The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 21, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 31, 1999 Page: 3 of 4
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THE RICE THRESHER
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31. 1999
tennis teams
sweep weekend matches
CARTER BROOKING/THRESHER
UNLV's Harold Betts (No. 14) gets the best of a collision at the plate with junior catcher John Lukin in the fourth Inning
Sunday. Betts scored on the play to cut the Rice lead to 9-4, but the Owls pulled away from the Rebels to win 16-5.
Owls bounce back against UNLV
by Jose Luis Cubria
THRKKHKK KDITOKIAL STAFF
There is no such thing as a must-
win game with nearly two months
remaining in the regular season. But
the final game of last weekend's
three-game Western Athletic Con-
ference series between Rice andlhe
University of Nevada at Las Vegas
was the next closest thing.
In the series' second game Satur-
day, the Owls led the Rebels 5-1 go-
ing into the ninth inning. However,
an eight-run UNLV rally propelled
the visitors to an improbable 9-6 win
and left Rice apparently demoralized
going into the series finale.
But Sunday, the Owls left abso-
lutely no doubt as to who was the
better team when they smashed the
Rebels 16-5 behind a season-high 20
hits and clutch relief pitching by sopho-
more right-hander Kenny Baugh.
-The win, coupled with Rice's 11-
6 come-from-behind win in the se-
ries opener, boosted the Owls to 9-3
in the WAC, while the Rebels fell to
5-4. Texas Christian University sits
in first place at 10-2 and San Jose
State University, which Rice visits
for a crucial thre^-game series start-
ing tomorrow, is in second at 7-2.
But if not for Sunday's win, the
Owls would be worrying about more
than just the conference standings.
"We needed that," senior short-
stop Damon Thames said. "I know I
was down on myself [after Saturday's
game], and I think the team was
down in general. But it was huge just
being able to look ourselves in the
mirror and say, 'You know, we are a
good team, we ju st have to get things
straight and get ready to play.'"
It didn't take the Owls long to
show they were ready to play Sun-
day as they exploded for seven runs
on seven hits in the first inning.
"It was critical," Head Coach
Wayne Graham said. "It's not the
end of the world if we hadn't come
back like that. But it shows a lot
about the character of the team that
they did come back and hit the ball
well and were determined to win.
It's a great comeback from the big-
gest downer of the year."
However, the lead might not have
stood up if not for Baugh's stellar
relief work. The Rebels managed to
tighten the score at 9-4 and were
threatening further damage when
Baugh came into the game with two
on and two out in the fourth. But he
got the first man he faced to hit into
a fielder's choice to end the^threat.
'Baseball bites you in the
butt sometimes ... and it
bit me.'
4— Stephen Bess
Senior closer
Baugh threw the final 5.1 innings,
giving up just three hits and one
earned run while striking out five to
pick up his fifth win of the year and
his second of the week.
"When I first came in, it was re-
ally important to get that first out,"
Baugh said. "From there on out, it
wasn't really tough because when
you've got a big lead like that, you
can just sit up there, relax and let
your fielders play behind you."
The Owl hitters did all they could
to help after the first inning as they
added seven runs in the middle in-
nings and tied a season high with 16
runs. Seven different Owls had at
least two hits. Thames led the way,
going 4-6 with three runs and four
RBIs, and sophomore third baseman
Terrana treats record crowd as Owls beat A&M 7-6
A&M, from Page 1
Terrana, who had pitched just six
innings all year, came into the game
for junior starter Jeff Nichols in the
fourth with the game tied 4-4. The
Aggies were threatening to take the
lead with men on first and second
and just one out, but Terrana got the
first man he faced to ground into an
inning-ending double play.
Terrana went on to throw 3.2 in-
nings, giving up no runs and just one
hit while striking out four, before
tiring in the eighth. In that frame, he
gave up two runs which tied the
game, but his clutch performance
was key nonetheless.
"Pete stepped up huge and that's
the only win you can win ballgames,"
Curry said. "You have to have people
step up, people that maybe aren't
expected to do it. Pete came in in a
huge way. We threw two of our top
pitchers [in Kurtz-Nicholl and
Nichols], and Pete actually stood
out more than they did."
"I'm just glad I got the opportu-
nity to help the team out," Terrana
said. "All year, it's been about differ-
ent guys picking each other up, and
today it was my turn."
TTiough Terrana's performance
was somewhat of a surprise consid-
ering he had not pitched much this
yearv KurU-Nicholl did what he's
been doing all year.
With one out and the tying run at
third, he relieved Terrana in the
eighth and quickly struck out an
Aggie pinch hitter. The next batter
hit an RBI single up the middle that
tied the game at 6-6, but Kurtz-
Nicholl struck out another pinch
hitter to end the inning.
After the Owls regained the lead
in the bottom of the eighth, Kurtz-
Nicholl shut the Aggies down in the
ninth with two strikeouts and a flyou t
to pick up his third win of the year.
"When I get two outs, I need to
keep that run from scoring and that's
completely my fault," Kurtz-Nicholl
said. "But once we got the run back,
I told myself that my team picked
me.up and'it was time for me to go
out there and pick them up."
"Jesse stepped in again like he's
been doing all year long," Terrana
said. "With the game on the line, he
didn't even give them a chance."
by Ben Weston
l HKFSHFK FDITOKIAI. STAFF
Matt Fox went 3-5 with three RBIs.
"We really needed this," Fox said.
"It's one of the first times we've shown
the killer instinct We usually get a
lead and kind of rest on it, but we
battled. We really needed it... to show
that we have the killer instinct in us to
go ahead and put people away."
The game was so vital for Rice
because of Saturday's embarrassing
debacle. Junior lefty Mario Ramos
was magnificent through the first
eight innings, holding UNLV to just
six hits and one unearned run while
striking out eight.
But senior closer Stephen Bess,
who had given up just three runs in
17 appearances coming into the
game, was rocked for eight runs,
five hits and four walks (one inten-
tional) in what was his worst appear-
ance of the year.
"I went out a little too comfort-
able — not arrogant, but feeling the
game was pretty much over."' Bess
said. "But I didn't have any com-
mand. I couldn't set anything up
because I was missing everything.
"It was like everything went
wrong," he said. "But every once in a
while, that's going to happen. Base-
ball bites you in the butt sometimes.
I've been pushing my luck anyway
with my lack of location, and it bit me."
In the series opener, senior first
baseman Jacob Baker hit an oppo-
site-field grand' slam, the Owls' first
of the year, and senior Jesse Kurtz-
Nicholl threw 5.1 near-perfect innings
of relief to help lift Rice to the win.
Before Baker's slam, Rice trailed
6-4 and appeared to be on its way to
losing the game.
"That was a huge hit by Jacob,"
junior center fielder Jason Gray said.
"The momentum swing from being
down by two and then being up by
two just gave us the confidence to
say, 'All right, this game is ours, we
just have to finish it off.'"
While most students spent Satur-
day at Beer-Bike, the men's and
women's tennis teams spent the day
sweeping three dual matches. The
men routed both their opponents at
Jake Hess Tennis Stadium, beating
the University of New Orleans 7-0
and Centenary College 5-1, to up
their win streak to seven.
Meanwhile, the women upended
Western Athletic Conference rival
Southern Methodist University 5-1
in Dallas for their third straight con-
ference victory.
The men's team was without se-
nior Efe Ustundag and freshman
Fabien Giraud for both its matches,
since NCAA regulations limit the
number of matches in which an indi-
vidual can participate. But the ab-
sences made little difference Satur-
day, as neither match was overly
difficult. The rest of the Owls were
glad to get more match practice be-
fore tomorrow's dual match at third-
ranked Baylor University.
"If you don't go out and play hard
... anybody can beat anybody," fresh-
man Otmane Bennani-Smires said.
"They have to be ready for us and if
they're not, hopefully we can pull
out an upset."
Against New Orleans, junior Rob-
ert Collins won 6-4, 6-4 while taking
over the top spot for Ustundag.
Collins' win was arguably the Owls'
least convincing in singles play as
Rice won each match in straight sets.
At No. 2, freshman Prakash
Venkataraman won 6-1, 6-2, and se-
nior Shane Stone won 7-6, 6-3 at the
third spot. Freshman Kevin
Hargrove, playing singles for only
the second time this season, won 7-
6, 6-3 at No. 5. Bennani-Smires (6-0,
6-4) and fellow freshman Rafael
Reyes (6-4, 6-2) pulled out relatively
easy wins at Nos. 4 and 6.
In doubles, Collins and
Venkataraman were challenged, but
the pair came away with a 9-7 win at
No. 1. Hargrove and Bennani-Smires
won 8-1 at No. 2, and Reyes and Stone
took the third doubles victory 8-5.
"The teams weren't great, but it
was good to play [them]," Collins
said. "It was good for Rafael to get a
match and Kevin to play some
singles."
The story was much the same
against Centenary. The four fresh-
men pulled out two-set wins in
singles, and Collins showed he could
handle the top position with a 6-1, 6-
4 win.
After Rice took five of the six
singles matches to secure the win,
both schools' coaches decided to
forgo doubles play. And now the
only thing the men (15-6) have to
worry about is heading up to Waco
for tomorrow's match.
The players have a lot of respect
for the Baylor program, but they
have also faced better teams in tin-
past two months, including Stanford
University and the University oi
California at Los Angeles, both of
which are also ranked in the top five.
"They're not overwhelmingly
good - they're just solid," Collins
said. "They are very beatable."
While the men took two relatively
easy matches, the women continued
to show they are a force to be reck-
oned with in the WAC. The Owls'
victory over the Mustangs was their
third road win in eight days against a
WAC opponent, pushing their over-
all conference record to 4-0.
"We knew that it was really im-
portant, especially playing on the
road," junior Elle Lewis said.
The match began well as five ol
the six Owls won their first sets, but
rain temporarily suspended play
Both teams had to go inside to wait
until the hosts could find open in-
door courts. Once they finally got
back to the matches, the Owl-
quickly got back to work.
At No. 1, Lewis shook off a recent
streak of inconsistent play to take a
6-3,6-7 (10-8), 6-2 win. Senior J ustyna
Gudzowska (6-2,5-7,6-3) and sopho-
more Erin Waters (6-3, 6-2) added
wins at Nos. 3 and 4. At the fifth spot,
freshman Judith Hagedorn won the
- second Rice tiebreaker of the day to
take a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory.
Doubles play was short and sweet
- Gudzowska and Waters won 8-3 at
the top spot, securing the Rice win
and stopping freshman Natalie
Briaud in mid-match (she was up 6-
4, 2-0 at the time). Now 12-4 overall,
the Owls have a week off before
facing yet another WAC rival when
they host the University of Texas at
El Paso April 11.
"They are right on the edge where
we should beat them if we play well,
but they're still good," I.ewis said.
Wiess Cabinet to respond
W1ESS, from Page 1
that they're going to change their
mind later. It doesn't seem practi-
cal."
Hutchinson gave students at the
meeting his spin on the problem. "It
is a higher priority to house things
in h^re in the interim than to rebuild
Wiess," he said. "That tells you where
you stand."
And to make the deteriorating
Wiess College suitable for office and
storage, it may need some renova-
tion of its own. "Does Rice pump a
lot of money into a building they're
going to demolish two years later?"
Lundin asked.
Many Wiess students were an-
gered that their opinions in the mat-
ter was not sought by the adminis-
tration. "Currie's job is really not to
speak to us but to choose what will
go on in the future, and I guess he
just doesn't recognize the fact that
we do care about the future, even
beyond the point where we gradu-
ate," sophomore Doward Hudlow
said.
Sophomore Susan Stein agreed.
'They call us apathetic, but when
you do stuff like this it encourages
apathy," she said. "You make it obvi-
ous to students that they have no say
in what's going on at this school."
Wiess junior and cabinet mem-
ber Roger Pine said the administra-
tion needs student input to ad-
equately understand the ramifica-
tions of changes to the college sys-
tem. "It seems to me that the admin-
istration does not fully understand
... that a college is more than just a
building where they have a master
and RAs and a bunch of students
who chant the same cheers." Pine
said. "This really goes against what
Edgar Odell Lovett was envisioning
when he envisioned the college sys-
tem."
And the perceived administrative
disregard for student opinion is not
isolated to this one issue, some stu-
dents said. Meeting attendees men-
tioned the exclusion of advisers from
matriculation, the devising of the
common kitchen servery plan and
the elimination of a Health Services
building from construction plans.
"I fear that with the past actions
of the administration that student
opinion will again be severely
discounted," senior Marcin Szajda
said.
The conclusion of the meeting
was to charge the Wiess Cabinet
with formulating an official response,
taking into consideration the com-
ments and concerns from the meet-
ing.
"I hope the final solution will be
some type of plan in which the stu-
dents who call themselves Wiess
College will be in a building called
Wiess College and will be settled
permanently as soon as possible,"
Pine said.
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McAlister, Jett & Tam, Mariel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 86, No. 21, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 31, 1999, newspaper, March 31, 1999; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246645/m1/3/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.