Sluggers begin season at home vs. C.W. Post

By WILLIAM KALEC
Collegian Staff Writer

If Mother Nature cooperates, something that has been missing for almost an entire year will finally resurface at Beaver Field.

This weekend, baseball returns to Happy Valley.

But unlike past years, this weekend's opening three-game series with C.W. Post has a twist to it, one Penn State coach Joe Hindelang would like to see continue for years to come.

These Nittany Lions break ground on their home season as winners -- posting their first above-.500 record this decade heading into a home opener, this time against the first-year Div. I Pioneers of C.W. Post, with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. tomorrow and the rubber match at 1 p.m. Sunday. And apparently, word of Penn State's newfound success is spreading quickly. At least among former high school friends who will now be competitors.

"I heard they were pretty good," C.W. Post outfielder Pat Rock said. "From what I have heard and seen from Shawn (Fagan), they are going to be tough."

Rock has heard this propaganda from Fagan, the Lions starting third baseman, for his entire life. He heard it in elementary school, junior high, and up until high school. C.W. Post catcher Tony Balcan and left-handed pitcher Dennis Schneidler have heard it, too.

The four close friends from Levittown, N.Y., will be reunited to play in their first collegiate game against each other this weekend.

"It is something I am looking forward to," Fagan said. "And it is something I am looking forward to a lot more than others."

While Fagan will have no problems getting emotionally ready to earn bragging rights for the summer with his old teammates, the rest of the Lions may need to look to see if anyone remotely related to them in any facet of their lives is suiting up for the Pioneers.

In their first year of Div. I play, the Pioneers have yet to blaze a new winning trail.

Posting a 2-8 record, the Pioneers present Penn State an opportunity to keep its newfound ability to produce runs headed in the right direction. Before last weekend, only one regular Lions starter was batting over .300.

On the bus ride home, that number increased to five as the Lions seemed to get their aluminum groove back.

"I don't really look at averages. I look for other things," Hindelang said. "The last two games we have done a better job of putting the ball in play and we were able to get our strikeouts down to five and six, in single digits. When you put the ball in play, good things will happen."

And those good things have seemed to peak right around the home opener in years past.

Over the last eight seasons, Penn State has been 15-11 in its opening-series contests and has used the premier homestand as the launching pad for late-season runs to counter early season disappointments.

"For some reasons we do play well at home, and it is nice that we were able to have a respectable record this year," Hindelang said. "I don't know, you get to sleep in your own bed, eat your own food. We are all excited to come home and leave those bus rides behind us."