Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 31, 1998)
■11 | I The Battalion Tuesday • March 31, 1998 kPTN^^ S ■atkins (umored for l&M post WALLAS (AP) — North Caroli- a-|'liarlotte basketball coach lelvin Watkins has accepted the ead coaching job at Texas &M. The Dallas Morning News jpprted Monday. Bhe school has scheduled a ews conference for 4 p.m. ■nesday to announce Watkins’ iring, the newspaper reported in Stl)iy on its World Wide Web site, iting unidentified A&M sources. Bhe newspaper reported that ■kins has accepted a five-year tuu anteed contract with an an- ual compensation package Mil $550,000. ■Vatkins is scheduled to meet dth Judy Rose, UNC-Charlotte’s thlctic director, and his players n Tuesday before flying to Col- ;ge Station Wednesday to meet dth A&M President Ray Bowen nd attend the news conference, lewspaper reported, fhe 43-year-old coach could ie reached for comment by the ew spaper and Aggies prepare for nimble with UTSA Revenge-minded Texas A&M hopes to put hot bats, pitching to use against the Roadrunners today By Travis Harsch Staff writer •‘I# 4 4? v 5 RYAN ROGERS/The Battalion Jason Tyner will look to help the Aggies steal one from UTSA at Olsen Field. The A&M Baseball Team has shaken off whatever dust may have been on their bats, winning five straight and eight out of nine. It is a streak the Aggies will be hoping to continue at home Tues day against the UT-San Antonio Roadrunners at 7 p.m. Coach Mark Johnson said he thought the team was beginning to heat up again. “We’re on a little bit of a roll and hopefully we can keep it go ing,” Johnson said. Jason Tyner said that although A&M’s bats have become hot, there are still some things which the Aggies need to focus on. “We’ve made a few errors and if we’re going to be a champi onship ball club, we can’t make those errors," Tyner said. “But we’re getting our strokes going, we’re starting to hit the ball bet ter. Our pitching’s going to hold us in there, and our starters are going to win the game for us." One of those starters is Chance Caple, who has been stellar this season, recording a perfect record of 5-0, with 36 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.85 which leads the team. Johnson said he thought Caple’s earlier successes this season would make for a good game. “Chance has given us some great outings, so it ought to be a good con test,” Jofmson said. UTSA is looking to continue its success from this past weekend, when they took two of three from Soutliland Conference rival South west Texas. All has not been rosy for the Roadrunners, however. The wins last weekend im proved their overall record to 17- 17 and their conference record to 4-8. In the first meeting between the teams on March 17, UTSA beat the Aggies 3-1, despite getting only five hits off Chris Fulbright. Tyner said the Aggies ran into a hot pitcher and some bad luck in the first meeting. “That game, they had a pitcher who threw a really good game against us. It was a combination of him pitching well and we hit the ball right at people the whole game,” Tyner said. Tyner said the team’s recent offensive binge is happening at an opportune time. He also said he was looking for a little revenge for the early- season loss to UTSA. “It’s fortunate that we’re going to get hot right now. We’re in the home stretch, and this is where we’re going to have to do it,” Tyn er said. “I look forward to playing them again. I think we owe them something and it’s going to be fun to play them here.” Johnson id not return a jlephonemes- agt from The ssoi iated tess Monday. Bexas A&M thletic director Vally Groff was ttending the Fi- lal Four in San Jiti mio and did iolretumatele- Women’s tennis whips up on Oklahoma State, 8-1 A&M improves their record to 14-6,6-3 in Big 12 Scheschuk leads A&M “O” Watkins ihoi ie message from the AR Mlowever, A&M sports informa- ion director Alan Cannon con- irmed that a news conference lias teen scheduled for Wednesday “re- larding the Aggies’ men’s basket- tall program and the appointment rfanew head coach.” He declined o comment on The News’ report. ■The Charlotte Observer in tlOrth Carolina had reported in ts Monday editions that an offer tad been extended to Watkins. Catkins met with Groff in San Jonio Friday, The Observer report- i He then flew to College Station aturday for more interviews and Jf tour of the campus. Watkins was sred the job during that visit, the vspaper reported. The school ex- fcts a reply by week’s end. [Ms. Rose had told The Observ er wr Sunday she was unaware of Watkins’ trip to College Station, she plans to meet with tlie coach Jiis week. \ “I believe Melvin doesn’t want to Ive UNC Charlotte,” Rose said. | Watkins, 43, would replace Tony rone, who resigned after seven asons at A&M following a miser- ile 7-20 season. I Watkins has become one of aching’s hot commodities after 49ers’ 93-83 overtime loss to j>. 1 -ranked North Carolina in the 1st Region’s second round. By Katie Mish Staff writer The Texas Aggie Women’s Tennis Team defeated Oklahoma State University by a score of 8-1 yesterday at the Omar Smith Tennis Center. The Aggies took both doubles matches by the scores of 8-2 and 8-2. Monica Re- Monica San Miguel played one of the best matches I Ve seen her play this spring." Bobby Kleinecke A&M Tennis Coach bolledo and Monica San Miguel beat OSU partners Stoudt and Tabisz. Both San Miguel and Rebolledo won their singles matches as well, with scores of 6-2, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-0. The Aggie pairing of Eva Marcial and Kathryn Scott defeated Wirthova and Chmelova of OSU. They each won their singles matches with scores of 6-2, 6-0 and 6-7, 6-3, 6-3. Coach Bobby Kleinecke said his team played really well overall, and that he was especially impressed with the play of out standing junior San Miguel. “Monica San Miguel played one of the best matches that I’ve seen her play this spring,” Kleinecke said. “She really dominat ed right from the first point. I thought she just played a great match.” Kleinecke said the team played well un der the conditions, and the wind they faced was comparable to the wind at the Stanford match last Thursday. “This is really tough conditions, with this wind the way it is blowing around,” he said. “It takes a lot of guts, and you can’t walk off the court feeling good about your game. It’s just a matter of getting enough balls in to be able to win the points.” Kleinecke said this match was an im portant match for the Aggies, because they needed another confer ence win for the Big 12 Tournament. “This was a big match for us in the sense that we needed to beat Okla homa State and up that conference record,” he said. “We’re trying to work on getting the high er seed for the conference tournament.” Eva Marcial, a freshman on the Texas A&M team, said the OSU team is a tough team to play, because it is hard to anticipate how they will play. “Their top four are really tough, and their five is really tough because she’s real ly athletic,” Marcial said. “Overall as a team, I think they were pretty tough. They are one of the unpredictable teams, so you can’t take them lightly.” The Aggies’ next matches are at Middle Tennessee State and next weekend at Vanderbilt. the plans for the six-team Big 12 tournament. A team must play at least 60 percent of its conference games to qualify, something sev eral teams will have a hard time doing, prompting speculation the Big 12 may invite all 11 schools to the tournament. Imagine how much worse things could be if Colorado had a team. On an ironic note, with nice weather in Nebraska this weekend, the Corn- huskers could be found in Maui, playing in the Hawaii Rainbow Classic. A &M takes a break from its Big 12 schedule this week to take on the UTSA Roadrunners. The Aggies are looking for revenge after losing the first game with UTSA this season. Kleinecke Call John Scheschuk Butter, be cause he’s on a Roll John Scheschuk has been on fire in his last four games, homering in all of them, with two grand slams figuring in the total. Scheschuk leads the team in three major categories, home runs, with eight and bat ting average, with a .380 mark. In the series against Kansas State, Scheschuk had seven RBI to improve his season total to 31 and giving him the team lead in that depart ment. If Scheschuk wants to catch Jason Tyner for the team lead in steals, however, he has some catching up to do. Tyner leads Scheschuk by 16, with 18 swipes for Tyner and two for Scheschuk. Schedule favors Aggies for Stretch Run A&M’s sweep of Kansas State propelled the Aggies into second place in the Big 12 standings with a 10-5 mark behind Baylor. The Aggies are tied for second with Missouri, which has a 4-2 conference mark because the standings are based on winning percent ages. A&M may have an edge on the Bears in the home stretch thanks to their schedule, as they play four of their final five series against teams who have conference records below .500, while Baylor must play three series against teams with records at or above .500. Rune betters season marks in El Nino huffs, puffs, blows down Cornhuskers’ schedule Nebraska, picked by many to be a con tender for the Big 12 tourney this season, hasn’t had a chance to live up or down to ex pectations. With the Big 12 season now at its midpoint, the Cornhuskers have played just one conference game, thanks to weather cancellations which have decimated their schedule. The rain-outs, cold-outs and snow- outs, which have affected every team in the conference except A&M, threaten to upset ipe strikeouts Ryan Rupe did more than improve his record to 7-1 Friday night against Kansas State. His nine strikeouts gave him a season total of 71 in just 60.1 innings of work and a new career high for strikeouts in a season, bettering his mark of 63 in 80 innings that he set last season. With one more win, he will tie his career high for victories in a season with the eight he also recorded last year. Rupe has been on a hot streak, with his last loss com ing against Ole Miss in mid-February. — Travis Harsch is a freshman journalism major. Have you... □ Picked up or purchased your '97 Aggieland? If you ordered a 1997 Aggieland yearbook and haven't picked it up, stop by room 015 (basement) of the Reed McDonald Building between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Please bring your Student ID. If you did not order a '97 book, you may purchase one for $35 plus tax in 015 Reed McDonald. The 1997 Aggieland is an 848-page record of the 1996-97 Texas A&M University school year. Cash, Check, VISA, MasterCard, Discover and American Express accepted. PICK UP YOUR 1997 AGGIELAND HERE The Aggie Wranglers wish Laurie Nickel Good Luck on her bid for Student Body President. Cards Maxed Out? Give Us A Shout! Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS), a non-profit agency, can help you get out of debt. Services are completely free and confidential. We have an office at 3833 S. Texas in Bryan. To make an appointment to talk to a counselor, call: 409-691-8319 or 1-800-873-2227 Visit us on the World Wide Web at http://www.cccsintl.org