Baseball team gets banged up on break

Quakers travel to St. Joseph's today at 3 p.m. The Penn baseball team's season has only just begun, but its future may have already been decided. While the Quakers went a lackluster 3-5 in Florida, more important questions and solutions may have arisen. The Penn pitching staff performed with stellar consistency, keeping every game close into the late innings. Team captain Dan Galles, flanked by Ed Haughey, Mike Shannon and Lance Berger sparkled. However, injuries began to take their toll on the Quakers. First, starting shortstop Mark DeRosa injured his shoulder sliding into third base. Starting catcher Rick Burt hurt his hamstring and may be out for a while. DeRosa, who is also the football team's starting quarterback in the fall, missed three games during the Rollins Baseball Week Tournament, but eventually he did return to bat in the designated-hitter slot. Burt missed the last game of the spring-break trip and probably will not play in today's 3 p.m. contest at St. Joseph's. "Rick Burt hurt his hamstring," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "He is the key to our season. We have lots of guys behind him, but very little experience. We also need Mark to get healthy quickly." The Quakers began their spring break slowly, dropping their first few games. St. Leo, which began its season weeks ago, beat Penn twice. Seddon believes Penn should have won one of the games. "We started off pretty slowly," Burt said. "We didn't do as well as we'd have liked, but we won our last two and feel we are rolling at just the right time." The tournament field itself was comprised solely of fellow cold-weather schools playing in their first games of the 1995 season. Against these other schools burdened by sub-freezing weather, the Quakers amassed a 3-1 record behind solid pitching and the all-tournament performances of Tim Henwood and junior sensation Mike Shannon. "Mike does it all," Burt said. "He pitched well, but he hit the ball really hard also. He's just the complete player." The turnaround was epitomized by Penn's performances against Purdue. After being buried by the Boilermakers 10-0 earlier in the week, the rematch was a different story. In the Quakers' final game of the tournament, Penn jumped all over Purdue and pounded the Boilermakers 6-1. "We're feeling really good," Burt said. "Taking the last two games was a big confidence booster. We've forgotten about all the negatives." The negatives included losing many games in the final innings. Unlike Ivy League games, which are only seven innings, these tournament contests were nine innings. And after the starting pitchers left closely fought games, the team either gave up key runs or failed to produce from the plate in clutch situations. Still, the Quakers won three of their four contests against cold-weather squads. However, junior centerfielder Sean Turner confessed, "There really was not too much excitement." · The Penn baseball team will play its first Philadelphia game today at St. Joe's (3 p.m.). The Quakers did not face their cross-town rival last season. In fact, Seddon, Penn's baseball coach for the past 25 years, visited the St. Joe's field yesterday just to see where it was. Even though both teams play just minutes from each other, the Quakers have never played at St. Joe's before.

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