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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2003)
NATIOS FHE BATTALIOl ocrac KRT CAMP1I! 3y in Dearborn, Midi ch on the rebuilding? left Friday. He is* 10 has been livingi: ind heads the Ira)! Democracy, a pol ;roup formed in I :s in 1998. Dhia«ii aqi adviser to reiirt: i. Jay Gamer, reconstruct® leclined the n al-Musawi, itagon Asked h Dhia. as I supposed i Iraq: 'Listentot America, I know 'Jo one would lis the others, becausi ve the kind of ch n 18 months beta esidential labashedly states the focus of med to meet wit ic Big Three while near Detroit louse said the se his push for al lillion over me issued a stalf ver Dean's remaiti rated Vietnam ft at America has till /veil-equipped ml ef that the strongest ut his capacity ’ Lehane said." esidency has evei ild compromise merica's Sports The Battalion Page IB • Tuesday, April Aggies hope to limit errors in OU rematch By Pete Burks THE BATTALION On Friday, the No. 19 Texas A&M soft- ball team will head to.Oklahoma City to play its first game of the Big 12 tournament. The Aggies will head to the Sooner State for the second weekend in a row, hoping to avoid a case of dpj^ vu as they again face the No. 5 Oklahoma Sooners. After getting swept by the Sooners this weekend, the Aggies will be coming in with redemption on their minds. In the first game that the Sooners (38-9, 12-6 Big 12) won, the Aggies were unable to overcome three fielding errors, falling to the Sooners 4-2 in Norman, Okla. Junior pitcher Jessica Slataper started the game for the Aggies (34-18, 10-8 Big 12), facing off against Sooner star pitcher, sophomore Kami Keiter, who is the probable starter on Friday. Through three and one-third innings, Slataper held the potent Sooner offense in check, allowing only one earned run and striking out three batters. The Sooners first drew blood in the bottom of the third as Kami Keiter helped her own cause, driving a Slataper pitch over the right field wall for a home run. In the fourth, the Sooners struck again, increasing their lead to 3-0 as they were able to take advantage of some untimely Aggie errors, as well as four hits of their own. Finally, in the top of the fifth, the Aggies scored as junior designated player Lindsay Wilhelmson crushed a Kami Keiter pitch over the center field wall for her 10th homer of the season. Freshman outfielder Rocky Spencer also helped bite into the Sooner lead, knocking in fellow freshman Ashley Await. However, those were all the runs the Aggies could man age. OU added one more run in the sixth off another A&M error to increase its lead to 4- 2. From there, OU squelched any sort of Aggie rally by stranding sophomore second baseman Adrian Gregory on first. Needless to say, the Aggies will need to rectify their errors if they want to come away with a first-round win over the Sooners, something that Aggie junior pitcher Lindsay Wilhelmson recognizes. “We hit really well, but defensively, we need to be there too,” Wilhelmson said. “We just need to come ready to play our game and not give in to them like we have the past two years up in Norman. We definitely need to come out there and get on top of them early.” After a close first game, the Aggies and Sooners battled it out in a game filled with offensive fireworks, yet the Aggies again fell to the Sooners 12-5. In the bottom of the second, OU got on top first as designated player Jennifer Stump hit a two-run homer off Aggie starter Lindsay Wilhelmson. The game went back and forth until the bottom of the sixth when the Sooners unleashed a nine-run rampage, easily overcoming the Aggies’ 5-3 lead, which was their first lead of the weekend. As the Aggies prepare for OU this week end, Aggie Head Coach Jo Evans certainly feels like her team could have pulled out at least one game against OU. “Really, we need to play better defense,” Evans said. “We hit great against their star pitcher (Kami Keiter), and we knocked her out of both games. If we played better defense, we would have won both games. As for this weekend, if we play error-free soft- ball, we feel like we can beat them.” The game against the Sooners will start at 11 a.m. on Friday, and the Big 12 tournament will run through this Sunday. ALISSA HOLLIMON • THE BATTALION A&M pitcher Lindsey Wilhelmson congratulates team members after a game against Baylor last week. The Aggies open the Big 12 Tournament Friday. Equestrian team vies for consecutive national championships By Jeff Allen THE BATTALION The Texas A&M equestrian team will beheading to Murfreesboro, Tenn., this weekend to compete at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association National Championships. At the event hosted by Middle Tennessee State University, the Aggie western-style rid ers look to defend the national champi- ip the team earned at the same event last year. “(The championship) has solidified r program,” said A&M equestrian ad Coach Tana Rawson. “It is show- tjiat there are good things coming of the addition of the sport to the Athletic Department.” Last season, the Aggies claimed the national championship at the varsity and IHSA levels. This year, however, the Aggie western squad dropped to fourth place at the Varsity Championships last week at Freeman Arena near the A&M campus. One of the major differences on this year’s team is the absence of six time national champion Quincy Cahill. Cahill has led the Aggies for the past three years, including driving the Aggies in their come-from-behind win at the IHSA event last year. Cahill graduated in December, leaving much of her lead ership role on the squad to sophomore Katie Forest. “Katie has stepped up and proven her self this spring;” RaWSbn said. - Led by Forest, the Aggies put forth a strong effort this year, which granted the Aggies’ western team a berth in the national championships. To qualify as a team, the Aggies were forced to win their region, which they did with the help of a technicality that downed apparent win ner Oklahoma State. The win at region al is the reason the Aggie western riders will be competing as a team at nationals. They will be taking on the best of all levels of collegiate equestrian, including club teams and NCAA Divisions 1, 2 and 3 schools, adding up to around 300 teams nationally. In individual competition, the road to nationals is a bit tougher. For an individ ual rider to qualify for the Nationals meet, she is forced to follow a long and winding road, which first includes scor ing the 35 points required to compete at the Regional Championships. Once a rider has accomplished that, she is then required to place in the top three at regionals, before moving on to the zone championships, where she competes in six different classes. The top two riders in each class qualify for the National Championships. The Aggies are sending an impressive array of seven talented rid ers who have accomplished the feat. The Aggies are led in the English discipline by junior Meredith Houx. Houx led all riders in the class in points scored this year and was automatically qualified for the USA Equestrian- Cacchione Cup, but she also qualified in two other events, making her the first Aggie rider since Germaine Dougherty in the inaugural season of Aggie varsi ty equestrian in 2000 to qualify to compete in the maximum number of events. Juniors Andrea Hanson, Lesley Daily and sophomore Melissa Loontjer round out the English riders. On the western side, the team is composed of Forest, senior Ashley Shiffler, sopho mores Jessica Tate and Claire Adian and junior Jessica Jones. “It is kind of intimidating (to be trying to repeat as champion),” Jones said. “But it is such a privilege because so many riders don't get to go to Nationals. It’s exciting to compete on that level.” The Aggies will head to Tennessee on Friday, and the competition will last through Sunday. •ial lawyers orations il aid available osiness and A TTENTION GRADUATING SENIORS YOU’VE GOT THE EDUCATION EDGE WITH jAk M MOTORS HI wake up and drive' MITSUBISHI BIGGER BETTER ZERO EVENT Mm ZERO DOWN PAYMENT ZERO INTEREST PAYMENTS AND ZERO CAR PAYMENTS TIL 2004. PLUS GET $1500 CASH BACK’ - Guaranteed ^ Approval* s 1500 CASH BACK VALID FOR 2003 MITSUBISHI GALANT WITH EDUCATION EDGE. SEE DEALER FOR DETAILS. 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