he Battalion
mpootf
TERRY ROBERSON/I /ii Battalion
r senior Monica San Miguel hits a forehand ground stroke in singles
ompetition during the Aggies’ match against Vanderbilt University April 10.
BrodeD jr
| Aggies host Baylor
bfowk'-"
» as postseason looms
' 4e'A/ Women’s Tennis Team eyes No. 2 seed
: T1
BY JASON LINCOLN
The Battalion
knowv
rubs r
way,”’:
ghero* , rj-| 10 f ate 0 f t } ie 35th-ranked
Texas A&M Women’s Tennis Team
pjm rests j n jf S own hands as the Aggies
head into the final stretch of the Big
11 season.
iSwith three conference matches
remaining, A&M will be battling for
seeding in the Big 12 Tournament,
which the Aggies will host at the
end of the month.
The test begins
at I di
re nut
’ and
was i!i
'e doi
real!)
igwav
v she
... It’s Thesday as A&M
;o, playif 12-7, 16-2 Big
12) faces off
against Baylor
Universtiy at 6
i,m at the Aggie
Tennis Complex.
Jf the Aggies
■i win their final
fairee matches of
e season, start-
DINGWALL
)
ing with the list-ranked Bears be-
i fore facing the University of Kansas
and Kansas State University, they
will take the second seed to enter
the tournament behind the Univer
sity of Texas.
■“It’s just a matter of going out
and taking care of ourselves,” A&M
coach Bobby Kleinecke said.
“We’re in control of our own des
tiny from here on out.
■“All three matches left are
winnable matches and loseable
matches. It will all come down to
who is ready to play when it
counts.”
■ The match looks to be high-
lighted by a singles battle between
two freshman dynamos on court
one. The Aggies’ 54th-ranked Mar
tina Nedorostova will face one of.
the biggest tests of her season
when she battles Baylor’s Katja
Kovac, who has also jumped into
the national rankings (No. 57) in
her rookie season. Nedorostova
has won 14 of her last 17 singles
matches while compiling a 7-1
record in the conference.
Another strong performance for
A&M should come from junior Lisa
Dingwall. Nedorostova and Ding
wall accounted for all three of
A&M’s points against the Rice Uni
versity Owls Saturday, winning at
No. 1 and No. 2 singles and No. 1
doubles.
Kleinecke said Baylor’s style of
play is similar to that of the Aggies,
as the consistency of the Bears puts
opponents in a position to beat
themselves. He said Baylor’s ath
letes are not power players, but
hang on to points and keep the sets
tight.
A&M will look to overcome the
Bears at their own game by taking
full advantage of the home court
and the crowd that accompanies it.
“Our biggest problem is our
selves,” Kleinecke said. “The bot
tom of the lineup is going to have
to start coming through for us to
win here. If we can use the home-
court advantage it will be a big
boost.”
Texas A&M historically has
dominated the series against the
Bears, compiling a 17-2 all-time
record. However, the Aggies strug
gled in the 1998 season, dropping
the regular-season conference
match before winning at the Big 12
tournament in a tangle that took
nearly five hours to conclude.
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Sports
Page 5 • Tuesday, April 20, 1999
Baseball walks to 7-2 victory
MIKE FUENTES/The Battalion
Junior second baseman Sean Heaney tries to complete the double play during the Aggies’ game against
Tarleton State University Monday at Olsen Field. The Texas A&M Baseball Team defeated the Texans, 7-2.
BY DOUG SHILLING
The Battalion
In the game of baseball, it does
not matter how many hits a team
has, but how many runs it gets
across the plate.
Although they only managed
four hits, the third-ranked Texas
A&M Baseball Team took advan
tage of Tarleton State University
pitchers who issued 11 walks to
cruise to a 7-2 victory last night at
Olsen Field.
A&M head coach Mark Johnson
said the teams’ sluggish perfor
mance was partly a letdown after
this past weekend’s series against
Baylor University.
“We tried to come in and take
care of business,” Johnson said.
“We knew we’d be a little flat after
the emotion of this past weekend’s
series. We just couldn’t get it going.
They walked 11 guys and it was
hard to get a flow going. ”
A&M broke onto the scoreboard
first in the bottom of the third with
three runs.
Texans pitcher Clay Snider start
ed off the inning giving up a walk
to center fielder Chad Hudson and
hitting shortstop Steve Scarbor
ough.
After junior second baseman
Sean Heaney flied-out, sophomore
right fielder Daylan Holt singled to
load the bases for Scheschuk.
Scheschuk stepped in and lift
ed a bases-clearing double to left
center field to give the Aggies the
lead.
The Aggies then failed to capi
talize on the Texan pitchers’ lack of
control in the bottom of the fourth
as they tacked on only one run to
push their lead to 4-0.
Snider walked the bases loaded
then walked Holt, forcing in a run.
Scheschuk once again came up
with the bases loaded but Texan re
liever Tfey Fielding, who had just
entered the game, got Scheschuk to
pop up to center to end the Aggie
threat.
The Texans struck back in the
top of the fifth, as they took ad
vantage of the Aggies’ wildness to
score two runs, cutting the Aggie
lead in half, 4-2.
Senior pitcher Shane King, who
started the game for A&M, gave up
an RBI single and a walk with the
bases loaded with only one out.
Junior pitcher Courtney Weller
came in to relieve King with the
bases loaded and got Texan third
baseman Darder to ground into a
double play to end the inning and
the Texan threat.
Weller said that coming into the
game with the bases loaded did not
worry him.
“I’ve been there before,” Weller
said. “I just tried to go in there an
get a ground ball and I got lucky
enough to get one.”
The Aggies once again manu
factured runs off of walks in the
bottom of the sixth, as they scored
three runs to provide the winning
margin of 7-2.
With one out in the inning, Scar
borough walked, then scored on a
Heaney double to center field.
After Holt walked, Heaney
scored on a Scheschuk ground-out
to first.
Holt came around to score, when
junior third baseman Dell Lindsey
reached on an error by Texans’
third baseman Craig Darder.
Weller (1-0) pitched 4 2/3 in
nings of scoreless relief to get the
win for the Aggies (36-9, 16-4 Big
12). He allowed only one hit and a
walk to go with his five strikeouts
Weller said that there was an
easy explanation to his pitching
performance last night.
“Mechanics,” Weller said. “I
stayed back on my back leg and
things came out right for me.”
Johnson also praised Weller for
his outstanding pitching in relief.
“The best part of the game was
Weller,” Johnson said. “That was
the best he’s thrown in a while.
That was a real plus for us.”
Snider (3-3) took the loss for the
Texans, going three innings and
giving up three runs on three hits
with three walks.
The win pushes the Aggies
record at Olsen to 27-1 on the
season.
A&M is back in action tomor
row, as they are scheduled to play
the University of Houston at 7 p.m.
at Olsen Field.
Astros show signs of taking off
Houston hopes to break out of early offensive slump following win over St Louis Cardinals
HOUSTON (AP) — Now this is more like it.
The Houston Astros’ offense that set club
records with 102 victories and 874 runs scored last
season had struggled this year until breaking out
with a season-high 16 hits in Sunday’s getaway
day victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Until then, runs had been hard to find for the
Astros.
“I thought we were going to have one of those
13-hit, three-run outbursts,” Jeff Bagwell said.
“This was a nice win for us. I don’t think there is
added pressure, but we’re disappointed.
“A lot is expected of this offense and we
haven’t done it this year.”
The Astros raised their team batting average to
.292, tops in the National League, but they have
driven only 48 runs, less than four a game. Even
after Sunday, the Astros are hitting .213 with run
ners in scoring position.
But at least the Astros begin a week-long road
trip that starts in Chicago Tuesday with a good
feeling after their six-run eighth-inning rally gave
them an 8-4 victory over the Cardinals and kept
them from being swept at home.
“This puts us with a .500 record (6-6) after
what I consider a slow start on offense and field
ing-wise,” manager Larry Dierker said. “The dif
ficulty now is we’re going to have to do it on the
road.”
The Astros play 12 of their next 16 games away
from Houston with a four-game homestand
against Randy Johnson and the Arizona Dia
mondbacks sandwiched in the middle.
The Astros’ “Killer Bs” — Bagwell, Craig Big
gie and Derek Bell — led the offensive resurgence.
Bagwell hit .545 in the three Cardinal games
and extended his hitting streak to eight games.
He’s hitting .368 overall. Bagwell reached base 10
straight times before he grounded out in the fourth
inning Saturday night.
Bell went 4-for-4 in Sunday’s finale, and his sac
rifice fly put the Astros ahead 5-4 in the eighth. Bell
has seven RBIs and is hitting .333 overall. Biggio is
hitting .270, but he hit .385 against the Cardinals.
“Derek Bell can get four hits in a heartbeat,”
Bagwell Said. “He doesn’t always get the credit he
deserves but, I can tell you the guy can hit. Derek
is one great hitter. ”
The Astros are missing left fielder Moises Alou,
who had a career year with the Astros last season
but will miss all or most of this season recovering
from knee surgery. Through 12 games last season,
Alou was hitting .314 with 10 RBIs and three home
runs.
Center fielder Carl Everett (.378) and shortstop
Ricky Gutierrez (.423) have helped make up for
Alou’s loss. Everett has hit safely in 11 of the As
tros’ 12 games.
Third baseman Ken Caminiti is still trying to
get his stroke working. He’s hitting .171 for the
Slumping ’Stros
Rank of Houston Astros’ 1999
offensive statistics in National
League play:
Category
Rank
Batting avg. ...
... .292
1st
Runs
48
15th
Hits
.... 116
5th
Doubles
24
t-6th
Triples
2
t-7th
Home runs
12
t-8th
RBIs
46
15th
Statistics compiled by ESPN
season and went l-for-10 in three games against
the Cardinals.
“This is a turning point for us to get those runs
in,” Everett said. “Everybody chipped in.”
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