When it rains, it pours. Penn baseball coach John Cole is getting used to that.
His team has already had two rainouts, and inclement weather is again throwing the schedule a curve.
A pair of doubleheaders against Mount St. Mary's (0-12) was originally slated for today and tomorrow at Emmitsburg, Md. But after downpours the last two days, the field was deemed "unfit" for play, and the games were moved to Meiklejohn Stadium.
"It's definitely an advantage for us, to play at home," Cole said. "They contacted us and told us that their field was in bad shape and it was a good job by the administrators to make it work."
Even without home-field advantage, the Red and Blue may not have been sweating too much - as their winless record indicates, the Mountaineers have struggled mightily.
Much like the Quakers, Mount St. Mary's lost a few key players to graduation, most notably the team's all-time hits and runs leader, Eric Smith.
"We're both young teams and we're both trying to find our way," Cole said. "It should be a good game."
He didn't seem too concerned with most of the Mountaineers' lineup. Past Josh Vittek - who slugged a team-best 14 home runs last year - Cole was hard-pressed to name another player that he considered a threat. However, he may have forgotten about Drew Counselman, who is hitting .311 with an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .910.
"We're mostly concerned with ourselves at this point," Cole said.
That's not much of a surprise, given that the Quakers struggled in their spring break games in Florida. They limped out of the seven-game swing with a 3-4 record.
It seems small consolation to Cole that last year's division-winning team did even worse during its Florida trip.
"We all have to start swinging the bats a bit better and just step up in general," Cole said.
One of those players who needs to step up is catcher Jeff Cellucci. He's hitting just .077 this year after batting .370 in 2007. His backup and occasional designated hitter, Tim May, hasn't done much hitting, either, sporting a .100 average.
Freshman Jeremy Maas is expected to start the first game of today's doubleheader while sophomore standout Todd Roth will likely get the nod in the second.
Maas has a 4.15 earned run average in 8.2 innings this season while Roth has a near-spotless 1.59 ERA along with 20 strikeouts and just three walks in 17 innings pitched.
It's supposed to be mild and sunny in West Philadelphia tomorrow, although Saturday may feature some snow. With an opponent like Mount St. Mary's on tap at home, the Quakers are hoping the only things pouring are runs from their bats.
