? eli fALI lotsp to ! !, but aciu Sports The Battalion Page 5 • Monday, February 23, 2004 SPORTS IN BRIEF swin Women win sec- ' d '! ond conference basil rile. riend; y day Veiali the s« : en lives d raoji ingsl specif t then eolleye ter, tin years. game in Kansas The Texas A&M women’s asketball team racked up second Big 12 win kin 8i Saturday by defeating the University of Kansas, 69-63, Lawrence, Kan. Kansas (9-15, 2-11 Big 12) was leading 32-30 at the but the Aggies pulled ahead for good with five minutes left to play. senior guard Toccara Williams again led Aggies with 21 points and seven assists. Sophomore forward Tamea Scales also had a game with 11 points and eight rebounds, sec- becaJond in rebounds only to ng itfi senior forward Janae Derrick, who had nine. Junior guard Mindy Garrison went two-for-four in tiree-point field goals. She It both three-pointers with tessthan five minutes to play. Kansas was led by sopho more forward Tamara wsburg who had 15 points and 10 rebounds and sophomore forward Crystal who had 13 points and 10 rebounds. The Aggies'next game will wo bite against No. 24 Baylor on beth l|Saturday at 7 p.m. in Waco. ntrol 1 ow ha; ss, (am id hatf cestfe ultsta' arour: seeri o lea* tele; ant* peav. >w oftf' nt clas ps and y in an Emmett breaks Big 12 mark as Aggies lose The Texas A&M men’s basketball team dropped its 12th straight game Saturday, 76-60, to No. 22 feasTech. Red Raider senior forward te Emmett became the Bp !2’s all-time leading scoiem the game — eclips- ng former Kansas forward NkkCollison — after scoring 18points to lead Texas Tech. Former Aggie guard Bernard King is third on the I l ays fie i chi island's said, ran si vhether ; used faiwar pchi • a die said, alter* Alter going on an 11-3 run early in the first half to take an 18-8 lead, the Red Raiders never allowed A&M back within double digits. “Not one of our better eforts, particularly in the irst half,†said A&M head coach Melvin Watkins. “We dug ourselves a deep hole, and we knew we were going to have a hard time getting out of. We cut it to 10, and we had a couple of looks from there, but we couldn’t knock the shots down.†Led by sophomore guard/forward Antoine Wright’s 17 points, the Aggies pulled as close as 60-50 in the second half. Senior guard Kevin Turner also contributed 13 points to tlie Aggie cause. The Aggies will next play Baylor at 7 p.m. Wednesday a! Reed Arena. Aggies split in North Carolina n The No. 19 Texas A&M women's tennis team split its two matches in North Carolina this weekend. A&M fell to No. 9 North Carolina on Saturday at the Cone-Kenfield Indoor Tennis Center. The Aggies narrowly lost the doubles point, as they fell in two of the three doubles’ matches, 97. The Tar Heels then defeated the Aggies in sin gles to clinch the win. The Aggies bounced back Sunday with a 4-0 drubbing olWake Forest. After winning Ihedoubles point, A&M dom- fiated the singles’ matches. The team’s fourth-, fifth- and sixth-seeded players, junior Lauren Walker, sophomore Nicki Mechemand and fresh man Anna Lubinsky showed the team’s superior depth by easily winning their respec tive matches. The Aggies return home to lace University of Texas-San Antonio this Friday at 12 p.m. Aggies stay perfect with series sweep Late-inning heroics keeps Aggie baseball out of loss column Texas A&M sophomore catcher Kevin Whelan waits to make the tag on South Alabama freshman right fielder/first baseman Adam Lind in the seventh inning of A&M's 4-3 win Sunday. Whelan hit two-for-three with a double and scored three runs in the game. By Troy Miller THE BATTALION Texas A&M baseball needed the full nine innings Sunday to take care of South Alabama, 4-3, to complete the weekend sweep. After drubbing the Jaguars (0-3) 13-3 and 8-0 in the first two games of the series, A&M (7-0) had to rely on its strong batting to continue its unblem ished start to the 2004 season after falling behind early. “No one’s going to hold our offense down for nine innings,†said A&M redshirt freshman pitcher Jason Meyer. “We’re pretty confident - our pitchers definitely enjoy our offense.†Meyer pitched the last two and two-thirds for the No. 21 Aggies, earning his third win of the short season as he held South Alabama scoreless. With Meyer keeping the Jaguars close, it was just a matter of time until the Aggies struck. And in the bottom of the ninth, they did. With the score tied at three, A&M sophomore catcher Kevin Whelan belted a double to left field off South Alabama junior pitcher Justin Rayborn (0-1). Two batters later, with Whelan on third after being moved over by A&M freshman third base- man Austin Boggs’ sacrifice bunt, sophomore shortstop Cliff Pennington belted a hard ground ball that South Alabama junior third baseman Justin Hawarah couldn’t handle. The hit scored Whelan and gave A&M the victory. “We got the breaks late in the game,†Pennington said. “If you keep hitting the ball hard, it’ll find a hole sooner or later.†The Aggies found them selves down 2-0 in the third inning despite South Alabama only having one hit off A&M sophomore starting pitcher Robert Ray. The Jaguars scored an unearned run in the second after two errors by Pennington and Whelan. South Alabama senior center fielder Kevin Williams led off the third inning by getting hit by a pitch from Ray. Williams would later score on sophomore outfielder Ben Froemming’s slow grounder to give the Jaguars the two-run lead. “It is healthy for our ball club to have tight games,†said A&M head coach Mark Johnson. “I thought it was good for us.†The Aggies cut the lead in half when Whelan scored on a throwing error by Hawarah in the fifth. Down 3-1 two innings later, A&M senior second base- man Erik Schindewolf doubled home Whelan and then scored two batters later on senior right fielder Cory Patton's sacrifice fly to center field to tie the game at three. Once Meyer put down the only three South Alabama batters in the top of the ninth, he said he knew there would be no extra innings after Whelan’s lead-off double. “1 knew we'd win†Meyer said. “I was still stretching out and getting ready for the next inning, but I knew we were probably going to win.†In its two close games this sea son, a 4-3 extra inning win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi being the other, A&M’s offense has come through late in the game. For a baseball team that’s gearing up for a Big 12 champi onship and College World Series run, the ability to come out on top in a dogfight is essential. “When you’re down by a couple with a couple innings to go, you've got to have the confi dence you can come back and score a couple of late ones,†Pennington said. “We did that well last year, and ip’s good to start one out early this year.†r Aggie softball finishes tournament with win By Ryan Irby THE BATTALION Texas A&M-Corpus Christi evidently has not gotten the message yet: They can’t win in College Station. The No. 15 Texas A&M softball team sent the Islanders back to Corpus Christi Sunday afternoon with a 4-0 loss to wrap up the St. Joseph’s Aggie Invitational I at the Aggie Softball Complex. The No. 21 Aggie baseball team swept the Islanders one week ago at Olsen Field. With the loss, the Islanders (7-10) dropped to 1-4 in the Aggie Invitational, while the Aggies (8-7) improved to 3-2 in the tournament. Both Aggie losses came against Illinois. Aggie senior pitcher Jessica Kapchinski and freshman pitch er Christina Smith baffled Islander hitters as they com bined to pitch a four-hit shutout on eight strikeouts and three walks. Kapchinski lasted four innings to pick up the win. “I thought our pitchers did a really nice job of using the change-up and mixing up pitches,†said A&M head coach Jo Evans. The Aggie scoring began in the bottom of the first when freshman center fielder Sharonda McDonald led off by beating out a dribbler for an infield single and advancing on a base-hit to right field off the bat of sophomore right fielder Rocky Spencer. Evans put the double-steal on, and after both runners advanced safely, junior shortstop Adrian Gregory scored McDonald on a groundout. In the third, Spencer ignited the Aggies with a double to left and was brought home by Gregory on a sharp single to center. A&M added its final two runs in the fourth when sopho more first baseman Kristin Gunter singled to lead off the inning. Islander junior pitcher Sarah Pauly walked the next two Aggie hitters to load the bases and then hit A&M junior catcher Nicole Robinson with her next delivery to plate Gunter and give the Aggies a 3-0 lead. A&M added another run in the inning on an Islander error. A&M-Corpus Christi finished with two errors on a day when nothing seemed to go its way. “Today we did a really nice job on defense, and we made plays when we needed to make plays,†Evans said. “You hang your hat on defense. Defense is going to win championships.†The Aggies’ defense has shown room for improvement over the past week with losses coming to Houston and Illinois, mainly as a result of defensive miscues. “I think we just need to keep elevating our play,†Evans said. “It’s tough on a pitcher when we give them way too many outs in an inning by not taking care of the ball.†The Aggies will next play Friday at 2:30 p.m. against the University of Southern Mississippi in their first games of the St. Joseph Aggie Invitational II. )P Beato III • THE BATTALION Texas A&M freshman outfielder Lisa Gorzycki slides past Texas A&M-Corpus Christi senior third baseman Katie Evans as she steals third base in the fourth inning of A&M's 4-0 win over A&M-Corpus Christi. The Aggies finished the St. Joseph Aggie Invitational I with a 3-2 record.