THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 8, 1995 TAG: 9503080646
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 30 lines
The USA Baseball team, with a new emphasis on college freshmen and sophomores, will play at Harbor Park this summer as part of a 14-city, 32-game tour.
The team, coached by Louisiana State's Skip Bertman, will face Australia on July 23. At other stops, the USA will face Nicaragua, Canada, Cuba and South Korea.
In a conference call Tuesday, Bertman said the team would consist of 26 of the nation's top freshmen and sophomores with the goal of keeping most of them together to compete in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Consistency in international competition has been a downfall of other USA teams that were comprised of mostly upperclassmen, Bertman said.
Early indoctrination, he hopes, will return USA Baseball to world prominence. The USA won the gold medal in the 1988 Olympics, when baseball was a demonstration sport, but finished fourth in the 1992 Olympics. So far, invitations to the team's tryouts June 6 in Millington, Tenn., have only been issued to eight players, none of whom attend Virginia colleges. Forty players will be invited, Bertman said. by CNB