The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 27, 2004, Image 8

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    P
Sports
TUESDAY
7 p.m.
■ports
|he bat
The Battalion
Page 8 • Tuesday,April!)
Cutting archery
good for athletics
Texas State rolls into Olsei
R
an
By Step
By Staff & Wire
THE BATTALION
TROY MILLER
Whenever
an intercolle
giate athletic
d e part m e n t
cuts the fund
ing to a pro
gram under
its umbrella,
it stings.
Nothing is
different with
Texas A&M
Athletic Director Bill Byrne
deciding to put the A&M
archery program under review.
Feelings are hurt - student
athletes, coaches and admin
istrators alike - but in the end.
running an athletic depart
ment is a business.
And in the business of cutting
funds to archery, Byme is right.
Since archery and equestri
an were elevated to varsity
sports in 1999, equestrian has
shown promise of expansion -
maybe growing into an
NCAA-sponsored sport soon.
Thirteen schools sponsor the
spoil with more on the verge
of doing so. including Big 12
rival Kansas State University,
which will sponsor equestrian
as soon as next year.
Archery, on the
hand, has not grown
past Five years - only A&M,
James Madison and
Columbia have teams.
“When we added archery
and equestrian to varsity sta
tus. both sports were consid
ered emerging sports for
women and we hoped both
would be added to the list of
NCAA-sponsored champi
onships,” Byrne said. “Since
other
in the
that time, equestrian con
tinues to expand while
archery has remained with
only Texas A&M,
Columbia and James
Madison as sponsors.”
In the college athletics
business, success is meas
ured by championships;
specifically, NCAA cham
pionships. Points are given to
each school based on its per
formance in each sport spon
sored by the NCAA. The
school with the most points at
the end of the academic year
wins the Sears Cup - the
crowning achievement of suc
cess in intercollegiate athletics.
Archery has won many
medals and has represented
A&M admirably on the
national and international
stages. Senior Mary Zorn, for
instance, is the reigning world
compound champion.
But none of these champi
onships are sponsored by the
NCAA, and with the lack of
growth in archery, it won't be
sponsored any time soon.
As a club team, archery can
still compete in the same
events as it has over the past
five years including world
championship events. In fact,
present archery' events aren't
composed of solely collegiate
archers. Although some com
pete. a majority of the compe
tition is self-sponsored archers
of high school age or other
archers not in college.
The only difference for the
See Archery on page 9
Coming off a shortened week-
end series against the University
of Missouri, the No. 14 Texas
A&M baseball team will host
Texas State University at 1 p m.
Tuesday at Olsen Field on 50-
cent Slovacek sausage night.
The Aggies (33-12) are com
ing off a gcKxl weekend as they
took two games from the
University of Missouri before rain
cancelled Sunday’s series finale.
In the first game of the series,
A&M freshman pitcher Jason
Meyer (8-0) showed his nerves
by holding a 1-0 lead for a com
plete game shutout of the Tigers.
It was Meyer’s first complete
game of the year as he allowed
seven hits while striking out
eight batters. The Aggies’ only
run came in the second inning
when senior right fielder Cory
Patton hit a solo home run. his
fourth in five games.
“I thought Jason Meyer real
ly stepped up,” said A&M head
coach Mark Johnson. "He got to
the ninth inning, and I thought
he rose up in the ninth inning.”
Pitching was the story again
in the second game as junior
Zack Jackson (8-3) led the
Aggies to a 7-1 victory by allow
ing one run on seven hits while
striking out 11 in 7.1 innings.
“The biggest thing was work
ing on my secondary' pitches, just
fine-tuning my slider and throw
ing my change-up a lot more and
working it in there." Jackson
said. "It just makes my fastball
that much more effective."
While the Friday and Saturday
starters looked impressive again.
Johnson was still unsure about
his Sunday starter before the rain-
out prevented the decision.
A Wco jc Maw OWtioNt
ENtertaiNWNt, DaNOMl, F 00 ^ Et a J3L3pefio eating OONteStl
peawpNg HaccNda Recording Artists, prison colo^ and
caior and a L°W RW EXtfb'tioN
THE ASS
Evan 0'Cow«u'TH[Sr
Texas A&M redshirt freshman Jason Meyer delivers a pitch Friday at Olsen Field in A&M's 1-0 win over Wssw
pitched the first complete gome shutout of his college career A&M will face Texas State at 7 p.m TuesdayolQj
"We’d like to go w ith (senior
left-hander Dan Donaldson) or
Patton and see if they can do it.”
Johnson said. "We’ve been snake-
bitten a little bit on Sundays."
Because of the rain-out, the
Aggies will now' turn to
Donaldson for Tuesday’s game.
This will be Donaldson’s fourth
start of the season, as he has
compiled an ERA of 5.32 in 22
innings of work.
Texas State (24-19) is also
coming off a successful week
end. us it took two of three
games from the University of
Texas-Arlington in a Southland
Conference match-up. The first
game was key. as the Bobcats
collected 11 hits and handed
UTA starter Michael Gardner,
who came into the game with a
9-0 record, his first loss of the
season. 6-5.
"Some of the other hitters
and I were talking about that
and we wanted to make sure we
put one in the loss column for
him.” said Texas State first
baseman Mark Cooper. We
arlinc
iter three
ishes
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ankees are
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In their first cootet™ espite the
son. which \usheld'and le;
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the Aggies prevailed“ am over
improving their all-tiKi
margin to 30-8.
Texas State will r
lefty of its own injur:
Hurley, who is I4wi4i
ERA in 39 innings.
n
raff, the v
liree of the
4.34 ERA
“We hav
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