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Sports
Page 3 • Monday, June 14, 1999
asted opportunities doom Aggies
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PHOTOS BY SALLIE TURNER/The Battalion
LEFT: Junior outfielder Chad Hudson prepares to throw following a catch in Satur
day’s game against Florida State University.
TOP: A&M junior second baseman Sean Heaney attempts the tag against the
Seminoles Saturday in Omaha, Neb.
RIGHT: Aggie sophomore pitcher Chris Russ appeared in relief of starter Casey Pos
sum Saturday.
&M to face Col-State Fullerton today
BY DOUG SHILLING
The Battalion
pressrt- JOMAHA, Neb.— In what has been a
ink NAF word-setting season for the Texas A&M
of the: Baseball Team offensively, the Aggies could
cebt; not muster the offense when it really need
ed it in their 7-3 loss to the Florida State
Seminoles Saturday. When A&M found it-
rhi se h in a bases-loaded, no-outs situation in
CniHtthe fifth inning, it was the beginning of the
. C ||. f end.
Despite being outhit, Florida State shut
I unhe down the A&M offense —the Aggies could
I sear not S et the hits when it mattered.
■ “It was a typical college ball game,”
A&M baseball coach Mark Johnson said. “I
thought both teams were ready to play.
This was no surprise to us. Florida State
has one of the best ERAs in the nation, and
we certainly saw two good pitchers.”
B On a day when he became the Aggies’
all-time strikeout leader with 404, passing
u3 ; Jeff Granger’s old mark of 401, junior pitch-
reC j”., : er Casey Possum was uncharacteristically
, . wild. Possum walked a season-high eight
eifar batters -
"I was trying to be a little too fine with
r my pitches,” Possum said. “They were
IhovT we ll-disciplined at the plate. They weren’t
swinging at very many bad pitches. They
f ran were doing a good job of making me throw
^.strikes.”
' afgiflJiThe Seminoles capitalized on Possum’s
jS j ncre; wil:dness in the bottom of the first inning
.,las he walked three, including one with the
, ; bases loaded, to take a 1-0 lead.
: The Aggies bounced right back in the
top of the second as freshman designated
bitter Greg Porter singled home junior cen-
^erfielder Steven Tfuitt to tie the game.
■ But Florida State continued to take ad-
who a
Neely !
Tiding
tot of.b
ntsaitf
vantage of Possum’s mistakes as Seminole
first baseman Ryan Barthelemy and right
fielder Matt Diaz each hit homeruns to in
crease the lead to 4-1.
The Aggies scored runs in the third and
fourth innings, including a homerun by se
nior catcher Shawn Schumacher, to cut the
Seminoles’ lead to 4-3.
Things were looking up for the Aggies
in the fifth as Seminole starter Nick Stocks
walked sophomore rightfielder Daylan
Holt, senior first baseman John Scheschuk
and Truitt to load the bases with no outs.
Florida State baseball coach Mike Mar
tin then replaced Stocks with senior pitch
er Chris Chavez.
With the bases loaded and no outs, the
Aggies seemed primed to take the lead and
break the game wide open.
However, it was not meant to be as
Chavez got junior second baseman Sean
Heaney to strike out looking. Porter to
strike out swinging and junior third base-
man Dell Lindsey to strike out on a check
swing on 14 pitches to end the Aggie rally
with no runs scored.
Martin said Chavez’ relief appearance
was the momentum shift the Seminoles
needed. *
“In all honesty, it was a game in which
Chavez came in and took control of it,”
Martin said. “Stocks was not sharp. Chris
came in and took control of the ballgame,
and that was undoubtedly the momentum
that we needed.”
Chavez said he could sense the Aggies
were demoralized after not scoring with
the bases loaded.
“It’s a big momentum switch,” Chavez
said. “Coming in and getting three outs with
out them scoring a run with the bases loaded
just took the wind out of their sails.”
If all the wind was not out of the Aggies
sails after the top of the fifth, it almost cer
tainly was after the bottom of the inning.
The Seminoles scored two runs, includ
ing Diaz’s second home run of the day,
pushing the lead to 6-3 and all but burying
the Aggies hopes.
Johnson said when the Seminoles came
out and scored after shutting the Aggies
down, it crushed the team.
“It was really big,” Johnson said. “We
were discouraged. If you load the bases
with no outs, you’re feeling good about
yourself. But to not score any runs then al
low two runs to score, it was discouraging.”
Chavez then shut down the Aggies the
rest of the way only allowing one hit in
his five innings of work baffling the Ag
gie hitters, sending them to the losers’
bracket and putting them in a position of
having to win four games in five days just
to make it to the Championship game
next Saturday.
Schumacher said that despite the loss,
the Aggies are in a familiar position and do
not plan to go without a fight.
“We’ve had our backs against the wall
several times this year,” Schumacher said.
“We showed in the Big 12 Championships,
Regionals and Super Regionals that we
don’t give up. We keep fighting, and that’s
what we’re going to do starting Monday.”
The Aggies now face the Cal-State
Fullerton Titans Monday night at 6:30 in
Omaha in an elimination game. The Titans
were defeated by the Stanford Cardinals
Saturday night, 9-2.
A&M holds a 2-1 all-time record against
Fullerton with the loss coming in 1988 in
the Regional Final. The winner will face the
loser of the Florida State-Stanford game
Tuesday in Omaha.
nderdog Knicks prepare to face Spurs
SPORTS
IN BRIEF
RS/rv
Frontcourt woes add to Van Gundy’s troubles
to t® lPURCHASE, N.Y. (AP) — The
dio p[0l Jrc hive on “How To Beat The Spurs”
s not a voluminous one, which is
>, Citft'Vhat Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy
„ earned when he started researching
ampl |5 nis next assignment.
OQjpjofl “I asked our video coordinator:
^ Pull up all their losses. I want to see
)0fts £ lie teams that beat them in the last
BHee months.’ And he gives me this
/eb ittle stack of tapes,” Van Gundy said.
‘Baaaad sign.”
— ^ |“I was looking
f ».,• ° r a nugget,” he
5 ,added. “And what
lei l' lieilt here was were no
auggets.”
■Another daunt-
i[. ng task awaited
phlm Sunday as
|W New York
Knicks had their
VAN GUNDY
Pareldi irst practice in preparation for for the
i au l BreaDIBA Finals, which begin Wednesday
jez Jasdffp 1 at San Antonio’s Alamodome.
’ does a New York team miss-
(,01ire ng two frontline starters, Patrick Ew-
ng and Larry Johnson, stand a
lent Put*® :hance of beating a San Antonio
313; F 3 ' earn with two 7-footers, David
Kobinson and Tim Duncan, who
ical,^® laye confounded even the healthiest
iflicehiWS'bf teams?
■“Other guys are going to have to
fDieBaQ — that 0 i(j cliche — step up,” Van
,50 for tin Gundy said. “Do a little more in a lot
)f different areas. We still have
IMoi# mpugh guys to play.”
idatCdW' But exactly how many guys they
Station-TC 1 vijl have, at least in Game 1, remains
^ ^>Jncertain. Johnson, who sprained
tis knee in the clinching Game 6
against Indiana, said he plans to play
sometime in the series even if he can
not go in Game 1.
“Not good,” he said of his knee,
which was bothering him so much at
6 a.m. Sunday that he called trainer
Mike Saunders to request immediate
treatment. “Not good, but I’m going
to be better. I’m going to get out there
regardless.”
In San Antonio, the Spurs had a
day off Sunday as the players enjoyed
the downtime they earned by dis
posing of the Portland Trail Blazers in
a four-game sweep.
San Antonio, which also swept
the Los Angeles Lakers in the second
round, has not lost since Game 2 of
the first round against Minnesota.
“Teams that are inconsistent, or
not as good, you can exploit because
they have weaknesses,” Van Gundy
said of the Spurs. “But this team re
ally has no weaknesses, which is
why they’ve won 10 playoff games in
a row, which is unheard of. ”
If Johnson cannot play in Game
1, the Knicks are expected to use a
starting lineup of Chris Dudley at
center, Kurt Thomas and Latrell
Sprewell at the forwards and Allan
Houston and Charlie Ward in the
backcourt.
That would leave Marcus Camby
and Herb Williams as the only big
men coming off the bench.
That size predicament had Van
Gundy and his staff wondering
whether to double-team Duncan and
Robinson when they have the ball, as
most teams do, or take their chances
with single coverage on the Twin
Towers and tight defense on the oth
er three players.
“That’s what’s going to be great to
watch,” Van Gundy said. “It’s going
to be a great, great decision for us. ”
The Spurs, meanwhile, are hoping
rest does not lead to rust after their
long layoff.
They will also have to overcome
the inclination of taking the Knicks
lightly because of their injury woes.
“I think it hurts them,” forward
Sean Elliott said. “I think in spurts
sometimes they’re better without
Patrick, but I couldn’t see it for 48
minutes. They’ve played well, but I
think against us they need some peo
ple who match up inside.”
The Spurs and Knicks did not play
each other during the regular season
because of the -shortened schedule,
so there will be a greater degree of
unfamiliarity in this series than there
ever has been in an NBA Finals.
San Antonio swept the two-game
season series in 1997-98, but those
Knicks were nothing like the current
squad — an uptempo, athletic mix
who were at their best playing like
greyhounds against the Pacers.
“It’s going to be tougher in transi
tion against San Antonio because
those guys run real well,” Camby,
who provided the Knicks with a huge
lift of the bench in the Indiana series,
said.
Dudley said : “It definitely will
be more difficult without Larry.
He’s been a huge part of our suc
cess and he’s integral to our team,
but we’ll move forward if he can’t
play.”
Finals showing may bring
new arena to San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The
Spurs have brought the NBA Fi
nals to San Antonio, only to
have the basketball champi
onship series played in a football
stadium.
Home for the Spurs is the
Alamodome.
At least for the moment.
It is a cavernous place where
seats are plentiful and tickets are
cheap by NBA standards. The
Spurs would like to move into
another more profitable facility
as soon as possible.
Winning the NBA Finals over
the New York Knicks could ulti
mately help the franchise — the
only major league sports team in
town — gain public support for
a new taxpayer-funded arena.
That could prevent the Spurs
from leaving town, something
team owners insist they do not
plan to do but a reality in the big-
money world of sports that can
not be ignored.
“We want to stay in San An
tonio,” Spurs chair Peter Holt
said. “We’re going to do every
thing we can to make that hap
pen.”
Hardly a glamour team
cheered on by celebrities, the San
Antonio Spurs are an unconven
tional squad struggling to survive
in a blue-collar city. They are a
team searching for national iden
tity and local respect. Nothing un
derscores that more than the
Spurs’ arena predicament.
After playing in the old Hem-
isFair Arena, built in the late
1960s, the Spurs of the former
American Basketball Association
moved into the new Alamodome
in 1993 with the idea it would be
a temporary arrangement.
Moving out has not been
easy.
In the Alamodome, a giant in
door stadium which can seat up
to 65,000 for football, the bas
ketball court is located at one
end of the facility with a massive
blue curtain blocking off the rest
of the building.
Team executives have floated
ideas for using tax money to
help build a smaller arena built
for basketball and equipped
with lucrative luxury suites,
something the Spurs contend
they need to profit in the NBA
and to pay the big contract sec
ond-year star Tim Duncan will
soon require.
It is widely believed in San
Antonio that a new arena plan
will emerge after the NBA Finals.
Holt and others connected with
the team have indicated the
Spurs need to get a proposition
before the voters by January.
Former assistant
named UTA coach
A former graduate assistant
baseball coach at Texas A&M Uni
versity was named the new coach
for the University of Texas-Arlington
baseball program.
UTA Athletic Director Pete Carlon
announced Friday that Clay Gould, a
former UTA baseball player, will be
come the fourth coach in the 31-year
history of UTA’s program.
Gould, the 1993 Southland
Conference co-Player of the Year
and the only player in UTA team
history to appear on the ballot of
the Golden Spikes Award, takes
over the reins after serving for the
past three years as an assistant.
He returned to UTA and complet
ed his B.A. degree in exercise and
sport studies in 1995. In 1997 he
earned his Master’s degree from
A&M in sports management.
BU’s Jennings wins
’99 Howser Award
Jason Jennings, a pitcher and
designated hitter for the Baylor Uni
versity Baseball Team, has been
named as the recipient of the 1999
Dick Howser Award as collegiate
baseball’s top player.
Jennipgs also has received na
tional player of the year honors
from Collegiate Baseball magazine
and Baseball America.
Jennings led the Big 12 Confer
ence this season with 13 victories
and 172 strikeouts while carrying
a 2.58 ERA.
At the plate, he batted .386 with
17 home runs and 68 RBIs.