Southern Nines Pose Threat; Marines, Navy Are Toughest

Stuffy McInnis announced yesterday that catcher Armie Essayen and pitcher Landon Clay will complete the Spring trip roster.

Stuffy McInnis and his 18 best baseball players depart for warmer pastures tomorrow morning, but the white-haired coach and his boys may find Dixie's welcome not so warm. Early season reports indicate that the South is loaded again.

The Southern clubs always have the jump on their northern visitors as far as training goes, so Stuffy isn't expecting great things during the spring trip. But the annual jaunt is valuable in that it gives the coach a chance to find out who his dependable pitchers are and who he can count on for base hits.

McInnis has said that he will use the same infield, barring injuries, during the trip. This means Captain Walt Coulson at first base, Harry Cavanaugh at second, Mert Dunn at short, Ernie Manino at third, and Cliff Crosby behind the plate.

Cavanaugh, freshman second baseman last year from Roxbury Latin, is the only new face in the infield. Dunn started the 1948 season with the varsity, was moved down to the jayvees, and then was promoted again in time to play in the Yale game. Maunino played short-stop until he was injured midway in the season. Cavanaugh replaces Myles Huntington, out for the season with a broken collar bone. Coulson has lost about 20 pounds since last season and will be a vastly improved fielder.

The trip will also give McInnis a chance to alternate his outfielders in order to attain the best-hitting and tightest-fielding combination by the time the team returns to Cambridge. Tentative plans call for Steve Howe to open in left, Hal Moffie in center, and John Caulfield in right.

Moffie, Howe Hitting Well

Spring football, practice kept Moffie from playing ball last year, but in six trips to the plate for the jayvees he got six hits. Howe also did some timely

hitting for the jayvees. Caulfield was a 1948 regular in right. Howe and Moffle have shown up well in batting practice and Caulfield's batting has shown improvement.

Pitching will be Stuffy's main worry. The only chance he has had to observe his hurlers in "action" was an intra-squad game Wednesday and he must base his choices chiefly on last season's performances. Ira Godin will bear the brunt of the pitching chores, starting against Virginia on Monday and handling the League opener against Navy a week from today.

Except for Godin, whose 8-3 record topped the Harvard pitchers last season, McInnis must experiment with the rest of his staff to see who will stand up under fire and who won't. The six games in as many days next week will definitely test his mound corps. Barry Turner, Ralph Hymans, and Roy Meears are expected to back up Godin. Hymans wears a special plastic covering over his sweatshirt this year, which he claims keeps his arm warmer.

South Offers Stiff Opposition

Dixieland consistently breeds good baseball teams. In its 1948 swing, the Crimson won its first game (Johns Hopkins), lost twice (George Washington and Temple), and tied Maryland. Two games were rained out. The teams on this spring's trip are almost all new ones. The entourage leaves South Station at 9 a.m. tomorrow and is due in Charlottesville at 9:13 p.m. The team will not stop at any hotels along the way but will be put up by each of the schools it plays. Batting practice will be held every morning.

After the Virginia game on Monday, Harvard faces V.M.I. on Tuesday, Washington and Lee on Wednesday, Quantico on Thursday, Georgetown on Friday, and finishes the trip against Navy on Saturday.

Marines Are Strong

The Quantico Marines, Georgetown, and Navy are expected to provide the toughest games of a tough week. The Leathernecks are coached by Captain Raymond "Hap" Spuhler, who learned his baseball at Duke from Jack Coombs, the former great Philadelphia Athletics' pitcher. Coombs and McInnis played together with the A's.

The Marines won six service championships last year, including the coveted All-Navy title for the second year in a row. Twelve lettermen are returning from last year's squad which registered a 19-8 record against college teams, won 99 out of its 121 games, and was never shut out. It played some of the leading college baseball teams, including Michigan, Ohio State, Georgetown, Duke, Virginia, and Maryland.

Navy Game Most Important

Georgetown's victory over Dartmouth, defending Eastern Intercollegiate League champs, speaks for itself. The Navy game next Saturday is the official League opener and the Middles, although they lost the loop's second best, pitcher when they lost Ronnie Burton, are still potent.

The sailors led the League last year in team fielding with a phenomenal 966 average and wound up second in the standings behind Yale's NCAA runner-ups, whom they beat in league play. Their 26 runs in two games indicate power at the plate, but Delaware's nine runs may be significant also. Harvard finished ninth in the League with a two and four record.

The League is expected to be a race this year between Dartmouth and Yale. The Indians, in annexing the Sidney E. Hutchinson Cup (symbolic of Ivy League supremacy) last spring, took their fourth loop title since 1930. The Indians triumphed in 1930, 1935, 1938, and also in 1939 when the circuit operated on an informal basis. They won seven out of eight games last season, bowing only to Yale, which has also copped four Ivy League championships. Thus, both Dartmouth and the Elis will be out to break the 4-4 tie in League crowns won.

This year marks the second in which the circuit will be run on a ten-team setup, with both service academies and Brown back in the fold. The closest Harvard has come to winning a loop title was in 1936 when it shared honors with Dartmouth. This year it may upset the apple cart. You never can tell