Baseball looks to the heavens

The Quakers will keep an eye to the sky to see if bad weather will postpone their home opener against St. Joseph's. After struggling last week in California against nationally ranked opponents, the Penn baseball team is anxious to return home to Bower Field and face the less-talented St. Joseph's Hawks (4-7-1) this afternoon. Penn coach Bob Seddon is convinced that the Quakers' low batting average and high earned run average is more a testament to the strength of their opponents than a result of the loss of Mark DeRosa's clutch hitting and Mike Shannon's two-way heroics. "We played very high competition," Seddon said. "We could have played Dartmouth's schedule which isn't very impressive and just win some games." But an opponent tougher than any team they faced out west -- the weather -- may prevent the game from taking place. At the conclusion of yesterday's practice, the Quakers performed one additional drill -- unrolling the tarpaulin onto the field. The tarp will likely stay on the field all day tomorrow. Although Penn (3-6) is scheduled to take on St. Joseph's in their home opener at 3 p.m., forecasts call for a mixture of rain and snow. Seddon expects the storm to hit before his team can take the field. Even though the Quakers are anxious for their home opener, a rainout may work out to be a surprise blessing for the Red and Blue. If the skies hold up this afternoon, Seddon is faced with the dilemma of who to pitch. Each member of the four-man starting rotation, seniors Mike Greenwood and A.B. Fischer, junior Armen Simonian and sophomore Ray Broome, is slated to start one game this weekend. And the coaching staff is wary about sending one of the freshmen to the hill. So if the weather clears, the Penn coach will instead rely heavily on the bullpen to pitch the middle innings, with starters Fischer and Greenwood getting some work in the early innings. Travis Arbogast, Penn's closer, is slated for the ninth. Fischer earned a complete game victory in last week's 9-2 victory over Portland. The righthander should keep the Hawks off-balance with an assortment of off-speed and breaking pitches. The staff's ace, Greenwood will follow Fischer onto the mound. Greenwood got roughed up for seven earned runs in five innings last Monday against Cal State-Northridge. Despite the poor results, he was throwing all four of his pitches over the plate. "I was fairly satisfied with my performance," Greenwood said. "But not with the results." Arbogast has been hit hard this season, allowing seven earned runs in just four innings pitched. Last season, Arbogast earned Penn's Outstanding Rookie Award, posting a team-best 3.00 ERA in 21 innings pitched. Offensively, Seddon will not announce a starting lineup until he sees if the Hawks send a righty or lefty to the mound. But either way, the coach has kept the top five spots in the order more or less in tact thus far, with centerfielder Drew Corradini leading off, followed by third baseman Glen Ambrosius, Simonian at first base batting third, left fielder Jeremy Milken fourth, and shortstop Joe Carlon fifth. Two pleasant surprises for the Quakers have been Ambrosius' speed on the bases and the newfound pop in Carlon's bat. A transfer from West Virginia who will also play football, Ambrosius has been the sparkplug to the Quakers offense. Last season Penn was conservative on the base paths, with no player stealing more than six bags. Ambrosius has already been quite the thief this season, swiping four bases in his first nine games. As much as Ambrosius has surprised the Quakers with his foot speed, Carlon's increased bat speed was even less expected. Last season, Carlon hit just three home runs in 144 at-bats. But after spending the winter working out with the team's weight trainer, Rob Izza, it looks that Carlon will add some pop to the middle of the lineup. "It is a pretty intense weight training program," Carlon said. "As a team, our strength has increased, and I think it showed on our trip." Carlon already has matched his three long balls from last season in just 28 at-bats. If Carlon can keep up this pace, it will make up for some of Shannon or DeRosa's lost production. Today's scheduled contest will provide a strong indication of how the 1997 Quakers will fair in the Ivy League. The question now is if the weather will let this game be played.

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