Crimson Nine Heads South Today

The Harvard baseball team begins its annual swing through the South this weekend as the squad faces a grueling schedule which calls for 12 games in an eight-day period.

The Crimson meets Florida Presbyterian in the Saturday opener and then begins a series of double-headers with Buffalo, Tampa, South Florida, and Pairfield, all in St. Petersburg, Fla. Before returning north, Harvard has an important Eastern League game at Navy and a doubleheader at Penn.

"I'm very pleased with the calibre of teams we are facing down there this year," coach Loyal Park said Wednesday. "Last year the competition wasn't so good, so we really couldn't tell what stage of development the team was in." The Crimson easily won ten straight games last spring.

Park has selected senior righthander Phil Collins to start in the opener and plans to come back with sophomore righthander Sandy Weissent and senior righthander Bill Kelly to oppose Buffalo in a Sunday doubleheader.

"We have five pitchers whom we hope to rely on as starters this year." Park said. "Weissent, Kelly and Collins along with Barry Malinowski and J.C. Nickens all should see plenty of duty this season."

Both Malinowski, a righthander, and Weissent are new additions to the Crimson mound staff this year. "Malinowski has probably the best velocity on his fast ball of anyone on the team, and Weissent has the speed and the breaking ball to be an excellent pitcher," Park said.

The rest of the Crimson line-up should find second baseman Vince McGugan batting first with leftfielder Dave Ignacio on deck. Right fielder Dan De-Michele, catcher Pete Varney, and first baseman Pete Bernhard will provide the power while third baseman Hal Smith, shortstop Art Serrano and centerfielder Kevin Hampe round out the batting order.

"Curt Tucker and Mike Thomas are both battling for starting positions," Park said. "Bernhard and Hampe are limping a little right now with leg injuries, so Tucker and Thomas will see plenty of action down in Florida."

Park feels that the Eastern League championship should be a dogfight among five teams-Dartmouth. Cornell, Navy, Princeton, and Harvard.

"Navy has an especially strong team this year," Park said. "They're all veterans coming back from last year's outfit. And Princeton has been showing things down in Florida this week.

The team will fly to Florida this morning and Park hopes to arrange a work-out in the afternoon. "We got a late start last year and consequently couldn't get in some exercise." Park said. "This year we're going to be prepared."