BOWDOIN NINE TO WAR CRIMSON TODAY

The University baseball nine, greatly improved as a result of a week's intensive training in the south, will stack up against the nine from Bowdoin this afternoon at 4.15 o'clock on Soldiers Field. Coach Mitchell will not decide upon his moundsman until game time, but the Crimson mentor announced after yesterday's practice that all the other positions would be held down by the team that supported Puffer in his hurling duel against Catholic University Saturday.

Bowdoin is not as strong this year as last spring, when the Maine outfit played the Crimson, 8 to 5. They have been hard hit by graduation, and the late spring has not afforded them much opportunity for practice. In their opening home game the Brunswickers lost to Bates in a 15 to 5 rout. Loose fielding and the wildness of the three twirlers who officiated for Bowdoin are blamed for the defeat. Bates scored nine runs in the sixth after two were out, when Robinson issued five passes and was sent to the showers under a barrage of hits.

But for the injury to Lord at Annapolis, the Crimson first-sacker would be opposing his brother, who plays second base for the Down-Easterners. To bin, a veteran of last year's campaign will hold down first for the University today, and is likely to do so for three weeks more at least, while Lord's leg injury is mending.

Burns, speedy Sophomore center fielder, will also be out of today's fray. The injury he received in the Wesleyan game is rapidly healing, and Burns will be in uniform today, but until flyers limp disappears entirely, it is unlikely that Coach Mitchell will call upon him. Jones, captain of the 1928 diamond outfit, has been acting as lead-off man in Burns' place during the southern invasion. In the two games against the Navy and Catholic University, he poled out five hits for an average of .500, and he will patrol center field and head the Crimson attack this afternoon.

Gloom Lifts From Mound Outlook

The Harvard pitching staff, sadly lacking in veteran material, is showing great improvement under Coach Mitchell's tutelage. Booth and Barbee have shown good form, and Puffer's hurling against C. U. deserved more than a defeat. Cutts, though he has yet to pitch his first game, gives promise of future greatness, and he can be counted on to do relief work in the pinches.

In the matter of fielding, the Crimson has displayed form at least up to the early spring average, and has shown a steady improvement in defensive play. Last Saturday, the nine played errorless ball behind Puffer's tight pitching, and Coach Mitchell is confident that in the future opposing batters will have to hit solidly to be allowed the privileges of the base paths.

Offensively, the team has been only mediocre. In the five games played to date, the team has collected less than 11 hits only twice, but in these two games, those against B. U. and C. U., the hitting was so infrequent that the team's average with the stick now stands at .222. In averaging about seven hits per game, the Crimson bat wielders have failed consistently to bunch their hits where they will do the most good. Batting practice is being stressed these days with a view to relieving the defense of the burden that they are now shouldering.