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The Battalion
Page 2 • Friday, March 12,2C
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Baseball team taking on Santa Clara at homt
By Jordan Meserole
THE BATTALION
Spring break will be nonexistent for the No. 12
Texas A&M baseball team this weekend when it
faces unranked Santa Clara University.
The Aggies (15-2) will look to continue their
strong start and add a few more wins before con
ference play begins, but will have to do so
against the Broncos (11-8) who have recently
been winning.
A&M will bring some momentum into the
series after coming off an impressive come-from-
behind win against University of Houston
Tuesday night. The Aggies trailed the Cougars 7-
4 entering the eighth inning, but produced enough
runs to capture the lead. Houston put some run
ners on base in the ninth, endangering the A&M
lead, but strong A&M pitching closed any hope
the Cougars had of winning the game.
“We’re finding ways to win, and that’s all
that counts,” said A&M sophomore infielder
Cliff Pennington. “When you’re winning,
you’re winning.”
Santa Clara is looking to climb back into the
win column after a disappointing 8-6 loss
Wednesday to Sacramento State University. After
a slow start to their season, the Broncos slowly
started finding ways to win games, winning six of
their last nine. Santa Clara’s offense has led the
team to the wins, collecting 102 total hits and 57
runs in the nine-game span.
Offensively, the two teams are similar. Both
teams have four starting players with batting
averages above .325, three players with 25 hits
or more, three players with more than 15 runs
batted in or more and three players with slug
ging percentages of .500 or better. Santa Clara
has 34 total doubles, and A&M is not far behind
with 32. Santa Clara has an impressive .442
team hitting percentage barely outdone by
A&M’s .447 percentage.
“I’ve never played an offensively weak team
from California in my time,” said A&M head
coach Mark Johnson. “Our pitchers and defense
will definitely be challenged this weekend.”
A&M senior outfielder Cory Patton said he
Sharon Aischbacm *THE BAT®
Texas A&M freshman third baseman Austin Boggs tags Arkansas junior first baseman Clay Goodwin Friday Feb. 27 at Olsen Field. The Aggies won the game.
isn’t intimidated by Santa Clara’s strong offense.
“I think we’re a better hitting ballclub than
them,” Patton said. “If it comes down to a
slugfest, we'll just find a way to put more runs
up than they do.”
Pitching is the category that separates the two
teams. A&M has a team ERA of 3.50 and has
allowed only 66 runs; Santa Clara’s team ERA is
at 5.77 and has allowed 122 runs. Every A&M
starting pitcher has a winning record, with the
largest ERA only 4.74. The Broncos have only
one starting pitcher with a winning record and the
lowest ERA is 4.36.
A&M junior lefty pitcher Zach Jackson, who
will start Saturday’s game, said he doesn’t com
pare statistics much, if at all.
“It doesn't matter what the stats read,"Jadj«
said. “'If we play our game right and stick totk
plan, we usually can’t go wrong.”
As far as spring break goes, Johnson said It
welcomes the week.
“Sometimes it's a better week.” Johnsonsat:
“Some girlfriends are gone and classes are
the guys have better concentration on
NEWS IN BRIEF
Aggies ousted from
Men’s tennis in slump going into home stand
basketball tourney
The Texas A&M men’s basket
ball team(7-21, 0-16 Big 12) lost
to the University of Missouri
Thursday night, 74-68, in the first
round of the Big 12 Tournament
at the American Airlines Center
in Dallas.
The defeat was the last game
for A&M head coach Melvin
Watkins who announced his resig
nation last Wednesday, to go into
effect after A&M was knocked
out of the tournament.
Missouri (16-12, 9-7) will go
on to play University of Kansas
(20-7, 12-4) in the next of four
total rounds.
The Aggies shot only 37.7
percent compared to Missouri’s
60 percent.
Missouri also hit three more
three-pointers than the Aggies,
with eight of 18 compared to
A&M’s five of 21.
The Aggies led on defense and
outrebounded the Tigers 40 to 26.
Senior forward Nick Anderson led
A&M on rebounds with 14.
A&M sophomore forward
Antoine Wright led the Aggie
offense with 22 points. Wright
shot eight of 15 from the floor,
three of five free throws and three
three-pointers.
Guard Jimmey McKinney led
the Tigers offense, hitting five of
six free throws and five of six
three-pointers for 20 points.
This is the second time the
Tigers have beat the Aggies this
year defeating them 77-82 on Jan.
10 in Columbia, Mo.
By Kyle Davoust
THE BATTALION
Frustration, anger and disappoint
ment are words that have rarely been
spoken in connection with Tim Cass
during his tenure as Texas A&M men’s
tennis coach. But these words sum up
Cass’ mood following his team’s latest
setback, a 5-2 loss to Louisiana State
University Wednesday afternoon.
“Our matches, in essence, are an
exam,” Cass said. “We practice a lot of
things in order to perform them in the
correct fashion, and when you don’t do
that, there’s a level of frustration that
sets in.”
The loss dropped No. 13 A&M’s
road record to 1-5 against top-25 oppo
nents and will almost certainly drop
them out of the top-15 for the first time
in more than four years.
“I don’t know if we’ve been outside
the top-15 in four years, and we’re
going to fall out of the top-15, and to me
that’s disappointing,” Cass said. “I had a
lot of pride that our teams are pretty
much consistently in the top-15 for four
years, and this team is certainly at that
level. This team, in my opinion, can
play with anybody.”
To add to their frustration, the
Aggies’ only road win against a top-25
opponent came on a neutral court to a
team that has since fallen out of the top-
25: the No. 29 University of California-
Berkeley Golden Bears.
The Aggies will once again face the
Golden Bears on Saturday, as part of a
two-match day at the George P. Mitchell
Tennis Center, which will also include
an evening match against Abilene
Christian University.
Tough times have followed the
Golden Bears since their 4-0 loss to
A&M at the ITA Indoor National
Championships in February. Their 3-6
record, however, shouldn’t be taken
lightly, as they too know the pains of a
tough early-season schedule. Many of
their losses have come against top teams
such as No. 5 Stanford University, No.
15 Vanderbilt University, No. 20
Pepperdine University and No. 25
University of Arizona.
A visably distraught Cass said he is
not sure how his team will respond
Saturday, even after dominating the
Golden Bears earlier this season.
“I don’t know how to judge this
match on Saturday,” Cass said. “As a
coach, 1 would sure like to think that
we’re not too happy right now and that
someone is going to have to pay for
that. But I’m not the one out there get
ting to hit the ball around and control
my own match.”
After the match against California,
the Aggies will have a short break before
facing Abilene Christian at 6 p.m.
The match will mark the end of a
marathon for the Wildcats, as they are
slated to face five teams between
Thursday and Saturday. In fact, their
first match on Saturday won’t even be
in College Station. They are set to play
in New Braunsfels that morning before
traveling to College Station.
Fatigue will obviously be a factor.
“I sure hope they’re a little bit tired.
That would help us a little bit,” said
A&M senior captain Khaled El Dorry.
“But they’ll be excited to play. We play
them every year, and they always play
well and put up a good fight. We’re not
going to take anybody lightly.”
There has been no place like home
for the Aggies, where they have com
piled a perfect record against modest
competition. A strong home stand
could go a long way toward raising
their spirits.
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Sophomore Matt Loucks returns a volley at the Aggies' last home meet on Friday I
against Southeastern Louisiana University. The Aggies defeated the Lions 7-0.
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Elizabeth N. Webb, Editor in Chief
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