Baseball players stay on the ball

For the Penn baseball team, the arrival of summer meant a departure from school.

But that didn't mean the Quakers also got a break from baseball.

As in years past, many of Penn coach Bob Seddon's returning players for the 2002 season honed their skills in summer baseball leagues from June to August.

"If they're playing summer ball in higher-level leagues, it's going to help them and they should learn a lot," Seddon said. "The most important thing is that they're playing."

The most notable of these summer league ballplayers was junior Nick Italiano, the Quakers' starting second baseman and lead-off hitter and a second team All-Ivy selection in 2001.

The Marlton, N.J., native played in the highly prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League, the same one in which Penn alumnus and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Doug Glanville once played.

Italiano, who is listed as the shortest and lightest man on his team, hit .242 for the Bourne Braves, one of four teams to advance to the playoffs. Italiano's average may seem a little weak, but it was the second best on a team that finished with a .198 overall mark.

Since wooden bats are used, the Cape Cod League is known more for its quality of pitching than hitting.

"I think that team is a little shocked that he's doing that well," Seddon said back in July, when Italiano sported a team-leading .300 average, "because he's by far the leading hitter, [despite] playing with players from high-level schools like North Florida and Wichita State.

"Poor Nick, he always has to prove himself because he's not a big guy. But he's been doing very well."

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A little closer to home were Penn's Paul Grumet, Andrew McCreery and Jim Mullen, who played in the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League.

All three of them suited up for the Delaware Valley Gulls, a team with 10 of its 27 players from four Philadelphia area schools -- Drexel, Penn, Temple and Villanova.

Grumet, a junior southpaw, appeared in 13 games as a reliever, sporting a 1-2 record and a 5.31 ERA.

McCreery -- a unanimous first team All-Ivy and Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference honorable mention selection last spring -- was used as a pitcher and an outfielder for the Gulls.

McCreery compiled a 2.57 ERA, striking out 32 batters in 35 innings, and batted .262 with 11 RBIs in 21 starts in the outfield. His solid numbers earned him a place in the 2001 ACBL All-Star Game at Shea Stadium on July 9.

Mullen, who will return to the Quakers after a one-year hiatus, started off slow but became one of the Gulls' most dependable hitters.

Mullen finished third on the team in batting average (.283), second in on-base-percentage (.429), second in runs scored (17), first in walks (22) and second in stolen bases (15).

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A bit farther from Philadelphia was junior Steve Glass, who traveled across the country to play in the California Coastal Collegiate League.

As the starting shortstop for the San Francisco Seals, Glass batted .290 with 23 runs, 20 RBIs and 24 walks.

"That's a senior team," Seddon said of the Seals, the same team that Yankee legend Joe Dimaggio got his start with. "[Glass] came back last fall, and had really improved. He had bulked up a bit, so I expect huge improvement from him again."

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A number of other Penn players -- including pitchers Greg Lee, Dan Fitzgerald and Mike Mattern -- competed in various leagues around the country, while others attended baseball camps and schools. Just about every player found some way to incorporate their athletic talents into their summer.

Now it's just a matter of making sure all that summer work will pay off for the upcoming 2002 season.

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