By Ethan london
Staff Writer
londons@sas.upenn.edu
Playing 10 games in only a six-day span, the Penn softball team will be hitting its midseason stride by the time the rest of school returns from spring break.
During their stint in Orlando, Fla. for the Rebel Spring Games, the Quakers will see five doubleheaders through Friday.
The heavy load of games will eat up a large portion of Penn's schedule, while providing the same kind of early tune-up taking place in other ballparks around Florida.
"It's probably a third to a fourth of our season, depending on weather. So it is a lot of games to start off with," said coach Leslie King of the Rebel Spring Games. "It's like a spring training - basically for us to prepare and iron out some of the kinks before we get into league play."
The Red and Blue will not be seeing the same kind of competition that MLB has to offer in the Grapefruit League.
But there will plenty of top-notch college competition for the Quakers to measure themselves against in the non-league event.
The top competitors will include one of last year's NCAA tournament participants, Lehigh, which went 43-14 overall and an impressive 19-1 in the Patriot League.
The Mountain Hawks' Lisa Sweeney was lights-out last season in her freshman year, posting a 1.14 earned run average with a 26-6 record.
Other regular season conference champs on the schedule are Maine of the America East and Western Carolina of the Southern Conference.
There should not be a shortage of runs scored when Penn faces the Catamounts for the second game of the opening doubleheader.
Just as the Quakers shattered several offensive records in the Ivy League, Western Carolina forced a revision of its conference's record books with 81 home runs last season.
There were three players with over 10 dingers, including senior outfielder Ashley Adams who went yard a SoCon record 21 times.
Other teams on the schedule include: Saint Peter's, Indiana-Purdue (Fort Wayne), Valparaiso, Holy Cross, South Dakota State, and Farleigh Dickinson-Teaneck.
Along with gauging her team's freshman talent, King will also be able to evaluate her chances in the Ancient Eight.
"Our whole object in Florida is to prepare ourselves for the Ivy League and to find out what hitting lineup works best or is the most productive and what pitching rotation is the most effective," said King. "It's really to figure out some of those problems and answer some questions."
Rookie pitchers Justine Wilson and Susan Miller will be of particular interest. Although neither of the two is currently slated to be in the six-woman starting rotation, they will provide crucial bullpen relief for what was a shaky pitching staff last year.
And if Penn once again posts the highest ERA in the league, the freshmen hurlers may again find themselves in the rotation.
