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8 • The Red and Black • Fnday, May 18, 1990
FANFARE
Competition at the SEC Track Championships will continue
again today at the Spec Towns Track. The decathlon and hep
tathlon events, which started yesterday, will conclude today.
The events begin at 1:00 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.
Dogs lose to Commodores
By TREVOR PADGETT
Sports Editor
HOOVER, Ala. - For Vander
bilt, it was a victory. For Georipa.
it was what could have been.
The fifth seeded Commodores
took advantage of every opportu
nity en route to a 6-3 victory over
the second-seeded Bulldogs
Thursday in the first game of the
SEC baseball tournament.
'The game boiled down to a
couple of innings where we made
mistakes," Georgia coach Steve
Webber said. “And they got the
big hits when they had to?
How true.
Had it not been for a nightma
rish fifth inning, the Dogs would
have tied the Commodores 3-3.
Vandy entered the fourth in
ning without a hit and trailing 1-
0. But thanks to a hit batsman,
an error, and a wild pitch, the
Commodores left the fifth with a
3-1 lead they would never relin
quish.
Following a walk to Jeff
Martin, Dogs’ starter Dave
Fleming hit Vandy’s Alan Purdy
in the left thigh to put runners at
first and second
JefT Schifman then hit what
looked to be an inning-ending
double play ball to Georgia short
stop JR, Showalter. But in his
haste to get the speedy Schifman
at first, Showalter left the ball in
the dirt in front of second base,
leaving the bases loaded with no-
one out.
Commodore Scott Logan,
seizing the opportunity offered by
the Georgia miscues, singled
sharply back up the middle on
Fleming’s next pitch to score
Martin and Purdy. It would be
the Commodores only hit of the
inning.
Apparently rattled by the turn
of events, Fleming threw his next
pitch into the dirt It ricocheted
off the plate and over cather
Tommy Owen’s head, allowing
Schifman to score from third.
Fleming went on to hit another
batter in the fifth before retiring
to the side.
The nightmare continued for
the lefthander in the sixth, as the
Commodores scored two more
runs in a less-than-usual
manner.
Vandy’s Mike Skaggs led off
the inning with an infield
dribbler out of the reach of
Fleming on the left side of the in
field.
Rick Holt followed with a high-
bouncing single that hopped over
the head of first baseman Doug
Radziewicz.
One out later, Purdy knocked a
double of the center-field wall to
score Skaggs and Holt, giving
Vandy a commanding 5-1 lead.
While Fleming was having his
troubles in the middle innings,
Vanderbilt southpaw JoJo Smith
was cruising right along. The
sophomore, who earned his
second complete game victory of
the season over the Dogs, retired
all but four of the next 19 Georgia
batters he faced after giving up
an RBI single to DH Brian Jester
in the first inning.
The Commodores added an in
surance run in the top of the sev
enth on a bloop single by Skaggs.
McKay Smith answered for the
Dogs in their half of the seventh,
singling in Radziewicz.
The Dogs added their final run
in the eighth as Showalter, after
hitting a triple, scored on a
ground out from Jester.
Ironically, Vanderbilt closed
out the game on a 6-4-3 double
play, similar to the one that could
have been for the Dogs in the
fifth.
The Dogs will now face the
loser of the Florida-LSU game
today at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time
in the double elimination tourna
ment.
“In last year’s tournament we
came back after losing our first
game, and ended up in the fi
nals,” Webber said. ‘‘So we know
it can be done."
Diaz takes Georgia Netters to NCAAs
n
By RANDY WALKER
Sports Writer
As a boy growing up in San
Juan, Puerto Rico, Manuel Diaz
didn't dream of attaining fame on
the tennis court.
“I was mainly a baseball player,”
Diaz said, “Every kid wants to be
this player or that player. My
dream was to be a major league
baseball player."
But at age 14, when a teammate
on his father’s softball team
started playing tennis, Diaz and
his father were invited to watch
their friend take a tennis lesson.
“All of the sudden it was like
love at first sight," Diaz said. “I
told my Dad ‘I want to play this
game.’ I took a lesson and it was
addicting."
We’ve won the close
ones this year.’
—Manuel Diaz
Georgia tennis coach
Diaz’s dependency on tennis in
fluenced him away from dugouts
and baseball diamonds to even
tually become the skipper of the
Georgia men’s tennis team.
After an inaugural season as
coach in 1989, where his squad tore
through the field of the NCAA
Tournament before stumbling to
Stanford in the finals, Diaz and his
Dogs will begin their run toward
the 1990 NCAA title tommorrow in
Palm Springs, Calif. The Dogs will
play the winner of today’s Alabama
and Northwestern match.
“I never really expected to be at
the doorstep of a national
championship in my first year,”
said Diaz, who played at Georgia
from 1972-75. “Things seemed to
be going too good to be true.”
It was just a year earlier that
legendary coach Dan Magill
stepped down from coaching after
34 years, handing it over to Diaz.
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“1 had told Manuel, when 1
asked him to come be my assistant
coach in 1982, that he would su-
ceed me in a matter of time,”
Magill said
“I waH excited but at the same
time I was a little nervous,” Diaz
said. “But it was a good nervous
ness It was an exciting challenge.”
The challenge was met head on
by the successor, as the 1989 Dogs
achieved a 18-5 regular season re
cord, an SEC Championship, and a
5-8 seeding in the NCAA Tourna
ment.
Georgia bolted its way into the
NCAA finals defeating Southern
Cal, fourth-seeded Cal-Irvine and
Texas Christian all in singles to
advance to the finals against top-
seeded Stanford.
The Dogs and the Cardinal split
3-3 afler singles, and for the first
time in the tournament, the
Georgia doubles teams were forced
to take the courts.
“We were playing so well and we
were hoping that the fact that we
hadn’t played doubles all the way
to the finals wasn’t going to affect
us,” Diaz said. “But, in retrospect, I
think it did."
Stanford won straight set
matches at Nos 1 and 2 doubles to
clinch their second straight NCAA
tenm title 5-3.
While Diaz’s 1990 team mav not
have as much talent as his NCAA
finalist squad, Diaz believes that
its ability to fight through adver
sity could lift the Dogs through to
the finals again.
‘We’ve won the close ones this
year. That’s something that even
when you have better teams, you
don’t always have. This team has
that,” Diaz said.
‘They have a lot of internal forti
tude and a lot of competitive tough
ness,” he said. “If we can go out
there and compete the same way
we have been all year, I think we
have a good opportunity to beat
anybody.”
Feter Fmy/The Red and Black
Manuel Diaz: Georgia’s men’s tennis coach is looking for a
return trip to the finals
| Stationfest Tues. May 22 |
AND MUCH
396 S. Pope St. 548-7788
r—m Off Baxter Across from the dorms
ESI S3 Mon. - Sat. 10 to 6
May 21,1990
Tate Theatre
8 PM
$2.00 Students
$3.00 Non-Students
Tickets available at the ^
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