Tuesday, May 1, 2007

  No question about it. The University of Saint Francis baseball team heads into a new season on Wednesday -- the Mid-Central Conference Tournament -- with a much different perspective than they had heading into regular season play in Florida back in early March.

  "No. 1, we've been outside and been able to work on fundamentals and get better," USF coach Greg Roberts said. "We had only been outside once prior to opening the season in Florida.

   "And we finally got a couple of practices in on our own diamond this week, so we feel we're about as ready as we could be. We've just got to go out and prove it."

   USF, playing in its first post-season action since 2001, will open the MCC Tournament on Wednesday against Huntington University. Unlike regular season play in league play, games will be nine innings.

   HU finished No. 2 in the MCC behind Spring Arbor, which is the automatic qualifier for NAIA Region VIII Tournament play after finishing 22-0 in MCC play, 38-1 overall with a 35-game winning streak to finish regular season play. The Foresters finished 15-9 in league play including three wins in four meetings with the Cougars. USF won the last meeting 2-1 at Cougar Field on April 21.

  Back in 2001 under first-year head coach Doug Coate, USF was eliminated by Taylor 5-3 in Game 2 of the tournament after losing to the Foresters 3-1 in the first round. In 2000 under Steve Kovacs, USF advanced to the MCC Tournament championship, but lost twice to Huntington 19-10 and 21-3. USF finished the 2000 tournament with a 2-2 record. Kovacs also got USF into the 1998 MCC Tournament, but they bowed out 7-3 to Bethel and 8-4 against Marian. It was the first time USF advanced to the MCC Tournament since 1993.

-- GO USF --