EIBL Season to Test Pitching Staff Depth

The Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League, consisting of the Ivy League, Army, and Navy, will expand its league schedule this spring to fourteen games rather than the traditional nine game competition. The new format will severely test the Crimson's pitching depth.

Instead of playing each team only once, now every squad will schedule four Friday games and five Saturday doubleheaders. Harvard will annually have four Friday-Saturday pairings: Princeton-Columbia, Yale-Brown, Cornell-Army, and Penn-Navy. The teams that the Crimson meets twice this year will be scheduled for Friday games next season.

Dartmouth Doubleheader

The only contradiction to the pattern is the Harvard-Dartmouth series. Since the match does not involve back-to-back Friday-Saturday games. Harvard will play a doubleheader with the Indians every year.

The original intent of the change was to broaden the schedule of league participants. "Everyone just wanted to play more ball games." coach Loyal Park said.

But the new system has far more serious implications for the Crimson than merely expanding the team's schedule. Harvard has seven starters returning from last year's team, but the one position where the Crimson lacks a strong returning letterman is on the mound.

Bob Dorwart and Bob Kalinoski. Harvard's two leading hurlers, have both graduated. Coach Park must begin building a pitching staff around J. C. Nickens, who posted a 4-4 record as a sophomore, and juniors Curt Tucker and Tom DaShiell, neither of whom saw much action last year.

"A team with three sound pitchers to rely upon will have a definite advantage over any opposition" Park said. "There's no question that pitching depth is now the key to winning. Every team is going to need three starting pitchers to make it through the weekend."

Therefore, the fact that Harvard's last two freshman teams have compiled a 22-1 record may be insignificant to this year's varsity. Those two Yardling squads maintained that record by averaging better than 11 runs per game. The lack of Crimson pitching depth may overshadow Harvard's potent batting attack.

Furthermore, the Crimson's yearly doubleheader with Dartmouth is sure to give Park annual headaches. Dartmouth won the league title last season and is returning six starters. But more than that, the Indians have all-EIBL star Charlie Seebach and sophomore Pete Broberg in their pitching rotation.

As a freshman. Broberg compiled a 6-0 record, a 1.60 ERA, and 99 strikeouts in 45 innings. He also hurled two no-hitters in his six appearances.