Scorecard

HIT MAN

Fordham University's baseball season is 49 games long. As we shall see, it is probably a good thing for freshman Santy Gallone—and his loved ones—that it is not longer.

On March 14, in his first at bat against Fairleigh Dickinson, Gallone, a righthanded hitter who plays third base for the Rams, was hit below the left eye. He refused to leave the game and went 2 for 4 on the day.

Against Rider College the next day, Gallone, who had donned a clear plastic protective mask, was plunked on the left shoulder. Against Fairfield on March 18, he was hit on the left hand. In the first game of the next day's doubleheader, also against Fairfield, Gallone stopped a fastball with his chest. In the nightcap, Gallone, who by now had scrapped his protective mask—it interfered with his breathing, he said—was again hit below the left eye. And again he refused to leave the game. But he was not above redonning the mask.

In the top of the seventh inning of that game, Gallone was barreled over by a base runner who was coming into third. Then, while trying to score from third on a ground ball that same inning, Gallone hit the Fairfield catcher so hard that Gallone cracked his own helmet and cut his face in three places. Gallone was nailed at the plate, but Fordham won the game 4-3, and Gallone finished with four hits in five at bats.

There's more. Against Hofstra on March 22, Gallone was hit three more times, on the left forearm, left triceps and left calf. He hasn't been hit since, but still sports traces of a nasty black eye. "It hurts on occasion," says Gal-lone, who crowds the plate something fierce when he's at bat. "It all depends on where they get you. But my main objective is to get on base. It doesn't matter how."

Obviously.

THE SOGGIEST SEASON

Eighteen games into the University of Washington's baseball season, the Huskies were undefeated. That was the good news. The bad news was that the team's record was only 1-0. The other 17 games had been postponed because of rain or snow.

"The players took it well," said coach Bob MacDonald before the Huskies left sodden Seattle for California to play eight games during spring break. "They wanted to beat somebody. They were really anxious to get their feet wet."