SPORTS The Battalion I 2.27.15 5 Cancer survivor gets hero’s treatment with baseball team Dartmouth visits undefeated A&M for weekend series By Seth Stroupe The Texas A&M baseball team has been dominant in the young season and sits at a perfect 9-0 with an average mar gin of victory of more than seven runs per game, which is why it may seem odd that the program is now looking for some outside help for this weekend’s series against Dartmouth. Elias Gomez, who signed an official letter of intent Thursday with Texas A&M, is not your typical division one baseball re cruit. For one, he’s only in the eighth grade. Gomez is a stu dent at College Station Middle School, who readily admits that he has little experience in the game of baseball. Even though he calls himself a fan of the Aggies, he says he’s never really followed the sport and doesn’t have a favorite play er. When asked if he’d rather be a pitcher or a position player, he says he’s really only interested in hitting. But proficiency in the sport of baseball is not the reason that the Aggies have brought the young Gomez on board. Instead, the Aggies were won over by his story and his courage. Gomez, who was put in touch with Texas Elias Gomez A&M through Team Impact, is a cancer survivor. And although his attributes might not show up in the box score this weekend, head coach Rob Childress is cer tain that Elias already exemplifies everything he wants in a player. “Our definition of the word relentless here at Texas A&M is this — we are physically and mentally tougher than all others at all times, even in the midst of adversity,” Childress said to Gomez at the presser. “That’s something that has really stood out to me in learning your story is that word, relentless. You are relentless and we feel very hon ored that you’re a part of our program.” Childress said he is certain Texas A&M’s newest addition will be a game changer for the Aggies. “We feel truly blessed that we found somebody that can take us from being good to really being great,” said Childress. “We now have someone in Elias Gomez who has the po tential to be a real impactful part of our program” In an extensive Q&A session conducted by his new team mates, Elias revealed that his favorite TV show is “Adven ture Time,” his favorite food is pepperoni pizza and his favorite subject is science. Gomez even went as far to imply that he is already very intrigued by the prospect of potentially pursuing further studies in the realms of biochemistry and engineering. But that is for another day. Today Elias is an official mem ber of the Texas Aggie baseball team and he’s up for whatever challenge or responsibility that title may bring. “I’m honored to be here be cause Texas A&M has been my favorite university for a long time,” Gomez said. “I like to try new things and I think that this will be a really great experience for me.” Gomez will be on hand Fri day as the Aggies host the Dart mouth Big Green in what will be the visiting team’s season debut. Junior AJ Minter will get the start on the mound at 6:30 p.m. at Blue Bell Park. Two more weekend games are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. All three games are available to be streamed live on SEC Network Plus. Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION Rachel Fox delivers a pitch during a complete game win Wednesday. Softball preps for final stretch before SEC play By Milkyas Gashaw The T exas A&M softball team will play their final string of games this weekend before the start of SEC play as they host the Texas A&M In vitational. Boston University (0- 5) is up first in a double- header starting Friday. The Terriers do have fa miliarity on their side as they played the Redbirds of Illinois State last week end, but fell 6-5. The Ag gies will play them again at 5:15 p.m. Friday. Illinois State (6-9) is the second game of two Friday, and it enters the tournament losing two of its last three, however. one of its losses came in a 4-1 defeat at the hands of No. 1 Florida. On Satur day, the Redbirds kick off the second Aggie double- header at 3 p.m. UTS A (12-4) will face A&M once at 12:15 p.m, Sunday, and the Road- runners have gotten off to a solid start this season. Their most notable victory came from Tex as Tech in their second game of the season. The Roadrunners have a trio of batters in Kendall Bur ton, Courtney Buchman and Megan Low who are all tied for the team lead in home runs with five, one less than SEC leader and Aggie Tori Vidales. Jade Smith leads the club with a .477 batting aver age. The No. 23 Aggies (13-4) rebounded quite nicely after its loss to No. 2 Oregon, winning six straight contests. The freshman duo of short stop Kristen Cuyos and third baseman Tori Vida les have been more than able to carry the load for Head Coach Jo Evans, with Vidales leading the SEC with six home runs. A play to watch could be sophomore Abby Donnell — a usual re lief pitcher — who went 3-for-3 from behind the plate with a double this Wednesday. First pitch against BU begins at 3 p.m. V ill,' ssh i- -'UCfT Place jui Ap IfcMSIiJUSdSfiS iatarUDO, Mud! I StudtantCknkr ^uAIUUakmftf t i . j j. yy jirif.lq nyvl qyrfi on o-nnw wo. Mi ii ^:,j. i 2-th ion bm: f:?m. 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