While Major League Baseball teams are now over a week into Spring Training, they will not start playing real games until April. Brown's baseball team, on the other hand, isn't content to wait around until then. The team will open its season this weekend in Tallahassee, Fla., with three games against the No. 6 Florida State University Seminoles.
This will be the third season that the Bears have taken on a national baseball powerhouse in the opening part of the season. Last year, Brown played one game at the University of South Carolina, a team ranked eighth at the time, losing 7-2. However, the Bears had had 12 games to prepare for such a strong foe. In 2004, Brown opened at the University of Florida and lost three games, one of which went to extra innings.
The key difference this year is the team's outlook entering the games. Last season, the Bears went 23-19 overall and 14-6 in the Ivy League, second-best in the conference behind Harvard. After that success, the team is looking to do more than shake off the winter rust from what co-captain Danny Hughes '06 called "a long month" of practice inside the Olney-Margolies Athletic Center.
"I think we have the mindset this year that we're not going down there just to get outside," said co-captain Shaun McNamara '06. "We're going down there to win, where in the past we weren't."
Despite the improved team outlook, the Bears will have their work cut out for them. McNamara described the Seminoles as a team that thrives on strong defense and pitching while playing small ball on offense. "They're not going to bash you out of the park, but they do the little things right," he said.
The Seminoles' top player is Baseball America Preseason All-American Shane Robinson, an outfielder the publication describes as "a one-man rally." Last season, he led the nation in runs, was second in hits and on-base percentage and was third in steals in a campaign that included a 40-game hit streak. He was named Colle-giate Baseball's National Player of the Year.
For the Bears to compete, they'll also have to adjust to playing in front of 4,000 to 5,000 fans each game, a far cry from the comparatively meager crowds normally gathered at Aldrich Dexter Field.
"Baseball's just a whole other thing for them down south," Hughes said. "The atmosphere, you can't really compare it to anything up here."
Brown will start Bryan Tews '07, McNamara and Jeff Dietz '08 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively. At the plate, old hands like Eric Larson '07, Paul Christian '06, Hughes, Devin Thomas '07 and Tews will mix with newer faces like Ryan Murphy '08, Matt Nuzzo '09, Robert Papenhause '09 and Dan Shapiro '09, who should all see significant time.
"We can't wait, as fun as it is playing baseball on the OMAC basketball courts," McNamara said.
