The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 29, 2003, Image 11

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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.
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