With the calendar reading only three days to spring and eleven days to the opening game on the schedule, Coach Dolph Samborski's varsity nine is slowly rounding into shape down at Briggs Cage. But the cage is no Cuidad Trujillo and Massachusetts isn't particularly known for its warm weather this time of the year, so the job is not an easy one.

Snow and dampness have kept the oversized squad from journeying outdoors, and hour exams coming so shortly before the opener have not been conducive to practice, so just how the team will shake up is practically anybody's guess right now. The weeding process was completed last night, however, and the team has been pared down from an original 80 to an even 36.

The infield presents one of the toughest problems for Samborski to find an answer to. Only Captain Johnny Coppinger remains from last year's regular infield, and he'll be trying to pull down the hot corner again. In the running for the same position along with him is John Chase, late of the hockey sextet. Samborski won't quite be starting from scratch in finding a man to cover first base. Big Walt Coulson, who roamed the outfield for the varsity last year, covered the first sack in his prop school days and should be covering the same spot for the Crimson.

Rounding out the other two spots in the infield will be either Tom Sullivan, Myles Huntington, or Pete Petrillo at second, and Ernie Maninilo or John Goldsmith, who played Freshman ball last year, at short stop.

Bill Connelly will be back on the mound after a forced absence last year when he was declared ineligible by Ivy League officials. Also returning is fireman Ira Godin, who started or came in to save many a game for the 1947 Crimson squad, and Landon Clay. Receivers for these moundsmen will be at a premium--at least ones as good as the graduated Bill Hamlen--but Cliff Crosby and Web Durant are attempting to fill the bill.

Another open question is just who will be patrolling the outfield come the end of the month and the first game. Left over from last year are Len Lunder and John Caulfield. Pressing for positions out near the far walls are Dick Kobusch and a contingent from the football team including Chip Gannon and Jim Kenary.

Although it is too early to tell just what the team will show in the way of batting power until the squad finally gets out from under the nets in the Cage and onto Soldiers Field for some real practice, the hitting department shouldn't be too weak. Walt Coulson, who led the team last season and was second in the league, is back, and the entire squad is meeting the ball squarely in the batting sessions down in the cage.

League competitor says Coach Samborski, will be no pushover. He predicts a close race all the way through, with pitching the deciding factor. But Samborski is not too concerned with the long run outlook. All he wants to do at the moment is find a starting nine for the season's start with Johns Hopkins, at the end of the month.