Speeding into the Future

With newfound speed and an exceptional freshman class, the 1997 Penn baseball team will try to win the Ivy League title - the championship they are expected to win a few years down the road. It's usually not healthy to compare apples and oranges, but the similarities between the Penn baseball team and the Penn men's basketball squad are simply eerie. The recent histories of both teams are almost identical in wins, losses, lost championships, excellent freshmen and a bright future. This trend is exactly what the sluggers want to put an end to. Unlike the basketball squad, they want to see their bright future realized this very season. But if this baseball-basketball resemblance can be said to predict anything, it will be another year or two before the Quakers can return to the Ivy League Championships. Last year, after the hoops team lost their five talented senior starters, the Quakers were still Ivy favorites, returning a few experienced veterans. Two years ago, the baseball squad lost three of their four dominant pitchers, including first team All-Ivy hurler Ed Haughey. But returning the most experienced infield, including now-minor league shortstop Mark De Rosa, the Red and Blue were expected to keep looking down from their perch at the top of the Gehrig Division. Last year, after tying for the Ivy title, the basketball squad lost its NCAA Tournament play-in game to Princeton. Last summer, the Penn baseball team needed to win two of its final four games at Princeton to earn the division title. The Quakers fell asleep and lost all four. Cornell came to the rescue, however, and split four games with the Tigers to force the year's second Penn-Princeton NCAA Tourney play-in. The result, however, was the same, as a ninth-inning sacrifice fly ended Penn's season. With the basketball team showing off its three prized freshmen this year, the baseball team will have its own solid core of freshmen, led by starting second baseman Oliver Hahl. And just like their basketball compatriots, veterans will see the starting roles at the beginning, but Penn coach Bob Seddon envisions more freshmen earning starting jobs toward the end of the season. "I'm not going to fill this team early with freshmen," Seddon said. "I'm going to use veterans at first. I don't know if the freshmen knew what they were getting in to." But it will be the veterans, like junior pitcher Armen Simonian, who will need to step up if the Quakers want a trophy for the case in Weightman Hall. "People are going to have to pick up their game and get back the base hits we lost to graduation," said Seddon, referring to the 250 combined hits by now-alumni Mike Shannon, Sean Turner, Rick Burt, De Rosa and Derek Nemeth. Simonian will be expected to be a big factor in caulking the offensive hole left by those five players. The Emerson, N.J., native spent this summer playing for the Bourne Braves of the prestigious Cape Cod League, where every big-name baseball school in the country sends players. Playing both third base and pitching over the course of the rigorous six-games-per-week schedule, Simonian faced teams echelons higher than the ones Penn plays over the course of a season. "In Cape Cod, everybody can hit well, and in college, some guys are strong, some guys are weak," Simonian said. "You face schools' No. 1 pitchers all the time there, while at Penn you'll see a No. 2 or 3. "Coming back and playing in college is like coming down a notch." Although Simonian played third base and pitched in Cape Cod, Seddon was reluctant to do the same thing, fearing problems with his arm. Instead, Seddon will probably start Simonian at first unless he is scheduled to pitch. Simonian also gained experience over the summer while trying out for the U.S. Olympic team as a walk-on. Before the Cape Cod season, Simonian flew to Tennessee and made it to the final cuts. At this point, the other three starters are Mike Greenwood, A.B. Fischer and Alex Hayden. Todd Mahoney may also see a few mid-week starts during the year. But it is the pitching which has Seddon concerned. Despite losing only Shannon, who heads to the Phillies' spring training in Florida this week, to graduation, Seddon says his next round of recruits is all hurlers. Shannon also patrolled first base when not pitching, and with third baseman Derek Nemeth and De Rosa leaving as well, it would appear that the infield has a few holes in it. But that is not so. Seddon says that, with the freshmen, Penn is just as deep as it was last year. Junior Joe Carlon, after playing last year at second base, makes the transition back to his native position at shortstop. And while Seddon had struggled with the idea of playing Simonian at third, Glenn Ambrosious, a transfer from West Virginia with freshman status, received his eligibility. Ambrosious, who was ineligible to play defensive back for the Penn football team this fall, appealed to the NCAA and received eligibility for the baseball season. The outfield lost its centerfielder, Sean Turner, but Jeremy Milkin and Drew Corradini return. Sophomore Russ Farscht, who played at first and in right field on occasion in 1996, will start in right when Simonian is on first. But the Quakers' biggest asset this season is their speed especially at the top of the order. "[Freshman Kevin] McCabe runs a 3.9 to first," Seddon said. "There is a lot of speed at the top of the order." Outside of the Ivy League, Seddon says that this schedule is the toughest he has had in his 27-year career. In addition to tough Philadelphia teams such as Drexel and Villanova, Penn is already en route to California where they will face two members of the top 25: California State-Northridge and Fresno State. "You always want to play competition above your level," Carlon said. The trip to California will provide the opportunity to show off for the coaches, as Seddon says he will play people just to see how they perform. It will also be the first time the freshman class will show off what they're made of. The class of 2000, however, is not its own clan, says Simonian. "They've meshed with our team quicker than I've ever seen," Simonian said. "It feels like they've been around for awhile." But the length of time the freshman class has been around isn't the issue. It's how long until Penn wins another Ivy championship.