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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2015)
ENGINE COUNTING SHADES ON SIX FIRST INNING WOLVES “Any time a train rolls by Olsen Field it’s tradition to predict how many engines the train is equipped with. This is done simply by holding up a number of fingers 1-5.” “Everyone will put on their sunglasses for the sixth inning because it is statistically the most dangerous inning for a baseball game.” “You press your middle finger and ring finger against the thumb making a ‘wolf hand sign and move it to the beat of the song ‘Wolfpack Theme.’” HELLO! “If someone is talking on their cell phone in the student section, everyone around them says, ‘Hello,’ really loudly so they can’t hear the person they’re talking to.” ROOF HIT JINGLES “When the ball hits the roof and makes a sound, everyone joins in and sings, ‘Schulte roofing, home of the bullet proof roof,’ the jingle from the Schulte Roofing commercial.” BETWEEN INNINGS “During innings, when people are stand ing up and walking around, it distracts everyone else trying to watch the game and sometimes blocks people’s view ... The crowd will heckle, for lack of a better word, the person until they get the hint to either sit down or leave so everyone else can enjoy the game.” PAT HIS BUTT “Whenever the coach of the oppos ing team approaches the mound to talk to the pitcher, the student section will yell to the coach to pinch/pat/touch the pitcher’s butt — because they usu ally do right before they return to the dugout — so once they do it we all cheer or start yelling at the coach for being gross.” 9TH INNING HOPE “There’s always room for some Olsen Magic late in the game, so if the Aggies are down in the bottom of the ninth, the student section stands to cheer on the boys.” BACK IN THE BOX “The first base coach from the op posing team has a designated box he is supposed to stand inside but rarely does ... It’s pretty funny when the student section starts making beeping noises with every step the coach takes, like a truck backing up, and then ev eryone cheers once he makes it back into the box.” Graphic from file. Quotes from Ryan Hadaway, Shelby Hanner, Kalyn Clark and Kim Spalding. Compiled by Jenifer Reiley. Aggies to lean on young talent as season begins Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION Head coach Ray Childress and his team prepare for practice Thursday before Friday's Opening Day. By Tyler Stafford For the first time since falling to the Texas Longhorns in the 2014 NCAA Houston Regional last June, the Texas A&M baseball team will lace up their cleats, don maroon and white and step out under the lights of Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. Baseball is back. The 2015 A&M squad hopes to build on the success of last year’s team, which finished 36-26 and earned second place at the NCAA Houston Regional. It was the eighth year in a row that head coach Rob Childress’ team made the postseason — the 30th time in school history. The Aggies will turn to their tal ented underclassmen to replace the leadership they lost to graduation and the MLB Draft, namely juniors Daniel Mengden, Corey Ray and Cole Lankford. All told, A&M lost a total of seven players from last year’s team — in cluding five to the MLB Draft — but they are loaded with young talent. Childress will turn to sophomores Nick Banks, Ryne Birk and Ron nie Gideon to lead the offense, along with seniors Blake Allemand, Patrick McLendon and Logan Nottebrok. “We have a lot of depth, both hitting and pitching,” Banks said. “Everyone that’s watching looks for a team with a lot of power and strengths on the mound and at the plate. Our expectation every year is to host a regional and host the supers so we can get to our one goal and that’s win in Omaha.” A&M returns four of its top six in on-base percentage from last year in Allemand (.397), Birk (.391), Banks (.386) and McLendon (.367). While those guys get on base, Nottebrok and his team-leading eight home runs from a year ago will look to drive them in, along with another right-handed power threat in Gide on. After a freshman season marked by multiple awards. Banks was named a Preseason All-American by baseball websites DIBaseball and Perfect Game. Although they lost Mengden, the Aggies looked primed to reload with the lively arms of junior Grayson Long and sophomore Tyler Stub- OPENING WEEKEND Game 1 6:30 p.m. Friday Game 2 2 p.m. Saturday Game 3 12 p.m. Sunday blefield, both of whom started the majority of the Saturday and Sunday games last season. However, Stub blefield tore his ACL in the offsea son and will be out for an extended period of time. “Well I’m disappointed for [Stubblefield],” Childress said. “He prepared so hard to have a great sophomore year and, who’s to say he doesn’t, you know, if we get him back in the last month and he has a strong finish. With that being said, next man up. It’s a new opportunity for another guy and we got depth on the staff, and with his injury comes opportunity for the next man and that’s the way I look at it. No ex cuses.” Childress will look to junior southpaw Matt Kent and Jason Free man — the lone senior pitcher — to pick up the slack along with a bevy of untested pitchers such as Lee May Gonzalez, Mark Ecker and Ryan Hendrix and freshmen Turner Lar kins, Brigham Hill and Casen Ger- rard, he said. “I think the season is going to be great,” Long said. “We’ve got a lot of new guys, but we have a lot of the same guys we had last year, and the chemistry from last year to this year is crazy how much more of a team we play as. Even off the field away from the field we are always hang ing out together and I really think that’s going to help us in our success this year.” The Aggies finished last year with a record of 14-16 in conference play in a season that saw the SEC send 10 teams to the NCAA Tournament. After ending last season ranked No. 25, A&M will begin the 2015 campaign at No. 17. “Our goals don’t change,” Chil dress said. “Our goal is to finish at the top of the SEC and earn an op portunity to host in the postseason and compete to get to Omaha and to be the last team standing. Our goals won’t ever change for as long as I’m here.” A&M opens its season with a 13- game homestand, beginning Friday night at 6:35 p.m. for the first of a three-game series with Holy Cross. “There’s nothing like Opening Day,” Banks said. “You can tell. Everyone gets a little early to the park and are more energetic. It adds a little giddy to them. I think for ev eryone, they’re starting to soak it in that it’s finally here.”