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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2015)
i MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015 I SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 I © 2015 STUDENT MEDIA I ©THEBATTONLINE UNSTOPPABLE IBISB US . few* & *» t t ^ . ; ;v . / - m w - ' : ' - ■ w\ ' ■ - - ^ - -• ^ . .o , ophomore outfielder, hit a grarad slam at - ■ Nick Banks, sophomore outfielder, hit a grand slam at Sunday's game against Mississippi State. ■ - - ... ■ : -f is*-W&S'M Cody Franklin — THE B. IATTALION By Andre Perrard ■■■ he Aggies continued their dominant run this weekend with another I SEC series win, this time over Mississippi State. The se ries was tied going into Sunday, but a 13-5 win — highlighted by two grand slams — helped A&M clinch the series. A&M has not lost a weekend series this season. When coming off a loss in a weekend game, the Aggies have outscored their op ponents 38 to 12. “It went back and forth early,” A&M head coach Rob Pair of grand slams power A&M past Mississippi State to take series Childress said about winning the series Sunday. “We made some mistake defensively in the first couple of innings to allow them to have hope, but each time they would score, we would answer back.” On Friday night, the Ag gies topped Mississippi State 3-1 behind a fantastic pitching performance from starter Gray son Long. On the night, Long worked seven innings, allowing one unearned run off only three hits. There was a stretch during the evening when Long retired 10 Bulldog batters in a row. Logan Taylor’s two-mn homer put the Aggies in front 2-0 in the fourth inning, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The win streak would come to a close on Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs came away with a win behind an outstanding performance from their starting pitcher and bullpen to earn a 3-2 win. A bright spot for the Aggie offense during the afternoon was Taylor, who hit his eighth home run of the season and second of the series to try and lead the Ag gie comeback, but the bats could not get going behind him. Sunday would decide the se ries, and both teams came out firing to start the game. Mis sissippi State took an early 2-0 lead. The Aggies got two runs of their own in the bottom of BASEBALL ON PG. 3 AROUND TOWN STUDENT MEDIA Oliva Adam — THE BATTALION Profits from Chilifest will be counted in the next two weeks. Chilifest aims to aid local charities THAT DAY, The next step Organizers hope to hit $2.5 million mark By Olivia Adam While many associ- * ate this year’s Chilifest with downing cases of beer and performances by the Eli Young Band and Josh Ab bott Band, Chilifest orga nizers say a large part of the event is about raising money for charities. The first Chilifest started as a fraternity philanthropy concert and chili competi tion in 1991. It has contin ued to expanded in venue size, number of attendees and donations. Now in its 24th year, Chilifest Inc. is approaching $2.5 million total dollars in donations to other nonprofits. Tyler Luxion, senior ac counting major and presi dent of Chilifest, said Chil ifest, a 501c (3) nonprofit, took on Miller Lite as its title sponsor in 2000. Since then, Luxion said they have expanded their donations. “We’re coming up on this $2.5 million mark in donations since inception, hopefully to be achieved if not this year, by our 25th anniversary next year,” CHILIFEST ON PG. 4 A Jg The Battalion takes home 26 TIPA awards By Katy Stapp ^ weekend at the annual Texas Intercolle giate Press Association competition, including a first-place award for overall excellence. TIPA, a statewide college media board, holds contests among university-level stu dent-run magazines, radio and television pro grams, yearbooks and newspapers at its annual convention. The Battalion, a daily student-run news paper, competed in Division I and received awards recognizing articles, columns, graph ics, photos and page designs published in 2014. Aimee Breaux, managing editor for The Battalion and applied mathematical sciences junior, won first place in the general column and critical review categories as well as second place in the opinion page design category. Breaux said while some newspapers might produce content influenced by what they think TIPA judges will want to see, this is not the focus of The Battalion. “Our main purpose throughout the year is to provide content we think students on campus want to read and need to read,” Breaux said. “So for us, TIPA is a matter of taking a day aside and just reflecting on the past year’s worth of is sues and really trying to see what our strengths are — TIPA ON PG. 4 Hillary Clinton announces presidential bid STARTUP AGGIELAND Aggie-made app helps pet owners PetQuest gives advice from American, Chinese veterinarians By Josh Hopkins With more than 35,000 followers on the Chinese social media site Weibo, an Aggie-founded online app that answers pet- related questions in China has begun to gain steam. George Fang, PetQuest CEO and genetics doctoral candidate, said PetQuest collects de tailed information about an owners pet such as vaccination records, age and size so it can give specialized answers. The app has answered 1,300 questions in the past two months. Fang, who used to work as a veterinarian in China, said online information on pet health care in China is often ambiguous. At the same time, questions he would receive lacked the specifics necessary for him to help. “Did your cat eat something strange yester day? Did this cat get an object in his stomach? We don’t know,” Fang said. “So we have to have some kind of system where we think about that. Because every time we would go back and ask another question it takes longer, it’s not a real-time chatting.” PetQuest, Fang said, was the solution. The app has a mix of American and Chinese vet erinarian volunteers who answer questions, but he hopes to eventually transition to all Chinese veterinarians, who would work on a commission system. The main benefit for veterinarians work ing for PetQuest is the opportunity to practice and create a name for themselves, said Xintao She, biochemistry graduate student. “In addition to solving the needs for pet owners, we solve the need for those fresh Chi nese veterinarians because this is where they can get experience,” She said. “And this is where they can build up their reputation. So PETQUEST ON PG. 5 Weekend-long startup event expedites idea creation Students develop business ideas in 72 hours at 3 Day Startup weekend Caroline Ann Thomas, English senior, discusses her group's business idea. By Josh Hopkins Students from across campus created a business from scratch in 72 hours at the 3 Day Startup weekend. Richard Lester, clinical professor and exec utive director of the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship, said the 3-Day Startup weekend is intended to give motivated, en thusiastic students from multiple colleges the opportunity to learn about starting a business. “My hope is that number one, educational ly they understand the process of how to start up a business,” Lester said. “How do you get a team together, how do you form that team, how do you rapidly start identifying whether this startup business makes any sense or not.” Tyler Pearce, management senior and head of the leadership team at 3-Day Startup, said each of the 30 participating students brought in business ideas at the beginning of the week end. Through a voting process, the 30 ideas were narrowed down to six and participants were divided into teams. Jake Boaz, business administration sopho more, said his idea, called Faux, revolved around creating a new auxiliary cable for phones. “Basically the premise is whenever I try to connect to a music device through auxiliary with my phone, the cable never works with my phone case on, and so I constantly have to take my phone case on and off which is a really big pain for me, Boaz said. “So I want to come up with a cable that works with any phone case.” Another idea, Seat Hop, was presented as a marketplace for sports fans looking for better gameday seats. The idea was met with STARTUP ON PG. 5 By Lindsey Gawlik Putting to rest the speculation that has surrounded her the last few years, Hill ary Clinton announced Sunday afternoon she will officially run for president in 2016. The former secretary of state, senator and first lady announced her candidacy via a video titled “Getting Started.” The two- and-a-half minute video depicts Americans getting started on different projects or taking new steps in their own lives, before Clinton comes on screen. “I’m running for president,” Clinton said near the end of the video. “Everyday Ameri cans need a champion, and I want to be that champion. So you can do more than just get by, you can get ahead, and stay ahead, because when families are strong America is strong.” Clinton’s announcement comes a couple of weeks after Sen. Ted Cruz’s announce ment and just days after Sen. Rand Paul also announced his bid. Now that her candidacy has been formally announced, Clinton’s next stop on her cam paign trail will be first-to-vote Iowa, as she looks to connect with voters on a more per sonal level. “So I’m hitting the road to earn your vote, because it’s your time and I hope you’ll join me on this journey,” Clinton said in the video.
