Batsmen Fly South for Spring To Face Red Sox Farm Club

Most Harvard students who visit Florida this spring break will be there to work on their tan, but the Crimson baseball team will be there to work on base stealing, hitting to the opposite field and pick-off moves.

In contrast to playing the national pastime for a full season in the cold weather of New England, the Harvard batsmen will play eleven games in eight days under the warm Florida sun. The journey South is an annual event for the baseball team, which traditionally ventures South before embarking on their Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League schedule.

The team leaves this morning with a full slate of games running from tomorrow through next Sunday. Most of the teams against which Harvard will compete in Florida will also be vacationing on their spring trips, playing other colleges from Ohio, Kentucky, and New York.

The Crimson is fairly unfamiliar with its opponents because none come from the New England region. But Harvard knows two of the squads on the schedule, from when they played each other last year in the sunshine state.

This Sunday the Crimson will play a doubleheader with Toledo, who split two games with Harvard last spring. A sweep of this doubleheader would be a great confidence builder for the rest of the week, and is a reasonable goal considering that Harvard pummeled Toledo 13-2 last year after falling 3-2.

The other annual opponent for the Crimson will be a much stiffer test. Stetson, a Florida-based team, is a very strong Division Two team that is perennially in the Top 20. Last year Stetson took two games from the Crimson by scores of 7-3 and 8-4, and the Crimson will be hard-pressed to do much better this year.

Big Time Foes

Perhaps the most interesting opponent on the schedule for the Crimson is a Boston Red Sox farm team. This team will not be as tough as Pawtucket or even Elmira, but a squad of Class A prospects will definitely be a good test for the batsmen.

Harvard has dropped Florida International and Eastern Illinois from last year's schedule, replacing them with Bowling Green, St. Thomas Aquinas, Manhattan and Cleveland State--the school Mouse McFadden put on the map. Little is known about any of these teams, but the common belief is that the Crimson should be competitive with these schools, since they've also just begun their seasons.

The schedule for this year's trip is far more hectic than last year's because the Crimson plays eleven games instead of six. The schedule is busier because of new head coach Leigh Hogan, who wants to see as much of his squad as possible before the EIBL season begins.

"I have not decided who my starters are going to be this year," Hogan said. "That's why we're going to Florida."

Although the Florida games all count towards the Crimson's official record, the team is not as concerned with winning as it is with preparing for league play. Harvard considers this trip to be somewhat of a Spring Training in which everyone is trying to find out his role on the team.

"Returing starters will most likely keep their positions," Harvard Captain Marcel Durand said, "but other spots are still up for grabs, particularly third base and shortsop."

The main thing Coach Hogan will be watching is his pitching staff which has lost last year's top three starting pitchers. The leading pitchers returning from last season are Tom Hurley, Tony Lancette, Pete Rau, and Sean Johnston, the last of whom earned a win in Florida last year.

Freshman Hurlers

Essential to the Crimson's season will be the performance of their freshman pitchers, and Florida will provide a chance for these rookie prospects to earn a spot in the Crimson rotation. Jeff Mitchell, Shawn Fibkins, and Chris Kenaszchuk are all prime candidates to see time on the mound.

Harvard's hitting appears solid with Captain Durand, outfielder Dan Scanlan, and second baseman Jim Mrowka. The Crimson hopes that Florida will provide the chance for the young players to gel with the experieced talent in time for the Crimson to make a run at the Ivy League crown.

When the Crimson returns from Florida they will not have much time to catch their breath. They are scheduled for a doubleheader at Northeastern on April 3, before playing a twin-bill at home against Boston College on April 4.

When examining the number of games the Crimson plays during the school year, their Florida schedule does not seem that hectic, players say.

"In Florida we get nights off," says Durand. "In Cambridge, you get papers and problem sets."