Wednesday, March 1,2(0
Wednesday, March 1,2000
SPORTS
THE BATTALION Page?
!T VILLANUEVA I III BaITAIJOS
for four-year-old
Ags explode against Islanders
BY DOUG SHILLING
The Battalion
The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi baseball
team had its first trip to Olsen Field Tuesday.
The Texas A&M baseball team sent them
back to Corpus, showing the first-year team
they have a lot to work on.
The Aggies lit up the Islander pitching for
17 hits and capitalized on six TAMU-CC er
rors as they cruised to a 20-4 victory in seven
innings.
It was the fourth straight win for A&M as it
improved to 9-7 on the season. The loss evens
the Islanders record at 6-6 on the year.
A&M baseball coach Mark Johnson said
the Aggies capitalized on the inexperience of
the TAMU-CC team.
it was one of those games,” Johnson said.
“Corpus is just starting its program and they
need Division I games, so we certainly want to
tn and help them. They’re young right now. It
was good for us in that we got to throw some
pitchers we haven’t seen, and we got to play a
lot of guys.
“We kept the offense going. In that regard
it was a good game for us.
It didn't give us a real edge, and I think the
guys know that. It did help some guys offen
sively to hit the ball.”
As they have been doing in the past few
games, the Aggies jumped ahead early.
A&M junior right fielder Daylan Holt got
the Aggies on the board in the first inning with
a mammoth two-run home run over the right
field wall to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead.
The Aggies tacked on two more runs in the
second inning on a ground ball by senior sec
ond baseman Sean Heaney that scored junior
catcher Jason Gremminger and a sacrifice tly
by Holt to make it a 4-0 A&M lead.
Holt said starting out with a home run
helped him to get in a groove.
“I’m just glad the umpires called that one
fair, because it was kind of close,” Holt said.
“It feels good to come in there and finally re
lax. I think that was the main thing 1 had to do.”
The Islanders bounced back in the third in
ning when third baseman Ryan Clyde hit a
three-run home run over the left field wail to
cut the A&M lead to 4-3.
Then the Hood gates opened for the Aggies.
The Aggies scored 16 runs over the next five
innings, including nine in the second to put
away TAMU-CC.
The Aggies’ offensive dominance helped
Johnson get a look at some of his new pitch
ers’ some work.
A&M freshman pitcher Steven Ponder
looked good as he got the start for the Aggies.
In his first action of the season, Ponder (1-0)
went four innings, giving up four runs, only
one of which was earned, on three hits.
Senior pitcher Larry Martin also saw his
first action of the season, going two innings
and only giving up two hits.
Senior pitcher Matt Knight finished the
game for A&M, giving up only one hit in one
inning.
Johnson said one of the keys of the game
was getting to see how his pitchers performed.
“The three pitchers hadn’t thrown at all,”
Johnson said. "Ponder and Martin hadn't been
across the line yet. So that was a plus for us,
and we needed to do that.”
TAMU-CC pitcher Larry Olivarez took the
loss for the Islanders. Olivarez (2-1) gave up
13 runs on nine hits in 2 1 /3 innings pitched.
A&M starts up Big 12 play again this Fri
day as they play Baylor University in a three-
game series.
Holt said the roll the Aggies’ offense has
been on will be beneficial heading into the se
ries with Baylor.
“You want to be sure and go up there and
have good ABs [at-bats],” Holt said. "1 know
the pitching isn’t the same as we’re going to
face against Baylor, but a ball is a ball and a
strike is a strike. It doesn't matter how fast it’s
coming.”
CHAD ADAMS/Tm BATTALION
A&M sophomore Blake Whealy backhands a ball in the Aggies’ 20-4 win over the
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi University Islanders Tuesday at Olsen Field.
nference. It was for all Greek
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turn this nigger music off.
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Men’s basketball team hosts 20th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners
BY JASON LINCOLN
The Battalion
If Texas A&M
^ Melvin Watkins
could pick only one
KING
the Big 12 regular season this week with
a pair of home games.
Wednesday, the Aggies face off
:ause I am not just black,la against the No. 20 University ofOkla-
lot of these parents do notsh homa Sooners at 7 p.m. in Reed Arena,
ng. They teach them things'*, On Saturday,the Aggies host the Univer-
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on have to hold your heads
: the same as them.
sity of Nebraska to close out the season.
The pair of games has the potential to
be huge for A&M (7-18; 3-11) going into
the Big 12 Tournament next week. With
a pair of wins the Aggies could be placed
as high as the eighth seed.
Yet, with only three conference wins,
winning two back-to-back games to close
out the season will be a daunting task for
the young, struggling A&M men.
“We’d just like to finish up strong. We
have Oklahoma coming in Wednesday
and then Nebraska on Saturday,” Watkins
said, “ft would be nice to get these two
w ins heading into the conference tourna
ment.”
The Sooners pose the biggest, most’
immediate threat for the Aggies. A&M
first dueled OU in the conference opener
during early January. The Aggies were
trounced in the road match by a score of
78-53.
The Aggies will welcome back senior
Aaron Jack. Jack spent 1 1/2 games out
due to dehydration. Despite the return of
Jack, the Aggies will continue to rely on
their youth.
In the first match-up, A&M freshman
guard Bernard King caught the Sooners
offguard. King had 18 points, thanks to
his perimeter prowess.
Rest assured, Oklahoma is looking at
King now. The Sooners are sure to focus
on keeping King in check for the second
round.
“They didn't know' Bernard and they
didn’t know his capabilities,” Watkins
said. “That certainly has changed but
Bernard has changed and become a bet
ter player since then.”
King is not the only Aggie that has
stepped up his game since the January
contest. The next dozen Big 12 matches
showed the rise of a few other freshmen
performers. Tomas Ress has found a
home starting at forward, Andy Slocum
has learned to play with the other big
boys in the paint and a host of other fresh
men have found a home making an im
pact off the bench.
Slocum’s improvement reached a
new high on Saturday against the Uni
versity of Texas, when the starting center
had 14 points playing against Big 12
Player of the Year candidate Chris M ihm.
“He started ofTslow, but most big kids
do,” Watkins said about his new big man.
“Now he’s beginning to gain some con
fidence after putting a couple games
back-to-back in which he’s played pretty
good. He’s starting to see his upside that
we saw a lot sooner.”
A&M needs more than improved per-
formance by a few freshmen to overcome
the veteran OU line-up.
The Sooners are led by 6-8 forward
Eduardo Najera. The senior has been
making a run at Big 12 Player of the Year,
averaging a double-double with 18.4
points per game and 10.6 rebounds per
game.
With nobody on the roster that can
match-up well against Najera, Watkins
looks to counter the threat with a mix of
double teams, traps and zones.
Backing up Najera’s efforts in the
Aggieland
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paint is a well rounded, experienced sup
porting cast. Junior guard Nolan Johnson
will look to post his ninth straight game
to score in double figures. Freshman
guard Hollis price has picked up his As
sists and scoring in recent games to go
along with sophomore guard J.R. Ray
mond who ranks 11 th in the conferente
scoring lists.
“OU is obviously a NCAA team apd
has a lot on stake as they jockey for the
fourth seed [in the tournament],” Watkiris
said. “They’re going to be ready to play
and have the components to beat you
pretty bad.”
The Aggies will try and minimize
OU’s threat and capitalize on the home
advantage to pull yet another top 25
upset.
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