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Page IB • Tuesday, May 4, 2004
Cass’ troops have sights set Baseball draws
similarities to
‘99 CWS team
on NCAA Championships
KYLE DAVOUST
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Success,
jl can be
said, is all a
matter of
perspective.
Upon being
ousted in the
Elite Eight of
this year’s
NCAA
Men ’ s
Basketball
Tournament, Kansas head coach
Bill Self told his team that while
die team may feel it was a down
year, he’d welcome finishing in
second place in the Big 12 and
advancing to the final eight on
any down year.
In Lawrence, Kan., the stan
dard of basketball excellency
has been set high, and a suc
cessful season for most is
deemed a failure for the legion
ofjayhawk fans.
At Texas A&M, a similar
standard has recently been set
for the men’s tennis teams, and
the Aggies are now caught in the
same dilemma of what to con
sider a successful season.
The Aggies have had their
share of disappointments this
season. A perennial top-15
am in head coach Tim Cass’
eight-year tenure, A&M has
spent the last month clinging to
a top-25 ranking. Nearly two
months ago, a sullen Cass
lamented over this fact.
“1 had a lot of pride that our
teams are pretty much consistent
ly in the top-15 for four years, and
is team is certainly at that level,”
Cass said. “This team, in my opin-
wi, can play with anybody.”
..iarjy, on, the Aggies had a
JORDAN MESEROLE
Evan O'Connell • THE BATTALION
Texas A&M junior Ante Matijevic returns a forehand in A&M’s 6-1 win over the University of Oklahoma on
March 26 at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
hard time living up to these
expectations, as they struggled
on the road and against top-
ranked competition. Despite
having the No. 1-ranked doubles
team of juniors Lester Cook and
Ante Matijevic for most of the
season, the Aggies failed to con
sistently win the doubles point.
The team, most importantly, beat
itself on more than one occasion.
On the flip side, the Aggies
have now won 11 of their last 13
matches, with both losses com
ing at the hands of No. 2 Baylor,
a team that stormed its way
through the Big 12 unscathed.
Despite A&M’s disappoint
ments, these facts remain: The
Aggies clearly established
themselves as the conference’s
second best team, won over 70
percent of their games and beat
the rival Longhorns in Austin
See Tennis on page 4B
There
are still
some
Aggie
fans
around
campus
who took
part in
events
during the
magical -
year of 1999. Y2K rumors
were running rampant, elec
tion debates were heating up
between George W. Bush and
A1 Gore and the Texas A&M
baseball team was going to the
College World Series.
It was the first time the
Aggies had made an appear
ance at the College World
Series in six years. And since
then, that’s about the only
thing Aggie baseball fans
have: memories. But after a
four-year absence from the
World Series lineup, the
Aggies may board a plane to
Omaha, Neb. once again.
The stats between the 1999
season and this season are eeri
ly similar. In 1999, the Aggies
had nine players who had at
least 150 at-bats with a batting
average of .300 or higher.
Pitching was especially strong,
as four of the regular starters
had earned run averages of
four or less, with two of those
striking out 125 or more bat
ters and the other two only giv
ing up 35 runs or less.
In the four full seasons
since, the Aggies have only
once come minimally close to
matching those statistics - in
2003 when A&M made a
regional tournament bid for the
first time since 1999. In 2000
and 2001, A&M had only three
hitters with averages of at least
.300, and in 2002 they only had
one. In all of those seasons, no
starting pitcher had an ERA
less than four.
This season, A&M has
almost matched the 1999 sea
son. Currently, seven batters
with at least 125 at-bats have an
average of .300 or higher. Of
the starting pitchers, one has an
ERA below two and another
with an ERA below four, with
both on the verge of breaking
the 100 strikeout mark.
But two main problems lie
in A&M’s path to Omaha: no
strong third pitcher (or fourth
or fifth at that) and seven
games remaining on the sched
ule, including three against
top-ranked Texas.
The Aggies have relied
heavily on junior Zach Jackson
and redshirt freshman Jason
Meyer in games this season,
who both have double the
innings pitched of any other
pitcher on the team. A two-
man squad won’t get any team
far into the post-season, no
matter how good the hitting is.
In 1999, A&M was able to
See Baseball on page 4B
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