Sports
Page 3
THE BATTALION
exas Leaguers hold Texas-sized dreams
&M’s Kessel, Baylor’s Carter, TCU’s Huffman with Astros’ AA Round Rock Express
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Mark Passwaters
The Battalion
ANDY HANCOCK/The Battalion
Round Rock Express first baseman Charley Carter waits for the throw as Midland Rockhound Oscar
Salazar lunges for first. Round Rock won Saturday's game, 4-3.
No, Jose, it's Redding Time
Newest Astros pitcher part of a needed youth movement
For many baseball players working to
make it to the major leagues, time in the AA
Texas League is just another stop on the road
to their desired destination. For several
members of the Round Rock Express with
ties to Texas, it means a great deal more.
Third baseman Royce Huffman, a grad
uate of TCU; first baseman Charley Carter
from Baylor and pitcher Kyle Kessel from
Texas A&M are on the roster of the Hous
ton Astros’ AA affiliate. The team is run by
President and CEO Reid Ryan, a TCU
graduate and son of Hall of Fame pitcher
Nolan Ryan.
Huffman hails from Missouri City and is
a graduate of W.C. Elkins High School. As a
freshman at TCU, Huffman had a chance to
play against die Aggies at Olsen Field, which
he described as a memorable experience.
“It was awesome, a great environment. It’s
one of the toughest places to play,” he said.
Huffman said that not much went right
for TCU that day, as he was on second base
when the Horned Frogs lined into a triple
play in the midst of an Aggie victory.
“They beat us pretty good,” he said.
Huffman was a 12 th round pick of the
hometown Astros in 1999, a fact made even
sweeter by the fact that his family has had
season tickets for nearly 20 years. Now that
he has returned to Texas, Huffinan says life
is much better than it was at Kissimmee,
Florida, the Astros’ single A affiliate.
“It’s so much nicer it’s almost like college
again except you don’t have to go to class,”
he said.
Being only a couple of hours away from
home is an extra perk for Huffman.
“I get to see a lot of friends and family
at the park. It’s really a dream come true,”
he said.
Playing in Round Rock is a return to a fa
miliar place for Charley Carter as well. Orig
inally from Mt. Pleasant, Carter transferred
to the University of Texas for the 1997 sea
son after two years at Waco’s McClennan
County Community College. In 1998, he
moved on to Baylor, where he was an All-Big
12 selection.
“It wasn’t that I wanted to leave Texas, but
(coach) Augie (Garrido) wanted to go in a dif
ferent direction,” Carter said. “I had some
ties up in Waco and I made a phone call, and
Baylor needed a first baseman, so I had a le
gitimate shot at playing.”
Carter said that he considered transfer
ring to Texas A&M, adding that his sister is
an Aggie.
“I remember going to Olsen on a trip in
high school and going on the field arid
thinking, ‘this would be awesome,’ ” he said.
“ I would have liked to have played there if
I could.”
Carter split last season between Round
Rock and Kissimmee, and needed to adjust to
the large Round Rock crowds after playing
before only a few hundred people in Florida.
See Express on Page 6.
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T wo weeks have passed
since the Houston As
tros dealt away fan-
friendly Jose Lima to the De
troit Tigers and brought up
young fire-baller Tim Redding
to enter the starting rotation.
Redding’s arrival gives the As
tros one of the youngest rota-
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345-0569
dons in baseball and signifies they are trying to com
pete this year while catching a glimpse of the future.
If the consistent pitching of late is any indica
tion, the future is now.
The Astros now have a starting rotation that in
cludes the 2 3-year-old Redding, 2 3-year-old Roy
Oswalt, 24-year-old Wade Miller, and 2 5-year-old
Scott Elarton. Shane Reynolds, 33, is the veteran
of ther group who is called on to mentor the
youngsters on the finer points of pitching in the
big leagues.
The youth movement was not supposed to hap
pen this soon. The Astros had hoped Lima could
revert to his all-star performances in 1998 and
1999 to help anchor a pitching staff led by
Reynolds and Elarton.
Instead, Elarton has been mired in a season long
slump and Lima kept spiraling downward, losing
ballgames and allowing the Ten-Run Field refer
ences to shake his confidence.
Lima was relegated to the bullpen with few op
portunities to pitch. His charismatic nature and
electric slides on the mound made him a fan fa
vorite despite the fact that his winning ways had
deserted him.
As the struggles continued, the Astros decided
diat Lima needed a change of scenery and traded
lim to Detroit for Dave Mlicki. To make matters
ivorse, starting pitcher Kent Bottenfield went
down with an injury, leaving the Astros with a lack
if pitchers.
This chain of events paved the way for Redding,
who had gained almost a cult following for his ex
ploits on the minor league level. Redding,
equipped with a devastating curveball and an over
powering fastball, went 11-2 with a 2:03 ERA for
Class AA Round Rock and Class AAA New Or
leans this year, leaving little doubt that he has
nothing to prove on that level.
T he Astros are counting on him to speed up his
learning curve and help the team win now rather
than later.
If Redding were to start feeling overwhelmed
about his sudden rise to prominence, he would not
have far to look for advice.
Miller was being counted on to hold down the
fifth spot in the rotation this year, but had cata
pulted himself into the staff ace with an 11 -3 record.
Oswalt, a star pitcher for the U.S. Olympic team
one year ago, was expected to get a full season of
AAA under his belt and help the team next year.
His emergency call-up. and 7-1 record showed the
Astros that their talented young arms could win
now, paving the way for Redding’s arrival.
The group that was once considered to be the
future of the organization is suddenly the present.
Lima has performed well in his first two starts
with the Tigers and only time will tell whether
the Astros gave up on their former all-star too
early. The recent pitching gems of Miller, Os
walt, and Redding, however, have Astros fans
thrilled that the team decided to get a head start
on the future.
The clubhouse may be quieter and less jubilant
with the departure of Jose Lima, but the team
hopes that the young pitching staff will help them
generate plenty of noise and excitement in the sec
ond half of the season, the playoffs, and beyond.
Michael Balhoffis a senior
journalism major.
i Battalia 1
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Williams wins Wimbledon
American defends women's title; men's final on Monday
WIMBLEDON, England
(AP) — Venus Williams won
the Wimbledon women’s sin
gles title for the second
straight year Sunday, surging
through the last set to defeat
Belgium’s Justine Henin 6-1,
3-6^6-0.
The final, which should
have been staged on Saturday,
had been delayed a day be
cause of ra jn.
The second-seeded Williams
breezed through the first set in
20 minutes before Henin, 19,
the first Belgian in a Wimble
don final, hit back with her
powerful ground strokes to
even the match.
But Williams’ power took
control in the third set as she
broke three times, winning
the title when Henin, under
pressure on the baseline, was
unable to control her shot and
fired it tamely wide.
Unlike last year, when she
celebrated with a victory leap,
Williams was more reserved
this time.
“I couldn’t leap because it
was raining,” she said. “I
didn’t want to fall.”
Williams started the final
with two double faults and
didn’t get her first serve in
until the fifth point when she
served an ace. But she won
four points in a row to hold
serve.
Henin, who defeated
Williams 6-1, 6-4 in their
only previous meeting on
clay in Berlin in May, had
two aces in a confident first
service game.
Williams captured five
break points in the fourth
game but Henin, powerful and
accurate hitting from the
baseline, saved four. Williams
gained the break with a volley
at the net to lead 3 -1, and then
gained three set points with
her powerful serves.
The defending champion
squandered the first when she
fired a backhand wide but,
when Henin sent up a lob un
der pressure, Williams
clinched the set in 20 minutes
with an easy smash.
After a 15-minute rain de
lay, both players held before
Williams fired a backhand
wide to hand two break points
to the Belgian and, when the
defending titleist 1/4 netted
another, Henin led 5-3.
When Williams put anoth
er backhand out, Henin had
two set points and, luring the
American to the net, punched
a backhand past her to take
the set.
Williams said she,was “a lit
tle bit angry” after losing the
second set, but was more re
laxed afterward.
“I thought I could have
played better,” she said.
After holding in the open
ing game of the deciding set,
Williams broke in the second.
Although Henin saved two
break points to twice bring the
game back to deuce, she sur
rendered a third by netting a
low backhand.
Williams then held for a 3-
0 lead and had two more break
points when Henin netted a
forehand. The Belgian saved
the first when Williams’ re
turn was long but the Ameri
can broke again when Henin
fired a forehand long.
With rain falling again,
Williams appeared in a hurry
and a fourth double fault
handed Henin an opening at
15-30. But the Aunerican won
three points in a row to move
ahead 5-0.
Henin’s third double fault
followed by two netted fore
hands gave Williams two
championship points. Al
though Henin saved the first
with a service winner, the de
fending champion clinched
the title with some powerful
strokes that the Belgian teen
ager was unable to handle.
“She was a great champi
on,” said Henin, who defeated
Jennifer Capriati in the semi
finals. “She played better than
me today.”
“In the third set, mentally,
she was stronger.”
On the men’s side, unseed
ed and unpredicatable Goran
Ivanisevic advanced to play
Patrick Rafter in the men’s fi
nals after defeating local fa
vorite Tim Henman.
“NeVur had so much fun in
Wimbledon ever on the tennis
court like I have here,” the
Croat said Sunday in broken
English. “Even sometimes I
enjoy to lose the point, which
is stupid, but with me every
thing is different.”
Ivanisevic, the only wild
card to reach the final since
1977, needed three days to
finish his semifinal against
Henman, finally winning 7-5,
6-7 (6), 0-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 after
just four games and 18 min
utes of play Sunday.
Five of Ivanisevic’s 14
serves Sunday went for aces,
giving him 186 for his six
matches. He needs 2 1 Mon
day to break his own Wimble
don record of 206 set in 1992
when he was runner-up to
Andre Agassi. He also im
proved his return game dur
ing the past two days.
The 29-year-old lefty also
lost in the 1994 and 1998 fi
nal to seven-time champion
Pete Sampras, but his career
plummeted when he encoun
tered shoulder problems last
year. He entered Wimbledon
this year ranked 125th in the
world.
“If some angel comes
tonight in my dreams and say,
‘OK, Goran you going to win
Wimbledon tomorrow, but
you noriable to touch the rack
et ever again in your life,’ I say,
‘OK, I rather take that and
then never play tennis again.’”
Henman, trying to become
the first Brit since Bunny
Austin in 1938 to reach a
Wimbledon men’s final, led 2-
1 in sets and 2-1 in the fourth
Friday when play was sus
pended by darkness after a
two-hour rain delay.
On Saturday, things got
better for Ivanisevic, who
forced a fifth set and led 3-2
before rain forced a second
suspension after 52 minutes
of play.
On Sunday, a rainy morn
ing gave way to clear skies
about a half hour before the
match resumed.
“Todaiy was match of
nerves, nothing to do with
tennis,” Ivanisevic said.
“Who’s going to have more
nerves and guts going to win
the match.”
Henman, who hails from
Oxford, was not the only one
who was disappointed when
it ended. So were the fans
who filled Henman Hill,
where a huge video screen
was set up inside the Wim
bledon grounds. Others wait
ing in line to buy tickets for
the final picked up their
sleeping bags and left when
they found out their country
man would not be in it.
RUBEN DELUNA/Twf Battalion