Robbie Wine stood hunched over in the dugout, watching baseballs sail skyward during his team's afternoon practice yesterday.
Occasionally, the Penn State baseball coach would take a swig of water, swish it around in his mouth and spit it onto the dirt.
When his players moved on to stretching and fielding drills, Wine stepped into the sunshine of Medlar Field at Lubrano Park wearing shorts and a rare five o'clock shadow. The head coach looked bored.
In fact, he said "practicing is getting old right now," and that he would rather "be on the field playing games."
Wine and his lineup will get that chance when Penn State (7-14) hosts Bucknell at 6:35 tonight. But Bucknell (13-10-2) is not the squad Wine is looking forward to facing -- that's Big Ten rival
Michigan, which Penn State will face this upcoming weekend in a four-game series at Medlar Field.
"[We] don't take anybody for granted, but our sights are on Michigan," Wine said. "Conference play is where it's at. We feel good going into Michigan with what we have on the mound and I think, still, roles are being defined."
Wine said the Bucknell game would be another chance for him and his coaching staff to "fine-tune" the team heading into conference action.
Freshman pitcher Calvin Grumley will make his first collegiate start for Penn State against the Bison.
Grumley has only made four relief appearances and has an ERA of 13.50 through six innings.
He is fourth on the team with 10 strikeouts.
Senior catcher Joe Blackburn waited his turn to drill with Wine yesterday, standing outside of the batter's box as Wine threw balls to the other catchers.
Blackburn, a team captain, said he would take an active role in helping Grumley settle down early. Grumley was not made available for comment yesterday.
"His nerves are going to be going [tonight], whether he wants to admit it or not," Blackburn said. "It's a big game, a midweek game and his first collegiate start.
"I'm just going to need to act as a calming influence on him -- have him realize that he's got the stuff, he just needs to not go out there and get all tight."
Blackburn said beating Bucknell would be a "confidence builder" for the team and the pitching staff in preparation for the Wolverines this weekend.
The Bison are 7-1 in their last eight games, while the Nittany Lions are 4-4.
In addition to Grumley, Wine said redshirt sophomore reliever David Lutz and redshirt junior Paul Cianciolo would see ample playing time against the Bison.
"Hopefully we get a good crowd out here," Cianciolo said. "The weather is starting to warm up a little bit. It's more of a baseball atmosphere so it should be a fun time, but Bucknell's a good team and we definitely have a lot of respect for them. We're going to be bringing our A game just like they will."
