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equestrian | No. 6 A&M hosts conference foe No. 2 Auburn on Friday at the Brazos County Expo Complex.
sports
swimming & diving | Olympian Breeja Larson, along with 12 other A&M swimmers and divers, were named to the All-SEC team Thursday. Larson was honored as the conference’s Female Swimmer of the Year, as voted on by league head coaches.
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Aggies set sights on tough matchups in Houston Michael Ayo
The Battalion fter a 10-game home stand to start the season, Texas A&M baseball will hit the road for the first time to face off against a trio of opponents Friday through Sunday in Houston. Minute Maid Park will host the Astros Foundation College Classic, where the Aggies will match up with top-ranked North Carolina, No. 12 Rice and Houston. Despite entering the weekend tournament fresh off a two-game series sweep of Northwestern State, the Aggies’ offense has failed to find a rhythm. Lacking big-time hitters — as evidenced by A&M’s absence of homeruns through 10 games —
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the team will have to continue to reap high-caliber production from the top of the lineup to have any success in Houston. Senior shortstop Mikey Reynolds and junior centerfielder Krey Bratsen, who typically bat first and second in the order, head into the weekend carrying nine-game hitting streaks. Reynolds and Bratsen lead the team in batting average this season, posting .436 and .359 marks, respectively. “I have a lot more confidence this year than I did last year,” Bratsen said. “I really need that right now. I don’t care how I do personally, as long as we keep winning.” The Aggies will also look for strong outings from sophomore
Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION
Junior catcher Troy Stein slides into third base during the Aggies’ 2-1 victory over Northwestern State. Stein finished with two hits, a triple and A&M’s leadoff run.
sports Aggies look to retain win streak Looking to defend its undefeated 18-0 record, the No. 5 Texas A&M softball team will travel to Orlando, Fla., to compete in the Citrus Classic Friday through Sunday.
Addition to athletic front office Athletic director Eric Hyman announced former student Will Stallworth, Class of 1959, will join the University as his special assistant. Stallworth, a civil engineer, was hired to support the department as it “embarks on the largest on-campus football facility improvement in the country.”
campus First Rudder act dies American pianist Harvey Lavan “Van” Cliburn Jr. — the first musician to perform at Rudder Auditorium after its 1973 opening — died Wednesday in Fort Worth.
nation Violence Against Women Act renewed The U.S. House of Representatives passed a renewal Thursday of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which will now go to President Obama for signing.
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Daniel Mengden, a dual-role player who has started two games on the mound and every other batting as designated hitter in the cleanup position. In the nine games he has played, Mengden is 2-0 with a 1.42 earned run average, while also ranking third on the team with a .355 batting average. “He’s a special player and he’s starting to feel comfortable,” head coach Rob Childress said. “He had a great freshman year and he’s going to have a really good sophomore year.” The highest-profile test for A&M in Houston will be its Sunday afternoon matchup with No. 1 North Carolina. The Tar Heels are 7-0 and have outscored their opponents 70-19 while averaging 10 runs a game. The Aggies manage just over four runs per game. “We haven’t really put on the performance that we can,” said sophomore catcher Mitchell Nau. “Guys have got their confidence up and it’s going to help us as a group.” For the Aggies to bring down the top team in the nation, they will have to contain the Tar Heels’ freshman outfielder, Skye Bolt. In North Carolina’s recent 18-5 rout of St. John’s University, Bolt went 2-4 with an RBI in an 18-5 rout of St. John’s. The freshman holds a .538 batting average with five doubles and eight RBIs. Texas A&M will also face a tough
Roger Zhang — THE BATTALION
Freshman reliever Matt Kent goes to the plate during A&M’s 2-0 loss against the University of Illinois-Chicago. The appearence was Kent’s career debut for the Aggies. test when it takes on in-state and former Southwest Conference rival Rice on Saturday. Over the past 10 years, the Owls have been highly competitive in baseball, placing a team in the College World Series five times and defeating Stanford for the NCAA Championship in 2003. The Owls enter the weekend ranked No. 12 in the nation with a
6-2 record. The Aggies will play their first game of the College Classic on Friday when they match up against hometown favorite, the Houston Cougars. The unranked Cougars have a 6-2 record and a three-game win streak.
Aggies honor late student’s legacy through concert Sam Hamad
Special to The Battalion exas A&M students will have the opportunity to support the organization that sophomore chemical engineering major Luke Urbanovsky — who died in a car accident last June — held close to his heart through a benefit concert Saturday at Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater. Josh Urbanovsky, Luke’s oldest brother, is in charge of the planning that has gone into making the “Carry Ahead Luke’s Legacy” concert possible and said the process has gone better than expected. “The city of College Station has worked with us tremendously to help make this show possible,” Josh said. “We are really fortunate to have such a great lineup performing. The bands all fell into place in very unique ways, but the similarity of each is represented by people who create amazing music and want to help change the world by supporting this amazing cause.” More than 460 people are expected to attend the concert in memory of Luke’s life and love for service.
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Sequester Continued from page 1
achieve these savings through badly-designed spending cuts that make no attempt whatever to distinguish between more sensible government spending and less sensible spending?” asked Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who co-authored the Republican proposal. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said that was precisely what Democrats had tried to do by proposing the deferral of Pentagon cuts until U.S. combat troops have come home from Afghanistan in two years’ time. At the same time, she said the Democrats had reasonably proposed replacing half of the pending cuts with higher taxes on “the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.” Boehner and House Republicans show no hurry to alter the cuts, contending they provide leverage with Obama in their demand for savings from government benefit programs. They are expected to launch legislation next week to replenish government coffers after current funding expires March 27. Some Republicans held out hope that the current struggle might lead to talks on completing work on a deficit reduction package that has been more than two agonizing years in the making. “The objective here ought to be not just to deal with sequester, but to deal with the underlying spending problems, which require tax reform” as well as reform of benefit programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, suggested that Congress take a more active approach. “The Constitution assigns Congress the power of the purse and the responsibility to appropriate federal funds,” Cruz said. “Congress should take up that obligation, pass a budget and finally get serious about
“It will be an amazing concert and with the people attending this, there will be amazing energy in the crowd,” Josh said. “But the truth is, without him living his life the way he did and impacting so many people’s lives already, none of this would be possible.” The money raised from the concert will go to the Luke Urbanovsky Texas A&M Foundation, an endowment in support of the Freshman Leadership Organization, MSC FISH, of which Luke was a member. MSC FISH is designed to shape its members into future leaders. Luke’s role in the organization was planning and executing Kyle Field Urbanovsky Day, an event that brings local charities to Kyle Field for students to participate in. “Someone’s impact on a community and school through an endowment can be the difference between someone’s involvement as a student or not,” said Steven Baker, sophomore business major and reducing federal spending.” Considering that 46 cents of every dollar the federal government spends is borrowed, Cruz said that Washington should cut more than 2.4 percent. “Our national debt exceeds the size of our entire economy, threatening future generations,” he said. “And, in the face of these grave economic challenges, Washington, D.C., is agonizing over a 2.4 percent cut.” In a cycle of crisis followed by compromise over the past two years, Obama and congressional Republicans have agreed to more than $3.6 trillion in long-term deficit savings over a decade. Each party fears the political fallout of confronting them on their own, but Democrats are reluctant to scale back programs that they count as their political birthright. For Cruz, the question is not whether or not administration is able to keep the nation’s best interests in mind, but rather if they are willing. “The Obama administration has the ability to implement the sequester so as to avoid damaging national security and compromising the best interests of Americans,” he said. “The only reason it might do otherwise would be to score partisan political points.” As constituted, the cuts would total $85 billion through the end of the current budget year — Sept. 30 — half each from defense and non-defense programs. Large parts of the budget are off-limits, including programs for veterans, Social Security and Medicare benefits. While the White House has issued a steady stream of severe warnings about the impact of across-theboard cuts. “This is not a cliff, but it is a tumble downward,” President Obama said. “It’s conceivable that in the first week, the first two weeks, the first three weeks, the first month ... a lot of people may not notice the full impact of the sequester.” — Staff and Wire report
member of MSC FISH. “The concert will allow FISH to expand its reach and welcome students to the organization Luke loved.” Zach Rozinsky, a sophomore electrical engineering major and assistant director of MSC FISH, said Luke’s attitude toward service will be an example for others. “A person can have a massive impact on a community or a school,” Rozinsky said. “It all depends on how they choose to leave their fingerprints. Luke’s life will show others what it means to be a selfless-servant. Luke was a giver, an entertainer and an outstanding friend.”
Concert start time The concert will be held at Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater Saturday with performances from Charlie Gore, Pat Ryan and others. Admission is $5 and gates open at 5:30 p.m.
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double-digit lead with less than six minutes to play in the game. Tennessee’s lead was cut to four with less than four minutes left. Freshman guard Courtney Walker would score the last 4 points for the Aggies, but Tennessee withstood the Aggies’ effort to take the 82-72 win. The Aggies now stand at 11-4 in conference play and 21-8 overall. “I like the competition of the Top 5 teams in our league,” head coach Gary Blair said. “And what we’re doing to make each other better. The last time I heard, it takes four to go to the Final Four and I wouldn’t ever count out an SEC team to get there, including ourselves, including Kentucky and Tennessee.”
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Field. Claiming to match the A&M administration’s poll question, Aggie Polling included a question that asked whether students supported raising “mandatory student fees” and “raising the sports pass price.” The Aggie Guardian reported that 76 percent of students said they do not support the proposal. Texas Aggie Conservatives lists among its officers Marc Pitts, who is also editor-in-chief of The Aggie Guardian. The publication’s first issue included articles on such topics as the selling of student sports passes, the UAF and the Athletics Department. In his letter of introduction for the publication, Pitts said, “university administration was not very cooperative in certain cases,” toward The Aggie Guardian.
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