Around this time of the year, upset is a common word that turns an unheralded college team into a national sensation.
On the baseball diamond, it’s what Temple’s baseball team has not been able to do against any of the nationally ranked teams it has played so far.
Still, there are no regrets heading into the Atlantic 10 Conference schedule.
“It is a bit frustrating, but we want to play those tough games,” junior outfielder John Quigley said.
With a lackluster March performance, the Owls don’t appear to be worried about their A-10 games.
After a rigorous non conference schedule, the Owls (2-13, 0-3 A-10) are still confident in their ability to win games.
But if Temple wants to make any sort of run in the A-10, its pitching must improve and get healthy.
The Owls have a depleted rotation, due to injury and inconsistency, which has forced manager Skip Wilson to go day by day with his pitching staff.
With senior Brian Ursone and sophomore Bryan Stamm getting bit by the injury bug, Wilson has needed to call on some of his younger arms.
“It is tough for these younger guys to step up and pitch, because us older guys haven’t been setting the right example,” senior Mike Caron said.
So the Owls are working to fix their pitching dilemma.
Caron believes the pitching staff “just needs to work on pitching one strike at a time” and “getting ahead of the batters.”
This past weekend, the Owls traveled to Virginia and got swept by the nationally ranked Richmond Spiders.
The Owls dropped all three games to get the A-10 season underway.
“The thing is that we haven’t been able to put together a complete game,” senior Andrew Clemens said.
“One game we’ll have our pitching, but not our hitting or the other way around. Right now we have to work on putting them together.”
The Owls lost the first game of a double header in extra-innings.
In the next two games, the Owls were outscored, 25-8, by the Spiders.
In one of those games, the Owls faced perhaps the best pitcher in college baseball in Jason Bolinski.
It seems like déjà vu for the Owls, who will head down I-95 to take on George Washington this weekend.
Last season, they started with a 13-game losing streak and lost some of the team’s best players to injury.
The team, however, still made it to the conference championship series.
“Thing’s don’t look so good right now, but we’re not worried,” Quigley said. “We’re a lot better than our record.”
Anthony Hood can be reached at temple_news@hotmail.com.
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