BASEBALL NOTEBOOK: An afternoon drizzle cancels Bower Field opener

The off-day gave the baseball team time to evaluate areas that need improvement and deal with the departure of Ed Kimlin. The sunny skies of their Florida trip were a distant memory for the Penn baseball team when it woke to the gloom of West Philadelphia yesterday. The Quakers hoped to play West Chester, but a foreboding forecast and cloudy skies forced the game to be postponed. Penn will have to wait until Saturday to try and gain its third win of the year. "We came back from Florida and just wanted to play," Penn pitcher Armen Simonian said. "We just need to play to see how good we are, because our record right now doesn't show it." The Quakers, who suffered a five-game tailspin at the end of their Florida trip, badly needed a win. West Chester, who has started the season 0-9, was a likely victim. Now Penn Coach Bob Seddon is unsure if he will be able to reschedule the game due to conflicts in the future weeks. "It hurts that the game was canceled. This is a game we wanted," Seddon said. "We need a game to get our confidence up." The Quakers, who started their season with nine games in nine days, will now have a week between games. Seddon was able to find some silver lining in the clouds as his injured players received some more time to heal their wounds. Yet a victory would have had the entire team feeling a lot better. · Penn returned from Florida with one player less than it left with. Senior pitcher Ed Kimlin left the team Monday to focus on academics and medical school. Kimlin, who will apply to med schools after he graduates this year, was faced with the difficult decision of choosing between baseball or med school. He soon realized he was compromising his performance in both areas by dividing his time. "You always try to put everything you have out on the field," Kimlin said. "If I continued to play it wouldn't have been bad for just me, but for the entire team." Kimlin had picked up one of Penn's wins so far this year, and was expected to be a major contributor after compiling a 2-3 record and a 5.68 ERA last year. Seddon was disappointed by Kimlin's decision and its unfortunate timing. "He just came back from Florida and quit the team," Seddon said, "so I'm not going to comment on it. He had a tough trip." Yet Simonian indicated that the team respects Kimlin's decision to concentrate on academics. Kimlin believed he needed to get away from Penn to think clearly about his choice, which resulted in Seddon's view of poor timing. "I wish he could understand," Kimlin said. "I could not make a decision of that magnitude before I left Penn for the Florida trip." · The loss of Kimlin adds to Penn's pitching troubles in their young season. The Quakers have an ERA hovering around nine and opponents have hit the pitchers to the tune of a .347 average. Yet the stats from the Florida trip could be misleading. "A few of the guys have stepped up, although it's hard to say that from the Florida trip," Simonian said. "It seems like each guy has taken the one or two things he had trouble with and really worked on them." On a promising note, the Quakers may have found a starter to complement staff ace Armen Simonian. Junior Ray Broome is second on the team with a 2.89 ERA and a .229 opponents batting average in his two appearances this season. The 6'4" left-hander could give the Quakers a solid second starter behind Simonian, who once again leads Penn in most of the major pitching categories. · Opponents are running wild on the basepaths against the Quakers this year. Opposing runners have been getting the green light and have swiped 30 bases from the Quakers this season in just nine games. "It's the worst stat," Seddon said. "Its terrible and abominable that we have given up that many steals." While base runners have an 82 percent success rate when they run against catcher Dave Corleto, Seddon is quick to deflect blame away from his senior backstop. He believes his pitching staff hasn't been keeping the runners honest on the basepaths. "I don't care who is on first base," Seddon said, "If you always look three times, and then throw, he'll be running on the pitch." Many of the stolen base plays haven't been close this year despite Corleto's strong arm. The Quaker hurlers have been practicing all week on their pick-off moves to try and hold the runners closer to the base.

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