Baseball hopes to turn around ship at UMBC

In its first contest of the season not played in California, the Penn baseball team travels to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County for the schools' first-ever meeting at 3 p.m. today. "This game will be very competitive," Penn coach Bob Seddon said. "[UMBC] has beaten a couple of good programs? and it's their home field." The Quakers (1-8) ran into a slew of strong teams last week at the Pepsi-Johnny Quick Classic in Fresno, Calif., and come into today's game on a six-game losing streak. "We know we have to play better," senior shortstop Glen Ambrosius said. "We were a little disappointed at the end of our trip, but at this point we just have to flush what happened away. Hopefully we can just get out there and make the plays." Ambrosius and junior catcher Jeff Gregorio have contributed 11 hits apiece, and both have homered this year. Ambrosius, who said he is "seeing the ball very well," also has eight RBIs. Averaging 10 hits per game, the Quakers have a viable offense. Seddon stressed, however, that Penn needs to be more consistent with its defense and pitching. Penn has committed 32 errors in nine games. But these miscues, mostly throwing errors, should be reduced as the squad sees more action outdoors. "When you're indoors, all the hops are true and there are no intangibles," junior leftfielder Jeremy McDowell said. "We just need to get back to fundamentals." Junior Sean McDonald will get the start on the mound for the Quakers. The righthander was 4-2 in '98 and leads the staff in strikeouts this year but has already absorbed three losses. No matter who is pitching, though, Penn needs to cut down on its one walk per inning average. Against UMBC (3-5), the Quakers staff will be tested by Retrievers senior catcher Steve Tomshack. First-team All-Southern Conference in '98, Tomshack brings back a bat that hit for a .407 average with 17 home runs. UMBC dropped its first five games but has now won its last three. The Retrievers' strong staff has yet to give up more than seven runs in a game. Today is the Retrievers third game in as many days, however, and the Quakers may be able to capitalize if they can force the UMBC hurlers to throw a lot of pitches. "We don't know a lot about them, so we'll just have to wait and see [if three games in three days helps or hurts them]," McDowell said. "We just need to prove we can win --Eit doesn't really matter who we beat right now."

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