Baseball to play 'Nova tomorrow

Last weekend gave us a glimpse of what the Penn baseball team could have been, followed by a severe reality check that was more reflective of the way things have actually gone in 2002.

It featured a day full of drama and success in a Saturday doubleheader sweep at Harvard.

In game two, the winds off the Charles River must have been blowing out as the Quakers posted 19 runs on the power of six home runs, all of which came in the contest's final three innings.

"We'd already hit a lot of balls hard throughout the game," Penn junior captain Nick Italiano said. "The balls just started to fall in, and over the wall beginning in the seventh inning."

But then, when Penn looked to build on its momentum, it stubbed its toe in a pair of Sunday losses at Dartmouth.

Tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m., the Quakers (9-21, 4-8 Ivy League) will look to take out its frustrations on a talented Villanova club.

But that will not be easy to do.

Villanova will visit Murphy Field with a 21-14 record, including a 6-7 mark in the Big East. The Wildcats have won their last five games.

Prior to the matchup with the Wildcats, however, the Quakers were slated to battle the Temple Owls at Erny Field in North Philadelphia.

Yet, because Temple has advanced to the final round of the Liberty Bell Classic -- the tournament held at Veterans Stadium from which Penn was bounced on March 27 -- the Owls will be otherwise occupied today.

Since Penn and Temple do not have a suitable mutual off day until the end of the season, the game will not be rescheduled.

And though Villanova poses a significant challenge to the Quakers, the Owls (11-15) would have been far from a pushover.

The two teams met on two occasions in March, both times in Winter Park, Fla., and both times Penn was a site for sore Owl eyes.

After dropping their first four decisions of the season, Temple edged the Quakers in a 9-8, 10-inning affair on March 12.

Temple went on to lose its following two matchups against Rhode Island and Rollins, and then beat up on Penn, 8-0, on March 15 to secure its second victory.

On that day, Temple junior Alan Birnbrauer and freshman Brian Stamm combined for the shutout and surrendered only five hits to what was at that stage of the season a fairly dormant Quakers offense.

And much like temple, Villanova boasts a solid pitching staff in its own right.

Mike Grodecki and John Yeager enter the game with sub-2.00 ERAs, and James Russell has been nothing short of dominant out of the bullpen.

Russell has recorded 10 saves in 17.2 innings of work, while posting 22 strikeouts and a more than serviceable 2.04 ERA.

But Penn remains confident. After all, it now has a six-homer- in-three-inning explosion under its belt.

"The offense really feeds off each other," Italiano said. "And the guys at the top of the lineup have really set the tone lately."

Also, Italiano -- who has been consistent all year -- has especially been on a tear in the past few weeks.

Since Quakers coach Bob Seddon dropped him in the lineup from leadoff to number three, Italiano has responded in a big way, and has displayed a great deal of power that he had kept well hidden until this season.

The star second baseman is currently hitting .402 and is leading his team by a wide margin in home runs and RBIs, with five and 29 respectively.

He claimed that had the team not been somewhat exhausted by its travels over the weekend, we might have seen the continuation of the offensive magic that Penn displayed on Saturday.

"We were really happy with our performance," Italiano said. "We were in the games. And I just think the offense sputtered a little bit and some fatigue showed through."

The Red and Blue, as is their custom after weekend road trips, took yesterday off in an effort to rest some of the team's tired legs.

And to further help this matter, the Quakers will likely rotate many players into their lineup tomorrow afternoon.

Italiano explained that Penn obviously would like to emerge with a win, but the same kind of raucous atmosphere reserved for weekend games is generally not present in mid-week nonconference showdowns.

"I think they're more laid back," he said. "And it's good that you get to plug some [other] guys in."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.