Lady Sluggers open at East Carolina

The uniforms will be unfolded for the first time. The spikes will get their first chance to be broken in on a grass field. They will look into a blue sky with sunshine instead of fluorescent lights and an I-beam ceiling.

The Penn State softball team treks to Greenville, N.C., today for the East Carolina Invite. The round-robin tournament includes nine schools for the three day Lady Lion season opener.

Penn State opens with Towson State at 11 a.m today and then plays Canisius at 1 p.m. The Lady Lions finish round-robin play against Radford at 11 a.m. tomorrow. Then the first game of the single-elimination bracket starts at 1 p.m. tomorrow and, if Penn State makes it to the championship game, it will play at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Lady Lion coach Robin Petrini said the bus trip will be long, but the team should be prepared for its first competition outside Holuba Hall.

"It will be a good barometer for our infielders to get out on the dirt," Petrini said. "You have to make sure and stay low on all grounders. There's going to be no turf hops."

Towson State finished last season 10-22. The Tigers return two of their top three hitters in outfielder Leigh Maurer and second baseman Beth Chapman. Maurer hit .325 and drove in 25 runs, while Chapman hit .295.

Canisius is nearly starting with a whole new team. The Golden Griffens lost five seniors from a team that had a 130-32 career record. Canisius coach Mike Rappl said his young team is excited to play its first game after graduating so many starters.

"We're using this as a tune-up to see where we are. It should be a good test to find out where improvements need to be made," Rappl said. "It's almost a brand new team."

Radford will be depending on senior pitcher Sheree' Fletcher, who finished 1996 at 20-10 and with a 1.82 ERA. The Highlanders also return their top hitter in shortstop Melissa Pickel. Pickel put up Ted Williams-like numbers -- a .420 average, 12 home runs and 56 RBIs.

Other schools in the tournament are George Mason, Eastern Michigan and the host Lady Pirates. Petrini said this is a great opportunity for her team to get settled in to playing and finding out how her club handles playing two games per day.

"I expect us to do well in this particular tournament," Petrini said. "I don't much about the competition, but it's not intimidating by any stretch of the imagination."