UTA), but I’d like to see our team do that more consistently. Offensively, we just need to be more aggressive and smarter at the plate.” Evans said her main concern about the team’s offensive slump was the fact that they were let ting the good pitches go by and then would swing at the bad pitches. Despite this, the Aggies are on a three-game winning streak and will look to add to that total this weekend. RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion Freshman first baseman Rachel Lewis tries to make a play in Wednesday’s win against UT-Arlington. •
