Baseball looking to recover at Murphy

After a winter indoors and a winless trip to California, the Penn baseball team will finally play its first home game tomorrow against city rival Temple.

Last year, Penn's first week of games was cancelled due to rain, even further postponing the start of its outdoor season, but this year, the weather has cooperated and Penn will get a chance to avenge its losses and defend Murphy Field.

"We need to just play," Penn Coach Bob Seddon said. "You don't want to have what happened last year when we came back and we didn't play for an entire week."

And for the 0-8 Quakers a week would be far longer than they hope to wait to get their first win of the season.

"We need a win," Seddon said. "It doesn't matter who it is, when it is -- we just need a win."

Freshman Steven Schwartz will get the starting nod for Penn and will be replaced by Bill Kirk in the second half of the game. Schwartz has pitched well so far this season, allowing only one run in six innings of work. The split pitching will allow the Quakers to pitch both Schwartz and Kirk this weekend in their four-game series against Hartford.

So far, catcher Matt Horn leads the team, batting .414 on the season, while centerfielder Nate Moffie has been contributing the power in the middle of the lineup with two home runs and seven RBIs. But Moffie's production has been the exception, not the rule in a season largely defined by runners left on base and a lack of offensive production.

The other two starting outfielders, Freshman Kyle Armeny and senior Alex Blagojevich have combined for 20 hits, but only three RBIs.

The Quakers will need to find some production somewhere if they want to get their first victory of the season against a tough Temple team. The Owls (4-6) are coming off of a relatively successful week in Florida which included wins over Pittsburgh, Wagner and Florida International.

"They're good; we haven't fared well against them over the years," Seddon said. "Oh they're good; we'll have our hands full with them. They have a very good team."

The Owls' record is even better considering that going into this weekend, there are only a few teams on the East Coast, including Villanova and William and Mary, that have winning records.

The Owls have thus far been paced by senior second baseman Justin Cooper who leads the team with 11 hits, and also has six RBIs. They also boast junior pitcher Tim Foulkrod, who was the Atlantic 10 Player of the Week last week, going 2-0 with a 0.59 ERA on the Owls' trip to Florida.

For the Quakers, the focus has to be on picking up their first victory on the season. Losses often tend only to spawn other losses, and Penn could use a victory against a tough team like Temple to get on track.

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