Spring trip to set tone for team

The Tufts baseball team opens its 2004 campaign today on a ten game road trip through eight schools in Virginia and North Carolina. The Jumbos will play Lynchburg this afternoon, followed by clashes with Randolph-Macon, Guilford, Methodist, Greensboro, NC Wesleyan and culminating in back-to-back doubleheaders next weekend at Apprentice and Virginia Wesleyan.

The Jumbos went 5-4 on last season's southern swoop, and 6-3-1 in 2002. Both years, the team ended its season with over 20 wins. Tufts will try to use the trip as a positive jumpstart to its season.

Coach John Casey, who heads a considerably youthful team this season, will take 26 ballplayers on the trip with the aim of finalizing the roster and settling on which players will be plugging the holes left by last season's departed seniors and recent injuries this year.

"We're gonna learn a lot, especially about the younger guys," assistant coach Bill Samko said. "[Casey] has it so everybody who goes down plays, to discover who's ready and who is not."

The trip will also serve to provide game experience before returning north for league competition against NESCAC rivals. In the process, testing out different lineup combinations with both varsity and JV athletes will allow the coaching staff to find the right balance at the plate, on the mound, and in the field to assemble a competitive team.

"It's really a preparation for league play when they get back," Samko explained. "[Casey's] going to experiment with people at different positions, play guys in the outfield to see who can figure it out, out there, and I think we'll find out who our backup catcher is [to replace injured sophomore Josh Ludmer]."

While winning is undoubtedly an important part of the season's opening week, Casey stressed the importance of playing well, rather than focusing on the final score.

"We're not shying away, we're going to go play them," Casey said in an interview last month. "I don't even care who wins, I care if we play competitively. Either way, it's going to give us some great experience and give us a sense of how well we're going to fly."

With any luck, the team will return to campus with some strong play under its belt ready to tackle the NESCAC competition and shoot for its fifth straight 20-win season.

"Of course, you always want to win some," Samko said. "[But] they're trying to get ready for when they get back up here, when it really counts."