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Sports
The Battalion
Iggie baseball travels to
i Kansas for Big 12 showdown
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By Jordan Meserole
THE BATTALION
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The No. 15 Texas A&M base-
team will be seeing a mirror
I ection of itself this weekend
awrence, Kan., when it takes
oil the University of Kansas.
:nboS The A £8>es (27-8, 4-5 Big
12 and the Jayhawks (22-14-1,
ll) have similar records, simi-
mJ overall team stats, key play-
OOfiMwith similar individual stats
of ® the same aspirations - get-
ttlesii tiL to the College World Series,
isfeld■‘‘It doesn’t matter who your
ie an opj anent is, you’ve still got to
peopWout there and get a ‘W,’” said
head coach Mark Johnson,
othing is do or die just yet, but
t still can’t give games away.”
A&M enters the three-game
ies after beating Sam
uston State University
It: day, 8-3. The Aggies will
W wB concerned with bettering
ir conference record, after
ing two out of three games to
lahoma State University in
— tk first weekend of April, and
A/Hopping two of three games to
'jil B lor University in the last
«ekend of March.
• ij Johnson said the team’s
Sjj Bcent struggle to win is coming
3 ■the offensive side of the plate.
HI "We’ve got to put our act
■gather and get up there and hit
i e ball better,” Johnson said.
5 I Ye’ve seen some better pitch-
| g, but we haven’t seen any-
011 I ing unbelievable yet that we
I louldn’t be able to hit.” •
I Much like the Aggies, the
v Mawks will be intent on
gf Idding wins to their conference
void after losing five of six
lonferencf games.
“Our competition has been
JP Beato III - THE BATTALION
Texas A&M head coach Mark Johnson looks on from A&M's dugout during A&M's 4-1 win over Texas Tech on March 27
at Olsen Field. The Aggies will face the University of Kansas in a three-game series in Lawrence, Kan., this weekend.
top quality every game all season
long,” said Kansas head coach
Ritch Price. “This weekend will
be no different. A&M is a solid
team all around and we’ll cer
tainly have to battle to get a win.”
Kansas is expected to send
senior left-hander Ryan
Knippschild to the mound
Friday for the first game of the
series. Knippschild currently is
one of Kansas’ top starting pitch
ers with a 3.58 earned run aver
age, 51 strikeouts and 13 walks.
A&M’s mirror version of
Knippschild, junior left-hander
Zach Jackson, is believed to be
taking the mound on Friday for
the Aggies. Jackson enters the
game with a 3.81 E.R.A, 53
strikeouts and has only
allowed 12 bases on balls.
On the offensive side, the
reflection between the two teams
becomes a little more obscure.
Kansas currently sits atop the
Big 12 with a team batting aver
age of .343 and 40 home runs,
while A&M is in the middle of
its conference rivals with a .310
average and 19 home runs.
“You can’t put up 15 runs
every game and shouldn’t have
to,” said A&M sophomore first
baseman Coby Mavroulis. “You
just have to go out there and do
whatever it takes to win.”
Price said the team goal for
the weekend is to walk away
with at least two wins, but he
knows just as well as the Aggies
do that the task won’t be easy.
“You can go into any Big 12
series thinking that you’re going
to get a easy win or sweep,’ 7
Price said. “But all you’re doing
is setting yourself up for a longer
weekend than you could expect.”
Page IB * Thursday, April 8, 2004
A&M women’s
tennis heads to
Baylor Thursday
By Jon Gilbert
THE BATTALION
The Aggie lady netters have
responded to every challenge
they have faced this season.
Now, head coach Bobby
Kleinecke needs to stand up to
the challenge that No. 44 Baylor
University is going to give his
team this Thursday in Waco.
A&M will face Baylor at 6
p.m. at the Baylor Tennis
Center. The Bears (8-8,4-1 Big
12) need a win to claim second
place in the Big 12, with their
only conference loss coming to
University of Texas, 7-0, on
March 4. The Aggies (15-6, 7-
0) are in a tie with Texas for
first place in the Big 12.
A&M has won 11 of its
past 12 matches and have four
conference matches left, three
of which are against teams in
the top five in the Big 12,
Baylor being one of them.
“Baylor is always a tough
opponent for us,” Kleinecke
said. “At times they have
underachieved, but they are
playing well right now. I feel
really good about how our
team is playing and where we
stand right now. The girls are
playing with mental toughness,
and that has helped this team
get to where they are now.”
Mental strength has been key
for A&M all season. The team
has repeatedly come up strong
in the clutch, which is some
thing it will need against Baylor,
Kansas State University, Texas
and the University of Kansas to
close out the season.
But Kleinecke said the
Aggies are taking nothing for
granted, focusing on one
opponent at a time.
“We’re focused on the next
one in front of us,” Kleinecke
said. “We can’t afford to look
ahead. We need to take them
one at a time. When we played
Colorado Sunday, that was our
biggest match. We have 11 Big
12 matches, and our goal is to
win them all.”
Baylor head coach Joey
Scrivano said his Bears are
confident coming into their
match against the Aggies.
They have won three straight
and find themselves in a
groove just in time for the last
push of the season.
“We’re playing a lot better
right now,” Scrivano said.
“We had a tough non-confer
ence schedule and that has
made us a stronger team. We
were 2-7 and in a hole, but the
girls have responded and and
now we’re .500 again.”
Home court advantage is a
commodity to have in Big 12
play, and Baylor will enjoy that
edge Thursday. These two
teams are a combined 12-1 on
their respective home courts
this season. Yet, Scrivano down
plays the home court advantage.
“Yeah, we hope (home
court) does (help),” Scrivano
said. “But, if we don’t come
out with the right mindset its
not going to matter. If you
have the right mindset you
could play on the moon and it
wouldn’t really matter.”
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