Crimson Nine Opens at Home Against Boston College Today

The Crimson baseball team, boasting an unblemished 13-0 record after barn-storming through Florida on Spring break, opens its home season today against a tough Boston College squad in a 3 p.m. contest at Soldiers Field.

As was the case for most of last season, B.C. will probably throw its top pitcher at Harvard. Time after time a year ago, the teams that the Crimson came up against worked their pitching rotations around the Harvard contest, insuring top strength for the high-ranked Crimson.

B.C. right-hander Paul Ruane will probably get the call for the Eagles, and he has the tools to give the Crimson a tough time. He's big (6'3"), with pretty good speed and mixes his pitches well.

For Harvard, Mike O'Malley will get the nod. O'Malley racked up two wins on the Southern swing, including a 1-0 shut-out against AIC. "He pitched a really tough ball game against AIC," Crimson coach Loyal Park said last night. "A couple of times he had three men on with no outs and worked his way out of it."

Good Power

Besides Ruane, B.C. has three or four solid hitters, headed by Kevin Harrington and Jerry Smith both of whom have good power. They played a big part in B.C.'s 10-6 win over Tufts. More recently though, the Eagles have lost to MIT, a vastly improved ballclub over a year ago.

The most important thing to come out of the Southern tour was the settling of Park's starting line up. "The thing that pleases me about the trip South even more than the good record, is the fact that we've filled all our spots and have now got the right guys for the right positions," Park said.

Those "right guys" will be Ed Durso leading off and playing shortstop, followed by hockey standout Kevin Hampe batting second and playing second. Then, if a right-hander goes for B.C.--and it appears that that will be the case--Lee Hogan will hit third and play first base.

Jimmy Stoeckel will be the clean-up man and play third, Dave St. Pierre will hit fifth and play right, and Hal Smith will hold down the sixth spot in the order and play left. Larry Barbiaux owns the seventh spot and will play second, Rick Bridich will hit eighth and catch, and O'Malley will bring up the rear in the offense.

The field showed no ill effects of the wet spring after yesterday's practice.