Matt Meltzer: Freshmen sweeping down to lift program up

With 10 games left in the season, the baseball team has already won more games than in either of the two previous seasons. Penn (13-14, 7-5 Ivy) owes a lot of that success to a deep and talented freshman class.

There are 11 freshmen on the roster and they are pivotal to the team. They are responsible for 29.1 percent of the team's at bats, 10 of 13 pitching victories, and 16 of 26 starts going into yesterday's game against La Salle.

The class includes three-quarters of the starting infield with William Gordon at shortstop, Matt Toffaletti at third, and Steve Gable at second. The two best starting pitchers, Todd Roth and Jim Birmingham, are also freshmen.

Coach John Cole is of course pleased with the production of his young players, but he needed that production for the team to be successful this year.

"We knew that [the freshmen] had to play, we had some holes," Cole said.

Cole was not alone in his expectations; the players had high hopes as well.

"I thought definitely the freshmen would play a big role," Tofaletti said. "I thought we would have a few starters in the field."

"We knew that coach Cole has a good eye for talent, so we expected the best," junior outfielder Jarron Smith said. "So far they have been integral to our team and we will definitely need them from here on out to keep contributing."

While the freshmen have been consistent with the bats, especially Gordon with a .300 average, the real impact has been the pitching.

"Now we have the guys that can get up and hold whole teams to a few hits," Smith said. "Pitching has been the greatest way they have helped."

Roth has won two Ivy League pitcher of the week honors and a rookie of the week recognition for his pitching. He has an astounding 1.74 earned run average and a 4-1 record, both best on the team. Roth is complimented by Birmingham and his 3.07 ERA. The two have combined to strike out 68 hitters in 83 innings.

Cole's first recruiting class at Penn has been a relief after last year's tumultuous season, when the Quakers were 12-27 overall and 7-13 in Ivy play. Between the record and a shake-up of the team's roster, Cole's transition seemed rough.

But Cole now has an exceptional group to build this team around for years to come.

"They are the core foundation of what we need to do, we will keep working with them and hope they get better," Cole said.

These players will come to define Penn, especially since the team is not loaded with upperclassmen. Just four seniors will graduate this year.

The team rightfully has high expectations of the years to come. Cole has taken the first important step not only in turning this team around, but in making them contenders down the road. He has brought in young men he can work with; that's more than some can say.

Matt Meltzer is a senior political science major from Glen Rock, N.J. His e-mail

address is meltzerm@sas.upenn.edu.

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