Men’s
Tennis
Wua
©mini
| George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
Sports
FRIDAY
J
7 p.m.
W vs. Missouri
S Olsen Field
The Battalion
Page 5 • Friday, April 23, 2004
&M baseball hopes to
ebound against Missouri
:p: [
By Jordan Meserole
THE BATTALION
The No. 17 Texas A&M base
ball team faces off against the
Iniversity of Missouri (24-14-1,
4*8 Big 12) in a three-game
series this weekend at Olsen
Field starting Friday at 7 p.m.,
and the Aggies will have one
thing on their minds: winning.
I It’s a given that all teams
ant to win, but the Aggies
1-12,7-8 Big 12) are especial-
h determined to make every
Bin count with only 10 games
remaining after this weekend.
l&M has lost four of its last six
Bimes and currently sits in sixth
place in the Big 12 standings.
I "It's frustrating the little mis
takes we’ve made, but that’s the
lay baseball is,” said A&M
fjeshman infielder Austin
Boggs. “We just need to stay
together as a team and try to get
oi selves out of this slump.”
■ A&M is coming off an espe
cially tough 5-4 loss to the
Iniversity of Texas-Arlington
o|i Tuesday night.
I The Aggies, led by senior
lory Patton on the mound, held
il Mavericks to no runs
irough seven innings. UTA
J ded two runs in the eighth
ling and three more in the
nth to clinch the game. All
three of the runs in the ninth
lining came as a result of errors
wAadc by the Aggies, two of
those being attributed to a
...a Ditcher.
||S A&M pitching has been expe-
tjcncing the same sort of prob-
ims during recent games, losing
Win streak on
the line as A&M
faces Missouri
Sharon Aeschbach • THE BATTALION
Texas A&M freshman third baseman Austin Boggs tags out Arkansas junior third baseman Clay Goodwin in the second
inning of A&M’s 7-5 win on Feb. 27. A&M will play Missouri in a three-game series this weekend at Olsen Field.
in
ac !
Tin
i mu
games to the University of
Oklahoma and the University of
Kansas both on pitching mistakes.
“We kind of have a pitching
disease right now,” Johnson
said. “We have a bunch of guys
that are having problems right
now. It’s harder to say that if one
guy is having problems we'll go
get another one because then
that guy doesn’t have it either.”
Missouri enters the weekend
series as a heavy-hitting team
that lost its most recent contest
against Southwest Missouri State
Tuesday by a score of 5-4. Much
like the Aggies’ loss to UTA, the
Tigers entered the seventh inning
tied 4-4 with SMS and lost the
game on a pitching mistake.
Unlike the Aggies, however,
Missouri’s pitching problems
have not been rampant, winning
three of its last five games.
The Tigers bring three hitters
who, in 12 conference games,
have tagged opponents for 36
runs batted in, nine home runs and
a batting average of .374. A&M
pitching will be especially con
cerned with Tiger senior infielder,
Cody Fillers, who has collected a
.369 average with 12 homers and
46 RBIs on the season.
“They've been a good hitting
ballclub and they certainly have
a little more pop than we do,”
Johnson said. “They’re playing
with a lot of confidence right
now. We just need some good
things to happen to us.”
By Nikki Knight
THE BATTALION
Coming in on a nine-game
winning streak, the Texas
A&M softball team will host
the University of Missouri in a
crucial two-game series this
weekend in College Station.
This will be the Aggies’ last
weekend at home this season.
After a two-game sweep of
No. 20 Baylor, the Tigers (21-
21, 8-2 Big 12) have momen
tum that will rival the Aggies’
(29-16, 11-1 Big 12).
While Missouri's sched
uled mid-week conference
game against Pittsburgh State
University had to be cancelled,
A&M beat Oklahoma State
University, 3-2, Wednesday
night in Stillwater, Okla. This
put the Aggies one game out
of first place in the Big 12
behind Nebraska. A&M will
be looking to gain first place
with a win over Missouri,
which is holding on to third.
“We have to play well in
every game in order for our
goal of a Big 12 champi
onship to come true,” said
A&M junior infielder Adrian
Gregory. “But we have to take
one game at a time.”
Missouri, however, will
prove to be stiff competition as
its sweep over Baylor made
seven for the season, with
three in Big 12 play.
“The team is really showing
that they’re capable of playing
in this highly competitive con
ference,” said Missouri head
coach Ty Singleton. “It’s fun to
see the inexperienced becom
ing more experienced.”
A&M head coach Jo Evans
was just as excited about her
team after last weekend’s win
over Texas Tech.
“I thought that our kids
really swung the bat well,”
Evans said. “We showed really
good patience at the plate.”
The Tigers will bring junior
pitcher Erin Kalka (8-2 Big
12, 0.83 ERA) to face the
Aggies. The total batting aver
age on the season for Tigers’
opponents is .216.
A&M senior pitcher Jessica
Kapchinski (14-5, 10-1 Big
12), who currently holds the
league’s lowest ERA at 0.32
with eight complete games,
will come to the mound for
A&M with a nine-game win
streak of her own.
After splitting the series
last season in Columbia,
Miss., the teams again seem
evenly matched.
The Aggies will bat a lineup
with a season batting average
of .271 while the Tigers will
bring a current average of .246.
The team’s three 2004 sen
iors, second baseman Sherah
Atkins and pitchers Jessica
Kapchinski and Lindsay
Wilhelmson will be honored
Sunday for Senior Day. First
pitch is set for noon Saturday
and 2 p.m. Sunday at the
Aggie Softball Complex.