Penn baseball opens spring in Winter Park

If the Penn baseball team needs time to shake off some winter cobwebs, it will certainly get the chance to do so over spring break.

The Quakers will travel to Winter Park, Fla., for an eight-game slate from March 6 to March 14 to open their 2010 season.

But despite the busy schedule, Penn will play just three teams as part of the a tournament hosted by Division II baseball power Rollins College. The team is slated for three games against Georgetown and two each against Maine and Rollins. All three of Penn’s opponents began their seasons earlier in February.

In the same tournament last year, the Quakers finished with a 5-4 record, highlighted by a dramatic 11-10 win over Rollins in which they came back from seven runs down.

This season will be a telling one for fifth-year head coach John Cole, whose first recruits at Penn have now grown into senior leaders.

“We will be as good as our … seniors play,” Cole told Penn Athletics.

This year’s team is headlined by 2009 second-team All-Ivy selection Tom Grandieri. The senior rightfielder, who transferred from Villanova, hit .357 with 32 runs batted in last season.

With an experienced group finally in tow, Cole will look to improve on the 64-103-1 record he has compiled in his Penn tenure.

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