The baseball team finished its weeklong tour of Florida with a 2-3 record, but with some justified optimism about the upcoming season.

After handling the University of Tampa a 12-1 thrashing on Monday of last week, the Crimson dropped the rematch, 6-2 the following day. Spending Wednesday and Thursday at Stetson University, the Harvard nine again won the series opener, 7-3, but lost the second game, 3-2. The team then travelled across the state to Florida Southern College to lose, 3-2, on Friday.

The Crimson's overall showing was mediocre at best, but the opposition was very good, and Harvard showed and ability to play well at times. A shortages of prior outdoor practice time, the hectic pace of the games, and the tiresome traveling in Florida helped accounted for the mental errors which offset the strong effort of the team.

Coach Loyal Park lauded the play of the team as a whole and was especially pleased with the pitching situation. "Before the trip, our pitching staff was a real question mark, but some exceptional performances on the mound by our pitchers have provided us with a good answer to that question," Park said.

"Along with our ace, Bob Dorwart, we can now count on J. C. Nickens, Bob Kalinoski Tom Dashiell, Tow Kidwell, and curt Tucker to give us the mound strength we'll need during the season," he said.

Batting Encouraging

Batting statistics on the trip were encouraging. Third baseman Dan DeMichele banged out 11 hits in 14 at bats to lead everyone at the plate. Fellow sophomore Pete Bernard at first base also hit very well.

Captain John Ignacio said yesterday. "Due to some fine individual play in Florida, we're finally set as a team. I'm looking forward to the start of the season up here so we can find out what we can do."