Sports
The Battalion
Page 6 * Monday, February 16,
A&M baseball starts off 3-0
Texas A&M senior outfielder Cory Patton runs to third base past a diving A&M-Corpus Christ! third
baseman Robert Sedillo in Saturday's season opening 15-0 Aggie win.
By Kyle Davoust
THE BATTALION
A primary lesson from childhood: When
your little brother steps up to challenge you,
knock him back down. This weekend, the
Texas A&M baseball team applied this les
son by sweeping, Texas A&M-Corpus
Christi in a three-game series by a combined
run total of 29-8.
Due to rain, the series was moved back a
day, with one game on Saturday and a dou
bleheader on Sunday.
The Aggies flexed their muscles in the
Saturday game as junior left-hander Zach
Jackson threw a no-hitter in a 15-0 romp of
the Islanders. Jackson’s no-no was the 10th
in A&M’s history and the first solo effort
since Matt Blank shut down Texas-Pan
American in the Aggies’ 1996 home opener.
Besides calling a great game for his
pitcher, catcher Craig Stenson also helped
carry the offense by going three-for-four
and knocking in six runs.
The second game of the series proved to
be more difficult for the Aggies, as they
needed 10 innings to escape with a 4-3 win.
For nine innings, Corpus Christi pitchers
junior Mike Hatfield and senior Jorge
Huerta slowed the Aggie bats, allowing just
five hits before the 10th.
“(Hatfield) pitched well and did well early
in the count,” said A&M head coach Mark
Johnson. “And we never really did a good job
of staying ahead of the count because he threw
that breaking pitch in there on 0-0 and 1 -0. He
did a good job and their reliever did well too.”
In the bottom of the 10th, however, soph
omore first baseman Coby Mavroulis, who
had already homered and driven in two runs,
nailed the ball to the right field fence, scor
ing sophomore shortstop Cliff Pennington
from third to win the game. Pennington had
led off the inning with a single and
advanced to second on Senior outfielder
Cory Patton’s single. Both runners then
advanced on a wild pitch, setting up
Mavroulis’ game-winning hit.
“He threw me a down-and-in fastball, the
same pitch that I hit a home run on earlier in
the game, and I was just lucky enough to get
enough of the bat on it ,to get it over (the
right fielder’s) head,” Mavroulis said. “I just
wanted to hit the ball as hard as 1 could and
get it out into play somewhere.”
Mavroulis, who redshirted last year due to
a back injury, finished the game three-for-
four with a home run and three runs batted in.
“He’s a batter, and it’s fun to watch him
play,” Johnson said. “He sat out last year and
that wasn’t fun, so he’s got a lot of spark to
him right now and he’s really getting after it.”
In the final game of the series, the rest of
the Aggies’ offense quickly awoke from its
one-game slumber to better their previous
run total before the Islanders could record
the first out. The five-run first inning could
have been a lot worse for the Islanders if it
wasn’t for an inning-ending triple play
resulting from a great catch by center field
er Charles Carter.
Corpus Christi then fought back, making
the score as close as 6-5 in top of the sixth
when left fielder Mark Schlekewy hit a RBI
double off the right field fence. But that’s as
close as the Islanders got, losing eventually
by a score of 10-5. The Aggies distanced
themselves for good by scoring two runs in
the bottom of that same inning.
The Aggies will again be in action this
Tuesday in Huntsville against Sam Houston
State at 7 p.m..
Men drop tenth »
straight, 78-72 £
By Jordan Meserole
THE BATTALION
It wasn’t such a happy
Valentine’s Day for the Texas
A&M men’s basketball team on
Saturday. The University of
Oklahoma (16-5, 6-4 Big 12)
gave the Aggies a 78-72 loss in
place of the traditional flowers
or candy hearts.
The Aggies (7-14, 0-10),
who have now lost 10 straight
games, had what could be con
sidered their best outing in con
ference play this season on the
floor. The team shot above their
season averages in all three
offensive categories and
grabbed 25 rebounds. But a
strong showing by the Sooners
late in the second half kept the
Aggies from capturing that pre
cious first conference win.
Oklahoma head coach
Kelvin Sampson said the game
was close, but the deciding fac
tor was the Sooners’ focus in the
last minutes of the game.
“Our guys just hung in
there,” Sampson said. “Of all
our wins this season, I was most
proud of this one.”
The Sooners dictated much
of the pace in the first half,
shooting 50 percent from the
field and hitting seven three-
pointers. Oklahoma also capital
ized on Aggie mistakes, scoring
15 points off 11 turnovers.
The Aggies started the sec
ond half in dismal fashion, going
one-for-six in the first five min
utes. The game turned around
when A&M sophomore forward
Antoine Wright made an enor
mous block on a shot by Sooner
freshman guard Lawrence
’
: r '
McKenzie. Wright finished fc
night five-for-six from the field
The Aggies took their
lead of the game after a layupi
heavy defensive traffic by seniu
forward Jesse King. A&M‘
lasted until the final two mints
of the game, when Sooner frei
man guard Drew Lavendei
drowned A&M’s hopes forawi
with a long three-pointer.
Lavender, the smallest playti
on the court at five foot sevei
inches, had the biggest nightlij
far. Lavender finished will
career-high 31 points, 18
those coming from behind
three-point line. Lavender s
the strong work ethic demanded
by Sampson in practices carried ?
over to the games.
“I just wanted to go out to
and play hard for coaci,'
Lavender said. “My shots were
just falling tonight and that's!’
A&M head coach Melvii
Watkins said the closing ni
utes of all the games this season
seem to be the toughest for tke
team. Watkins said mental
takes and errors on A&M’s
have caused them to lose games
in a similar fashion to
Oklahoma game.
“You give any team any
of opportunity and they’re gi
to take it,” Watkins said.
Watkins said he is still pleased
to see the team’s good
despite the 10-game losing stneai
and that he knows the teami
playing to the best of its ability.
“They’re not quitting evt
though they have every reason
to quit,” Watkins said. “It’s
those closing moments that art
keeping us from getting overlie
hump and getting a win.”
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Blair’s troops drop tight game
to No. 6 Texas Tech, 59-58
JP Beat© III • lilt BATTALION
Texas Tech center Cisti Greenwalt draws a foul from A&M senior guard
Toccara Williams with 15 seconds left in the game.
By Brad Bennett
THE BATTALION
Head coach Gary Blair
needs two recruits next year to
keep what happened on
Saturday to his Texas A&M
women's basketball team from
happening again: a six-footer
to rebound and a witch doctor
to remove the curse that causes
his team to play so well but
always come up short.
The Aggies (8-15, 1-11 Big
12) were ahead of No. 7 Texas
Tech, 58-57 with 14.4 seconds
to go at Reed Arena. Aggie
senior point guard Toccara
Williams, was shooting one-
and-one off a second half foul.
Williams missed the first
shot, and Tech sophomore
guard Erin Grant came down
with the rebound. Grant found
Tech forward LaToya Davis on
the other end of the court for a
layup with 2.9 seconds remain
ing to give Tech (21 -4, 7-4) the
59-58 victory.
“I was just in the right place
at the right time,” Davis said.
The Aggies went on a 12-
point run with 2:25 left in the
second half, eventually taking a
three-point lead with 19 sec
onds left.
A questionable foul on
Williams led to Tech center
Cisti Greenwalt’s two free
throws that cut the lead to one.
“I would love to see that
film,” Blair said. “We were not
trying to foul Greenwalt. I’m
not sure if there was a foul. We
were just trying to play good
defense.”
It was Williams’ fourth foul,
but Blair said he didn’t tell her to
back off at all. Williams collect
ed seven steals in the game run
ning her Big 12 record to 432.
“You don’t tell the nation’s
leader in steals to back off,”
Blair said. “We don’t back off,
we attack.”
The Aggies had only 24
rebounds, compared to Tech’s 42.
“They were pounding us on
the inside,” said Aggie senior
forward Lynn Classen. “They
did an awesome job with their
post players inside.”
Despite Tech’s rebounding,
the Aggies still took 18 more
shots than Tech.
“We forced 24 turnovers to
our seven, we had 15 steals to
their one and we do not get any
easy baskets - we’re not
rewarded at the end,” Blair
said. “We are not converting
and that’s just something we’ve
got to work on.”
Tech head coach Marsha
Sharp said her team took
advantage of the Aggie pres
sure defense.
“Sometimes when people
play pressure defense the shots
are going to be easier shots to
make,” Sharp said. “We got
some people some looks
around the rim because of it.”
Blair said he was pleased
with the pressure his team put
on Tech.
“I thought our kids did
everything they possibly could
to win that ball game,” Blair
said. “We had a great defensive
game plan even though they
shot whatever they shot and got
out-rebounded by 18, we still
played our style of ball.
“I am tired of people pat
ting me on the back. I am tired
of the little applause for nice
effort. I am not in this game for
the effort I am in this game for
wins and eventually they will
come our way.”
A&M men’s tennis dominates
Lamar in first home match
By Jordan Meserole
THE BATTALION
Although the No. 9 Texas
A&M men’s tennis team had to
wait an extra day to take on
unranked Lamar University, it
didn’t wait long to hand the
Cardinals a 7-0 loss.
The Aggies (7-3) were origi
nally scheduled to play Lamar (0-
4) Saturday afternoon, but chilly
and wet weather forced the match
to be moved to Sunday. The wait
rewarded the teams with sunny
skies and mild temperatures.
“The weather was awesome,”
said Texas A&M head coach
Tim Cass. “You couldn’t have
asked for a better day.”
With the national No. 1 A&M
doubles team sitting out and get
ting rest, doubles matches would
prove to be the toughest spot for
the Aggies all day. Lamar would
get its only win of the day in dou
bles, as Cardinal juniors Juan
Alatorre and Emilio Kirby
scratched out a narrow 9-8 (7-4)
CASS
tie break win
against the
A&M combo
of junior Zack
Malmgren and
sophomore
John Nallon.
The other two
A&M doubles
teams would
come through, squeaking by with
wins over the Cardinals, 8-6 and
8-3 respectively.
Lamar head coach David
Wong said he was surprised but
pleased by the performance of
his doubles teams.
“I think this is the best I’ve
seen these teams play this year,”
Wong said. “They played hard
and they played intense.”
Cass said doubles matches
have seemed to be the soft spot
for the Aggies this year, and
today was no different.
“It’s been a bit frustrating
why we haven’t been getting
better in doubles as the year
goes on,” Cass said. “We just
haven’t figured out
combinations yet.’
the
The Aggies didn’t hesitate M
show their true power on the sin
gles side, dropping only
games out of the 72 played. Hii
most intense match of the
was between A&M sophomoit
Matt Loucks and Lamar jui
Ignacio Melus. The match woiii
also be the longest on the
lasting just more than 40 minutes
Loucks, playing in his fits
match this spring, cruised to
6-0, 6-1 win despite the stroi
competition.
Loucks said the competiti
during the match helped
play on a higher level, whichli
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the Aggies.
“Our intensity in singles ii
really hard to match,” Louth
said. “We yell for each otherii
that adds that much more.”
Lamar junior Jonatte
Capps, who is from Colles
See Aggies on
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Women handle Rice with ease
y in blu
21 Commando
By Jon Gilbert
THE BATTALION
Texas A&M women’s tennis
head coach Bobby Kleinecke
and his players talked all week
about the advantages that play
ing outdoors again would give
the team. Sunday, the team
learned that it takes longer than
expected to get reacclimated.
Nonetheless, the No. 19
Aggies blanked the Rice Owls
(4-4) 7-0 in a hotly-contested
match at the George R Mitchell
Center. The score was deceiv
ing, though, as Rice led A&M
(3-4) in three of the six singles’
matches before eventually fold
ing to the Aggies.
“(The outdoors) did have a
factor,” Kleinecke said. “It’s
tough to go from indoors to out
doors. The ball bounces a lot
slower when you’re outdoors.”
Senior Roberta Spencer and
junior Lauren Walker helped
get the Aggies going with a
convincing 8-3 doubles win
over the Rice tandem of sopho
more Blair DiSesa and junior
Erika Villalobos.
“We came out strong and its
good to know we’re going to
take care of business,” Walker
said. “It helped our No. 3 dou
bles come back.”
Two courts away, A&M jun
ior Helga Vieira and freshman
Anna Lubinsky rallied past Rice
seniors Yasmin Fisher and
Annie Goodrich to clinch the
doubles point for the Aggies.
Despite winning the doubles
point, Kleinecke said he is not
totally pleased with his team’s
performance in doubles.
“I’m concerned with doubles.
I’m pleased with our effort, our
character, our fight and all ofll*
intangibles. But we have soiK
improvement to do in doubles.!
didn’t walk away totally satis'
fied with doubles.”
In singles action, the Aggie 1
won all six matches. It #
easy though as three of tfc
matches went into an extH
game, and Lubinsky’s victoi)
against Goodrich involved*
second set tiebreaker.
With A&M leading the overt!
match, 3-0, the remaining fart
hovered over the last four singlrt
matches and cheered on tk*
Aggies. This, along with menial
toughness, may have been tk*
deciding factor in the outcome.
“I think (mental toughne®
was a factor),” Walker said. "1
know I can do it and my ^
was behind me.”
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