Team 'Zips' off to North Carolina

For the second time in as many weeks, the IU baseball team canceled its scheduled series in favor of better weather this weekend. The Hoosiers were supposed to travel to Fairfax, Va. to take on George Mason, but instead will be heading further south to Asheville, N.C., to play two double headers on Saturday and Sunday against the Akron Zips. Both day's games will start at noon. \nCoach Bob Morgan's club encountered a similar situation last weekend when IU, instead of competing in the Governor's Cup in Evansville, traveled to Bradenton, Fla., where the Hoosiers (3-0) started the season by defeating three teams in four days.\nFor Morgan, it doesn't matter where IU plays as long as they are improving. The Hoosiers started sluggishly in their first game, a 6-5 squeaker over the University of Findlay. But IU finished the weekend on March 3 with a 5-3 victory over a talented Boston College squad. Morgan said he's looking for his team to play hard and show improvement this weekend.\n"I'll be happy if we play well each time out and if we can improve upon our performance from this past weekend," Morgan said. "Just playing hard, playing well, and looking for guys to get better. That's what we're looking for."\nOne area IU will definitely try to improve is making every at-bat count. IU was plagued over the weekend with lackluster at-bats, but strong pitching kept the Hoosiers competitive. IU's strongest offensive performance came on March 3 against Valparaiso when the Hoosiers compiled 12 runs on 15 hits.\nSenior outfielder Kenny Marrs said IU's concentration at the plate must improve to support the pitching staff.\n"Our pitching carried us a lot this weekend. And the offense did alright scoring some runs, but we had a lot of at-bats that weren't very good at-bats," Marrs said. "We've got to improve on that. To compete at the Big Ten level we're going to have to have quality at-bats and not waste seven or eight like this past weekend."\nA player who capitalized on many of his at-bats was senior third baseman Vasili Spanos. Spanos was named the Big Ten Player of the Week for Feb. 24 to March 3. During that period, Spanos hit .462, compiled a .846 slugging percentage, homered once and had three extra base hits.\nSpanos said he's glad his final season at IU started on the right foot.\n"It's nice being the first weekend and all," Spanos said. "I'm just glad I got off to a good start."\nMorgan said Spanos' offensive versatility makes him a tough hitter to get out.\n"He's a power guy. He's an RBI guy for us," Morgan said. "He hits for average, and usually you don't have power guys hit for average. People have to fear him, and other people are going to get pitches to hit. He's the key that makes us go."\nOne area hindering IU's young season is its strike out numbers. Through three games, IU has struck out 29 times out of 119 total at bats. Those two numbers translate into IU striking out approximately one out of every four at-bats, a statistic that surely doesn't bring a smile to Morgan's face.\n"Overall we didn't show a lot of discipline, and we didn't have very many good at-bats," Morgan said. \nSpanos agrees, but isn't too worried. The River Forest, Ill., native said it's a young season, and the club will look to eliminate some of those mistakes this weekend.\n"I think overall our goal is to play better and eliminate mistakes," Spanos said. "We had a few more strike outs than I would like, but it takes a little while to adjust."\nRegardless, Marrs said year's team is farther along than last year's 35-20 squad.\n"At this point I think we've got a little jump on last year's team," Marrs said. "We started out 3-0. The expectations are high, and I think it's a good way to start a season"