Tuft's baseball team will enter Splinter Stadium today feeling both hopeful and honored. Playing their first contest of the year, the Jumbos have been entertaining sweet dreams of ending six years of Crimson hegemony.

But they realize they will have to beat one of the best pitchers in eastern college baseball--Paul Del Rossi--and playing against big Del is something of an honor.

Del Rossi and Tufts are old friends. The relationship actually extends back beyond his 6-1 victory over the Jumbos last year, as two of the boys starting for for Tufts today played with Del Rossi on the Winchester Little League team that went to the national finals several years ago.

At that time Del Rossi was the number two pitcher, throwing behind Vandy French, a 5-9 all-around athlete who now plays first base for the Jumbos. Another Tufts starter, shortstop Dale Grinnell, was also on that team.

As the visitors cannot have much hope of scoring prolifically today (Del Rossi has a 0.69 ERA), a great deal of faith is being placed on the sometimes erratic arm of Miles Nogelo, a junior fastballer who reportedly has some interesting curves available. He throws hard, but last year had some trouble throwing strikes.

No Predictions

Crimson manager Norm Shepard is cautious in discussing today's opening home game, noting that the impressive 5-0 record of the Spring tour means little against northern foes. In college baseball the pitcher is all-important, so if Nogelo is effective, Harvard could have trouble.

Still uncertain about a few positions in the starting line-up, Shepard will be watching several boys closely for batting prowess. Left fielder Curly Combs did a splendid job of getting on base down South, but most of the time he walked rather than ran.

First Base Undecided

At first base Jim Mullen and Tom Stephenson are still wrangling for a starting slot. Both are power hitters and both have fielding problems. Stephenson has seen most of the action thus far, but his .235 batting average is unsatisfactory.

Bobby St. George is still a fine fielder out in right, but Shepard is disappointed with his .167 average. Sophomores Mike Patrick and King Triplett are still very much in contention for outfield jobs.

The rest of the starting unit should include Dick Diehl behind the plate, Terry Bartolet at second, Tom Bilodeau at short, Lee Sargent in the hot corner, and Gavin Gilmor in center.

Sargent, who played JV ball last year, did an unusually fine job of fielding on the Southern swing, coming up with a number of tough chances. His bat is a bit weak, however, and Shepard hopes he can add meat to his .210 batting average.