Silver
Taps
when
10:30 p.m. Tuesday
where
Academic Plaza
An honor guard from the
Ross Volunteer Company
will march to Academic
Plaza, where its members
will fire three rifle volleys.
Buglers from the Aggie
Band will play a special
arrangement of "Taps."
KELLEY HERMAN
JAN. 13,1992 - FEB. 12,2015
A caring
friend with a
lasting impact
PAGES
PROVIDED
TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015 I SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 I © 2015 STUDENT MEDIA I ©THEBATTONLINE
Aggies host UTSA r
North Texas ahead
of weekend series
-
NO. 1 TEXAS A&M VS. NO. 15 RICE
TanneeGarza — TI4E BATTALION
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All hands on deck
Valerie Gunchick — THE BATTALION
Junior outfielder Alex Masek fields a fly ball.
A&M has won five out of its last six contests
By Milkyas Gashaw
The Texas A&M softball team will continue its
^ home stand with two midweek games against
UTSA on Tuesday and North Texas on Wednesday.
The No. 23 Aggies (29-10, 7-5 SEC) are riding
high after their series victory against Georgia Tech this
past weekend, winning the rubber match on Sunday
11-0 in five innings. The Aggie starters have been ef
fective in this stretch at home, carrying the club to a
4-1 record so far. Junior Katie Marks has picked up
her play in the circle, shutting out the Yellow Jackets
in her last appearance and holding a 10-1 record on
the season.
The Aggies and head coach Jo Evans have been plac
ing a heightened awareness on their defense since they
failed to produce in Tuscaloosa two weeks ago. Evans
praised freshman Tori Vidales on her incremental im
provement defensively at the hot corner this season.
“She is doing such a good job right now moving
her feet, being quick and making plays in the 5-6
hole,” Evans said. “Before some of those were get
ting through but they’re not now. She’s really buckled
down and is doing a great job.”
Evans also commented on the play of senior leadoff
hitter Brittany Clopton, who has been a catalyst for the
Aggie offense all season.
“I’m happy for her,” Evans said. “No one fights
harder and works harder than Brittany and it’s great to
see her hard work paying off. She did a great job this
weekend getting herself on base.”
UTSA (26-11, 8-3 C-USA) boasts a five-game win
ning streak with sweeps of Middle Tennessee and a
doubleheader sweep of Lamar. The Roadrunners have
bats in their lineup that could give senior Rachel Fox
and the rest of the Aggie pitching staff fits. Randee
Crawford leads the team in homers with 13 and RBIs
with 48. Leadoff hitter Jade Smith leads the club with
a .425 batting average.
North Texas (14-21, 6-8 C-USA) will most likely
start Stacey Underwood at pitcher against the Aggies.
Underwood holds a 6-4 record on the season with an
ERA of 3.91, both best on the team. Junior Taylor
Schoblocher spearheads the Mean Green attack with a
.422 batting average and a slugging percentage of .814.
First pitch on Tuesday against UTSA and Wednes
day against North Texas is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
A&M looks
to keep its
undefeated
midweek
record alive
against Rice
By Andre Perrard
With 22 wins in 23 home games,
the Olsen Field faithful have
cheered the Aggies on to win after win
this season. Now, the nation’s No. 1
team faces its stiffest home test to date
— the No. 13 Rice Owls.
Since rising to No. 1 in a couple
polls, the Texas A&M baseball team has
won three straight games and comes
off a doubleheader sweep of Kentucky
in Lexington. A nine-game homestand
begins Tuesday against Rice.
The Owls (22-12, 11-4 C-USA)
come in off a series win against Middle
Tennessee on the road. Their lineup
includes big-time hitter John Reeves.
He leads the team in RBIs (35) and
home runs (four). Reeves is swinging
the bat with a .377 average. Another
player of note is Kirby Taylor, who is
hitting .405 with 23 RBIs. Leon Byrd
BASEBALL
where
Olsen Field
when
6:30 p.m. Tuesday
is second on the team in RBIs with 28.
For A&M (30-2, 9-2 SEC), the
story of the season has been the very
deep and talented lineup. Eight Aggie
hitters have more than 20 RBIs, led by
Mitchell Nau (29). A&M has tallied 36
home runs, and Ronnie Gideon and
Logan Taylor each have six to their
name. Every Aggie in the starting line
up has hit a home run this year. Nick
Banks has been presenting a hitting
clinic this season, hitting .431, which
is the best in the SEC and fourth-best
in the nation. The Aggie offense is also
BASEBALL ON PC. 4
A&M profs weigh in on Germanwings crash
By Nikita Redkar
^ As investigations of the deliberate
^ March 25 Germanwings airbus crash
continue, debates have arisen concerning
flight safety and advancement of aircraft
technology.
Flying from Barcelona, Spain, to Dus-
seldorf, Germany, Germanwings airbus
A320 was intentionally crashed into a re
mote region of the French Alps, killing all
150 passengers.
The person responsible for the crash
was 27-year-old German co-pilot Andreas
Lubitz, who locked the aircraft’s captain
out of the cockpit.
John Brak, agribusiness senior and fly
ing instructor at Brazos Valley Flight Ser
vices, said the situation
could have been avoid- ed with more
stringent airline regulations.
“I believe almost all airlines in the
United States require two people in the
cockpit at all times and if either the pi
lot or copilot steps out, some other crew
member substitutes in their place,” Brak
said. “Such regulations are not in place for
a lot of foreign airlines.”
Brak said pilots must go through an ex
tensive background check before flying.
“If you have ADD or ADHD, you
can’t obtain your medical certificate and
therefore you can’t fly,” Brak said. “You
can’t fly if you have a history of depres
sion and suicidal thoughts. And according
to the latest reports on this case, [Lubitz]
had all those things during training.”
At one point, flying was commended
as so safe that pilot error was considered
to be the last major risk. However,
aerospace engineering pro
fessor Ramesh Tal-
Sydney Farris —THE BATTALION
reja said these days, flying is so safe that
intentional pilot error is considered to be
the biggest major risk.
“The airbus A320 is described as a
work horse,” Talreja said. “This aircraft
has flown so many places, covered so
many miles safely — there is no doubt
of its safety. It is as safe as an aircraft can
ever be.”
Talreja, whose research focuses on the
failure of aircrafts and their composite
structure, said the plane was pre-pro
grammed for descent at a certain level.
“During a regular crash, the most sig
nificant occurrence is that the aircraft can
not be controlled,” Talreja said. “It shakes
much more than the average turbulence
and eventually flips sideways — dives
down rapidly. If you don’t have your
safety belt on, you can be flying all
GERMANWINGS ON PG. 2