y * Mail
day • March 6, 1998
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ByAl Lazarus
Staff writer
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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. •