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Sports
The Battalion Page 3 • Wednesday, June 4, 2003
Three A&M hurlers lead Aggies in ’03 draft
Top: Brian Finch
pitches earlier this
season.
Left: Scott Beerer
glares at a hitter from
Houston in the final
home game of the
season Sunday.
Bottom: Logan
Kensing delivers a
pitch to the plate
against Houston in
game two Sunday,
which A&M lost 7-6.
FILE PHOTOS • THE BATTALION
Team picks MVP & other awards
By Dallas Shipp
THE BATTALION
Less than 48 hours after their season ended, sev
eral members of this year’s Texas A&M baseball
team awaited a call from one of 30 major league
baseball teams announcing their draft positions.
Junior right-hander Brian Finch was the first
Aggie drafted this year. Finch was picked by the
Baltimore Orioles with the 44th overall pick in the
second round, after posting a 6-1 record this year for
the Aggies with a 5.40 ERA.
Finch, who was the second overall pick for
Baltimore, gave up 54 runs on 89 hits in 65 innings
pitched with 57 strikeouts for A&M this season.
A&M junior reliever Scott Beerer, who was
named first team All-American before the College
Station Regional, was the second Aggie taken in this
year’s draft.
The Colorado Rockies, a team that is in constant
need of solid pitching in the thin air of Coors Field,
picked up Beerer with their second pick. He was the
47th overall pick and was chosen just three picks
after Finch.
Beerer led the team with a school record 13 saves
this season and posted a 1.82 ERA with 58 strikeouts
in 49 1/3 innings pitched.
At the plate, Beerer finished the season with a
.335 batting average, 17 doubles, 11 home runs and
57 RBIs.
Beerer was voted as the Marion Pugh Most
Valuable Player by his teammates on Monday fol
lowing the season ending loss to The University of
Houston Sunday night.
Sophomore pitcher Logan Kensing was taken six
picks later with the 53rd overall pick by the Florida
Marlins becoming the Aggies’ third pick in the sec
ond round.
Most sophomores are not eligible for the draft but
because of Kensing’s early birthday, he will turn 21
in time to become eligible for this year’s draft.
Kensing led all Aggie starting pitchers with a 3.83
ERA and posted 58 strikeouts in 89 1/3 innings
pitched on his way to a 7-5 record.
The Aggies would wait four more rounds before
junior outfielder Cory Patton would be drafted by the
San Diego Padres with the 161st overall pick in the
sixth round.
Patton led the team with 13 home runs and 58
RBIs to earn the Loraine B. Breazeale and William
“Breezy” Breazeale RBI Leader Award. Patton was
fourth on the team with a .331 batting average.
Junior right-hander Matt Famum was picked up
in the seventh round by the Texas Rangers.
Famum finished 7-2 this season with an 4.20
ERA with 54 strikeouts in just more than 70 innings
of work.
Junior southpaw Kyle Parcus was the final Aggie
taken on day one in the two-day, 50 round draft.
Parcus was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in
the 12th round. He finished the season 6-3 with a
team-high 69 strikeouts and a 4.29 ERA.
Parcus was also awarded the C.E. “Pat” Olsen
Most Outstanding Pitcher Award this year by his
teammates.
All six of the Aggies taken on day one of this
year’s draft can return to play for A&M next season
as long as they do not sign with an agent or violate
any other NCAA rules.
The final 30 rounds of the draft will take place on
Wednesday and can be found at www.mlb.com.
Senior designated hitter Jordy Mitchell and fresh
man outfielder John Infante also received team
awards on Monday but were not involved in
Tuesday’s draft.
Mitchell, who played in 51 games this season for
the Aggies, was voted as this year’s Marion Pugh
Spirit Award winner for the second straight year.
Infante received the Wally Moon Award as the
most improved player on the team. Infante played in
44 games this season and hit all three of his home
runs in the final eight games of the season.
Logan Kensing
RHP
Second Round
53rd overall
Cory Patton
OF
^ Sixth Round
hJn 161st overall
RUBEN DELUNA • THE BATTALION
Johnson not at fault for team’s meltdown
B aseball fans enjoy going home after a
tough loss to complain about each
coaching decision that might have
changed the outcome of a game. It’s almost as
much fun as going to the game itself.
No one ever
goes home think
ing, “wow, the
coach made a
great decision to
bunt that ended up DALLAS SHIPP
scoring two runs.”
But they will voice their opinions loud and
clear when a player doesn’t execute a bunt and
no runs cross the plate. All of a sudden the
coach should have let the hitter swing away.
In recent days, fans have hit the Internet and
radio shows complaining about coaching deci
sions made by Texas A&M head coach Mark
Johnson Sunday night when the No. 10 Aggies
experienced a meltdown in game two against
The University of Houston in the College
Station NCAA Regional.
Johnson said that he has second-guessed
many of his decisions, as he does after every
game.
“From a coach’s standpoint, you look back
at a lot of decisions you make and there is a lot
of second-guessing, which coaches do more
than fans,” Johnson said. “Fans think they are
the only ones. But (coaches) have to make
decisions without knowing the outcomes, and
all the decisions I made were percentage ones
and gut feelings. I can live with all the deci
sions I made.”
Baseball is the hardest sport to predict the
outcome because on any given day a Cy Young
Award-winning pitcher can give up 10 runs or
walk four batters in a row and it will cost his
team the game. In football, if one linebacker
has a bad day, there are other players who can
pick up the slack.
If one basketball player can’t hit water from
a boat, there are four other guys who can take
the shot.
On Sunday, Aggie All-American closer Scott
Beerer simply ran out of gas. He has been as
solid as any closer in the country, which was
• Inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall
of Fame in December 2002
• Inducted into the American Baseball
Coaches Association Hall of Fame
on Jan. 4, 2001
• 12 NCAA regional appearances
• NCAA regional host five times
(1989, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2003)
• Team ranked No. 1 in 1989, 1993
season and 1999
• SWC Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1993
• Big 12 Coach of the Year in 1998 and
1999
Ruben DeLuna • THE BATTALION
solidified by his second round draft pick on
Monday by the Colorado Rockies.
While it was painful for Aggie baseball fans
to watch Sunday night as the Cougars celebrat
ed on Olsen Field, Johnson is not to blame.
It was not Johnson who committed five
i ) ',c r i‘,
errors in Sunday’s first game that forced a
game two.
It was not Johnson who gave up five runs in
the final three innings of the second game.
There is an old saying in sports, “Players
win games, coaches lose them.”
No one gave Johnson any public credit for
Beerer’s school record 13 saves this year, so
why should he be blamed when Beerer and
other pitchers have a bad night?
Aggie baseball fans could not have asked for
more than a four-run lead in the eighth inning
with their All-American closer on the mound at
Olsen Field in a winner-take-all game.
Nine times out of 10 this season, Beerer
came in and shut down A&M opponents late in
the ballgame.
Johnson has built a first-class baseball pro
gram at A&M during the past 18 years, and no
one will work harder to get back to the College »
World Series next year than him.
There are many knowledgeable baseball
fans, but the only person in attendance this
weekend who has won more than 800 Division
I college baseball games is Johnson.
This team was predicted to finish no higher
than seventh in the 10-team Big 12 Conference
this year and was a single base hit away from
being co-champions.
Johnson was deservedly awarded Big 12
Coach of the Year by the Dallas Morning News
for his quick turnaround this year.
College baseball is the most difficult sport
to recruit because so many high school players
go pro. Coaches cannot recruit the top notch
players out of high school because there is a
distinct possibility they will skip college ball.
Some claim that Johnson shouldn’t get cred
it for recruiting because he filled the team with
junior college transfers this year. Who cares?
When former A&M football head coach R.C.
Slocum didn’t recruit junior college players on
a consistent basis he was criticized. Fans can’t
have it both ways.
Aggie baseball will return next year, and
Johnson will too. Many faces on the team will
change but one thing will remain constant with
all the players new and old: they want to play
for Mark Johnson.
SPORTS IN BRIEF
Spurs and Nets to kickoff NBA
Finals tonight in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - The New Jersey Nets
plan to run, and the San Antonio Spurs plan to
stop them from running.
The NBA Finals begin Wednesday night, and if
the best-of-seven series can be broken down
into one central theme, that's it.
If the Nets are successful with their fast break,
as they were in the first three rounds, they'll have
a much better chance of erasing everyone's col
lective memory of their dreadful performance in
the finals a year ago, when they were swept by
the Lakers.
If the Spurs can stop them, San Antonio will
dramatically increase its chances of taking home
the franchise's second championship.
The Nets outscored the Pistons 94-15 in fast-
break points during the Eastern Conference finals
after outscoring the Boston Celtics 78-22 in the
same category during the conference semifinals.
New Jersey swept both series.
"If we can limit their transition baskets, we'll
have a great opportunity. If not, it'll be a long
night for us," Bowen said.
The Spurs held the Mavericks to no more than
eight fast-break baskets in five of their six games
during the Western Conference finals, and they
were only outscored in that category 91-64 over
the course of that series.
In order to keep the Nets from running, the
Spurs will need to sprint back on defense while
staying aware of where the ball is.
The Nets will look to run whenever they can —
off steals, off missed shots, even off made shots.
But the key will be turnovers.
"Our weakness is obviously at the free-throw
line and committing turnovers," Spurs coach
Gregg Popovich said. "Hanging onto the basket
ball is really a priority for us."
Only five NBA teams had more turnovers dur
ing the regular season than San Antonio, and
New Jersey led the NBA with an average of 18.7
fast-break points per game - 2.6 more than the
second-place Memphis Grizzlies.
Also, the Spurs were ranked 26th in free-throw
shooting at 72.5 percent.
Both teams will be well-rested when the series
finally begins. New Jersey will have been off for
10 days when Game 1 tips off shortly after 8:30
p.m. EOT, while San Antonio hasn't played since
last Thursday.
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