The baseball team's toughest opponent this year wasn't one of the teams that has handed it a loss. The team's major foe -- Old Man Winter.

Snow over the past week has forced postponement of the Lions' last two doubleheaders, Duquesne on Thursday and LaSalle on Saturday. With no games to play, and no green grass to play or practice on, the team has again been forced to move indoors to Holuba Hall, where the players practiced before the season began.

On Saturday morning, after deciding that the game scheduled for the afternoon wouldn't be played, Coach Joe Hindelang split his team into two and had the two halves scrimmage against each other, having umpires call the game. How well that will help the team, though, is hard to gauge, even for Hindelang.

"It's a tough situation," Hindelang said. "You have to try to stay sharp. Playing inside helps, but it's not the same as outside. (The snow) has hurt us."

"The layoff hasn't affected us too much," pitcher Chris Cisar said. "We've practiced really well the last couple of days, and we're ready to play some games again."

This afternoon at 1 the team hopes to do something about that. Penn State (9-4) travels to Philadelphia to play a doubleheader against Temple (4-11). They will be the Lions' last games before they open their Big Ten conference schedule against Illinois this weekend.

It will also be another trip back in time for Hindelang, who not only faces an old Atlantic 10 nemesis, but also his old college coach. Hindelang played at Temple under James "Skip" Wilson, now in his 33rd year coaching the Owls, and presently chasing his 750th career victory, now just two wins away. Hindelang was a three-year letter winner in baseball at the school, also lettering two years in basketball. Hindelang might be thinking about putting a little extra effort into winning today.

"I'm sure Coach would like to beat him," captain Russ Mushinsky said.

The Lions also have one other worry going into today's games, and also into the Big Ten campaign. Last week pitcher Jeff Burris, the team's No. 4 starter, suffered nerve damage in his pitching arm and is out indefinitely. Burris, in 10 innings, had a 1.80 earned run average when the injury occured. Hindelang is looking for someone to replace Burris and be ready to step in, if not tomorrow, then this weekend.

So, it's time for the Lions to get back on the field again, and show that they're prepared for what's coming in the next few weeks.

"We have to get back on track, and get ready for Illinois," Hindelang said. "Hopefully (today) we'll play the way we're capable of."