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Sports
The Battalion
Page IB • Wednesday, April 2, 2003
Aggies hold off Bearkats in offensive battle
By Dallas Shipp
THE BATTALION
uesday’s baseball game between No. 19
Texas A&M and Sam Houston State
Jniversity could not have picked a better day
e played than April Fool’s Day.
3oth starting pitchers’ nights were finished
r pitching one third of an inning each in a
ic that lasted three hours and 35 minutes.
&M junior right hander Brian Finch had
worst outing of the season, giving up six
uns on five hits, two wild pitches and a hit bat-
sr after recording just one out.
But freshman left hander Dan Donaldson
He in and picked up the pieces for the
Lggies to earn his first win as an Aggie.
H\&M Head Coach Mark Johnson said
hat although he was disappointed with
ii* m ato in • the battalion'inch’s outing, it gave Donaldson a chance to
/orld to promote poverV OI f ie in ancl 8 et some ex P er > enc e in a big
Habitat for Humanity's* 31 ! 16 stniosphere.
it Rudder Tower, Tuesday | Dan Donaldson was the hero for us
onidit,” Johnson said. “1 thought he came in
— ——4j|^H settled things down. There were some
he had to step up and make the pitch and
Hid.”
Jiearkats' left hander Ryan Herrera didn’t
500 pilot
fare much better than Finch after watching
his team take a 6-0 lead in the top of the first.
Herrera walked the first three batters he
faced on 15 pitches before A&M junior left
fielder Scott Beerer hit a three-run double
into left field.
Bearkats’ reliever Nathan Osterman came
in for Herrera after Beerer’s double but gave
up four runs in the second inning before being
removed himself.
Ostennan left the game in the second and
gave up four runs on three hits to get the loss
for Sam Houston. Bearkats Head Coach Chris
Rupp used seven pitchers in the game.
The Aggies put up another five runs in the
second inning that was capped off by a two-run
single from freshman catcher Craig Stinson.
A&M freshman third baseman Cliff
Pennington said that he had never seen a first
two innings like Tuesday night’s.
‘‘I have never played a first two innings that
was as long as that,” he said. “It doesn’t hap
pen very often. Our pitchers are a lot better
than that, (Finch) just had a bad outing.”
Johnson echoed Pennington’s comments
adding that a lot of times a six-run deficit is too
much to bounce back from.
“I don't think I’ve ever seen both pitch
ers only get one out in the first inning,”
Johnson said.
After the first two innings lasted 80 min
utes, Pennington got the third inning started by
robbing Bearkats DH Dorn Garcia of a base
hit, grabbing the slow rolling ball with his
hand and throwing Garcia out at first.
“It was (Alexander’s) ball and I got a good
break on it,” Pennington said. “He called for it
at the last second but I was already there. Then
it took a side hop on me so I had to bare hand
it, then I just threw him out.”
Pennington later sent a shot into the gap in
the sixth that cleared the bases and gave the
Aggies their first cushion of the game, 12-8.
“I hadn’t been hitting the ball real well as of
late,” Pennington said. “To come up with lots
of men in scoring position was a good chance
to give us a nice lead.”
Senior catcher Jordy Mitchell, who had
come in as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning put
an exclamation mark on the win for the Aggies
with a blast over the center field wall to send
A&M home with the win, 15-8.
The two teams combined for 26 hits, 23
runs and 11 pitchers used in the contest.
A&M next travels to Nonnan, Okla. on
Friday to face the Oklahoma Sooners.
JOHN C. LIVAS • THE BATTALION
A&M Head Coach Mark Johnson speaks with pitcher Brian Finch
before removing him. Finch allowed four runs in one-third of an inning.
No. 20 softball team heads to Waco for Big 12 series
By Pete Burks
THE BATTALION
ar in Iraq.
Other major airlines aK
ishing employees to ac:
age and benefit cuts ai
dustry racks up huge
id analysts said the mon
United and American
read. I he lesson learned. I^ith the start of Big 12 play comes
al analysts said, is that reN ie renewal of old rivalries as the No. 20
ring can be done outsidfexas A&M softball team (26-12, 4-2
nkruptcy court. lig 12) heads to Waco to face the Baylor
After the war in Iraq Meat s (24-16, 0-5 Big 12) at 6:30 p.m.
rriers laid of thousancxla\ Both teams are looking to regain
iployees. cut certain Tomentum after dramatic late inning
>m their schedules tsses on Sunday,
luced the frequency of ol In a matchup with the No. 4
talysts say that major plkjfehoma Sooners, Baylor could not
II need to make furtheraa«in its strong defensive effort, as it
pacity, a move that Eventually succumbed to Oklahoma on a
:ely help them raise liouple of late home runs by the Sooners.
ices. Meanwhile, the Aggies are trying to
regroup after Missouri halted their seven
game win streak, taking advantage of an
untimely A&M error in the bottom of the
10th inning to win 6-5.
Although the Bears have yet to
break into the win column in Big 12
play, the Aggie softball team knows
they can be dangerous. This series has
been tightly contested historically, as
evidenced by the series split fast year
between the two squads.
“This is probably the best series I’ve
been involved with since I’ve been
here,” said Baylor Head Coach Glen
Moore. “It has been an exciting series
that has not been really dominated by
either team. Many of the girls on each
team know each other well from playing
in summer leagues
together, and that
helps fuel the rivalry.”
Baylor came into
this season with high
hopes and expecta
tions as the Bears fell
just short of joining
the field of 48 that
competed in the
NCAA postseason last year. However, as
this season has gone on, injuries have
taken their toll. In addition, the Bears’
schedule has by no means been easy.
“We’re coming off of a tough season
so far, and we will have faced eight
ranked teams in a row to start off confer
ence play,” Moore said. “We just need to
COLLINS
concentrate and play the way we know
how instead of focusing on A&M.”
As for the Aggies, they will look to
avoid the pitfalls that hampered them
last weekend against Missouri. A&M
played like two different teams on
Saturday and Sunday. In the first
game, the Aggies came through with
timely hitting when they needed it for
a 4-2 win.
However, on Sunday, the Aggies were
not as fortunate. The Tiger pitching staff
halted the A&M offensive attack, allow
ing only two hits, one by senior shortstop
Crystal Martin and the other by senior
catcher Selena Collins.
“I thought we played well defensive
ly with some timely hitting in the first
game,” said A&M Head Coach Jo
Evans. “But, in the second game...we
were just flat, and we didn't play well.
We just need to regroup and get ready
for a Baylor squad that has always
played us competitively.”
Collins promised some offensive
improvement against the Bears.
“We are going to go out and work a
lot on our offense,” Collins said.
“Baylor always raises their intensity
level when they play us, so timely hit
ting is a necessity.”
After playing Baylor, A&M’s road to
the postseason does not get any easier.
A&M0 will host a two game series this
weekend against Oklahoma State before
heading to Austin to play the Longhorns.
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