Penn and Lions have four games up for grabs

The Ivy season opens with two doubleheaders starting today. At the close of practice, Penn's baseball team did everything expected of a team anxious to start the Ivy League season -- some players scrambled to put away equipment, others sat and joked excitedly while still others polished up their game spikes. They all seemed ready to usher in the weekend, which features noon doubleheaders against Columbia (2-10-1, 0-0 Ivy League) on Friday at Penn's Bower Field and Saturday at the Lions' Andy Coakley Field. If Penn (7-8, 0-0) wins three games or sweeps against the Columbia, the Quakers will take early command of the Gehrig Division. "We're the only two teams playing in the league, and you want to get off to a good start," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "Once you go down 0-4, forget it. It's very difficult to come back. Go down 1-3, it's also very difficult. If you split, you're back even with everyone? We have to play better. We're in the league now -- this is when it counts." Last year, Penn got off to a strong league start on its way to a second-place finish with a sweep of Columbia in four hotly contested games. At home, the Quakers won 4-1 and 4-2, and while at Columbia, Penn escaped with 3-2 and 4-3 victories. The team and Seddon expect more of the same in this weekend's showdown. "Columbia's hitting the ball really well, and we have to stop that," he said. "Their pitching is better than it's shown." "Every Ivy game is a grudge match, so this weekend's going to be really tough," Quakers first baseman Trent Nagata added. "Hopefully, we'll get off to a 3-1 or 4-0 start. There's no reason why we shouldn't. We've got solid hitting, solid pitching, solid fielding." Columbia's batsmen are leading the Ivy League in hitting with a .310 team batting average. Seven Lions have batting averages equal or better than .314. Leading the way for the Lions is centerfielder David Lewis, who ranks third among league hitters with a .404 batting average. Chasing him are Columbia's leftfielder Gary Kahn (.396), third baseman Gerard Galella (.394), first basemen Jason Halper (.390) and Ivy League Player of the Week Travis Hunter (.362). "I don't pay too much attention to other team's stats. No matter what a guy's doing, you have to pitch, you have to throw strikes, you have to keep the ball down, you have to get ahead," said Mike Greenwood (2-2, 7.04 earned run average), who will pitch the first game for Penn. "Good pitching stops good hitting," Seddon quipped. "So if their pitching is good and we don't hit, it's going to be tough to win. If our pitchers throw well, we'll stop them." Columbia is coming off a relatively low-scoring 5-3 loss to St. John's on Wednesday. The performance supports Seddon's contention that the Lions' pitching staff is better than it appears on paper. Columbia, with a 7.34 ERA, ranks just behind Penn in team ERA. Opponents, however, are batting .329 against the Lions' staff. The Quakers will face three right-handed starters and one left-hander, according to Seddon. "We have a pretty good right-handed hitting lineup," Seddon said. "You'll see Trent Nagata (.280) at first base and Russ Farscht (.324) in right field, Glen Ambrosius (team-leading 16 hits) at third and Joe Carlon is ready to go [at shortstop after a hand injury]." Against Columbia, Seddon is hoping the Quakers' offense executes better than in Wednesday's disappointing 8-4 loss at the hands of St. Joseph's, especially in bunt situations. He explained that Penn worked on bunting "for about an hour yesterday. We haven't been executing lately. We've been bunting to the mound." Seddon is looking for defensive leadership this weekend from veterans like Carlon and offensively from cleanup hitter Mark Nagata and second baseman/third baseman Armen Simonian. "We've been coming out really strong in the first inning in the last five games. We have to keep that intensity throughout the whole game," Trent Nagata said. "We can't just score in the first inning and then sit on our laurels. We have to keep them down, and go after them." Seddon will use two senior pitchers to start the weekend series. In addition to Greenwood, right-hander A. B. Fischer (1-0, 5.17 ERA) will start the second game of the doubleheader. On Saturday, Simonian (2-1, 3.66 ERA), the Ivy League Pitcher of the Week, will start the first game, and senior righty Alex Hayden (1-1, 7.20 ERA) will be the fourth starter of the weekend. "Obviously, you want to win the first game of any weekend," said Greenwood, who noted that he feels completely recovered from a weakening preseason bout with mononucleosis. "I'm more than confident. We're going to score a lot of runs. That's not a concern of mine at all. We've got some big sticks in the lineup, we've got a lot of depth in the lineup as opposed to the last few years when we only had three or four guys that we depended on. Anyone in the lineup can get the job done. "This is a big weekend, and we're ready for it. I know we're ready for it." All the Quakers are waiting for is the cry of "Play ball!"