Baseball plays four against Rolfe rivals

ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, is the crippling illness that killed the Yankee great. In the Ivy League, though, it's been the Yankees from the Rolfe Division that have been hurting teams in the south's Gehrig Division. The Rolfe Division has taken 13 of 16 games from the Gehrig Division so far this season. After dropping three of four to Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend, Penn's baseball team looks to turn the tables when it meets the remaining Rolfe opponents -- Brown and Yale -- tomorrow and Sunday. "This is a big weekend because I feel that Yale is one of the top two teams in the Ivy League," Penn junior rightfielder and pitcher Armen Simonian said. The Quakers meet Rolfe's cellar dweller, Brown, tomorrow in a doubleheader at noon on the Bears' Aldrich Field. Brown, like Penn, has a young team, yet they managed a split in last weekend's games. "We don't want just a split. We have to sweep them. We need to get ahead of everybody in our division now," Penn pitching coach Bill Wagner said. The Bears, who are coached by first-year man Marek Drabinski, are led offensively by rightfielder Jeff Lawler, who is hitting .360 and leftfielder Brian Silston, a sophomore who is batting .345. However, Brown has struggled at the plate. They are next to last in the Ivy League with a .254 team batting average. A lack of power is evident in that they have just one home run thus far this season and have driven in just 67 runs in their 19 games. The Bears' strength is on the mound, although their pitchers' performances have been erratic. Penn flip-flops opponents this weekend with Columbia, and due to the Lions' recent problems, the Quakers staff expects to face Yale's and Brown's toughest pitchers. For Brown, that means senior lefty Aaron Simmons, who pitched a complete-game shutout against Cornell last Saturday, and right-handed freshman Brian Chase, who went the distance in the Bears' 3-1 win against Princeton Sunday. Even so, Brown's 9.44 team earned run average is the highest in the Ivy League. For the weekend, in all likelihood, Penn will stick with its usual four starting pitchers -- Alex Hayden, Simonian, A. B. Fischer and Mike Greenwood -- but Wagner and Seddon have not determined the order of the rotation yet. "Yale is definitely the stronger team, and I would prefer to throw against the stronger team," said Simonian, who boasts a 2.34 ERA. Offensively and defensively, the Quakers' coaches believe that the final lineup changes have been made. Sophomore Russ Farscht will start at first base -- instead of in the outfield -- to keep his bat (.352 average, 14 runs batted in) in the lineup, and Simonian will play in rightfield whenever he isn't pitching. "[The changes] will definitely strengthen us defensively," Wagner said. "We're going to have three people in the outfield who can handle all the balls, and I think Farscht will handle first base much better." Oliver Hahl will start at second base, with sophomore Shawn Spiezio ready to replace him or third baseman Glen Ambrosius, who is mired in a hitting slump. "It's a matter of people stepping up and doing the job," Quakers coach Bob Seddon said. "I really think we have the right combination now. There's no other way we can do it." Against Yale's strong pitching staff, the class of the Ivy League, Penn will need all its hitters to produce in the Sunday doubleheader at noon at Yale Field. Seddon expects that Mark Nagata, who was hit on his right hand by a ball in yesterday's practice, will be able to play designated hitter for the weekend's games. The junior leads the Quakers with a .400 batting average with five doubles and 13 RBIs. The Elis listing near the bottom of the Ivy League's team ERA statistics is misleading and more a factor of their powerful out-of-league schedule. Freshman Sudha Reddy of Yale was last week's Ivy Pitcher of the Week after a 1-0 win over Princeton in which he allowed just four base runners. Yet Reddy isn't even the ace of the staff. Rich Perez, a senior righty, sports a 3.32 ERA with a 4-1 record. Elis senior rightfielder Keith Caggiano is batting .316 and leads Yale with a .544 slugging percentage. Another senior, centerfielder Matthew Bird, leads Yale in nearly every other offensive category. "Yale will run at any time -- at awkward times. They do the unexpected; they try to screw the other team up," Simonian said. "It will work if you get underclassmen or people who are inexperienced, and they choke under pressure. Their main strategy is run, run, run." The speed game is something that Penn will be very conscious of against the Bulldogs. At the end of yesterday's practice, the Quakers spent nearly an hour fine-tuning their reactions to steal situations. "They'll try to intimidate you, and if you're not prepared, it will work," Seddon said.