Temple's Baseball Program Finally Starts Heating Up: Mid-Season Recap

This will be my second college sports article and my first within the "college baseball" community.

I have no idea what to expect, so here goes.

The Temple University baseball program does not get the recognition it should, along with the rest of the A-10 baseball teams. They are overshadowed by the bigger baseball programs of the southern and western schools.

But, I am not here to rant about it.

No, I am here to talk-shop about Temple baseball.

The Temple Owls started off 2-2 in their first four games, with wins coming against Central Michigan University and Florida Gulf Coast, and losses against Wichita State and High Point.

Temple's next game had to wait until Mar. 6. Prior to that, the Owls had a string of four games cancelled, including two against High Point, one against George Mason, and the other against Maryland Eastern Shore.

They then went on a seven game slide, including a weekend sweep by Liberty, highlighted by an 11-1 blowout.

The Owls returned home and did not find much luck in their home opener against Rutgers on Mar. 10, losing in an 11-8, extra innings affair. The week also saw losses to Manhattan and Niagara.

But the week did include Temple's first win in nearly a month, beating Cleveland State 5-1.

The following week started off with a bang for Temple, winning 10-5 at Lehigh on March 17th. But the team dropped its next game at home against Big Five rival Penn by a score of 11-6.

The Owls then released their pent up frustrations by completing a weekend sweep of conference foe Duquesne, including a 17-5 blowout.

The sweep began Temple's first winning streak of the season, which lasted into the next week with a 8-7 win against Monmouth.

But, of course, all good things always come to an end. Temple lost the next day to in-state foe Penn State, 7-4.

Temple continued its home stand by sweeping conference foe and Big Five rival, La Salle. They took both games of a doubleheader on Friday and capped off the series with 10-3 rout on Saturday.

Temple is off to its best Atlantic 10 start since 1984, when current Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Jamie Moyer was pitching for conference foe and Big Five rival Saint Joseph's University.

Temple is currently first in the A-10 Conference and leads Dayton by half a game.

Temple University record (overall): 11-11

A-10 Record: 6-0

Big Five Record: 3-1

Remaining regular season games for the Temple University Owls baseball team:

3/31 at Villanova**

4/3, 4/4, 4/5 at UMass*

4/7 Liberty Bell Classic

4/8 at Rider

4/10 at St. Joseph's***

4/11 doubleheader at St. Joseph's***

4/14 at Delaware

4/17, 4/18, 4/19 vs. Charlotte*

4/21 vs. Villanova**

4/24, 4/25, 4/26 vs. Xavier*

4/28 at Villanova**

4/29 vs. Lafayette

5/1, 5/2, 5/3 at Richmond*

5/4 at St. John's

5/6 at Delaware

5/8, 5/9, 5/10 vs. Saint Louis*

5/14, 5/15, 5/16 at Fordham*

* denotes A-10 conference game

** denotes Big Five game

*** denotes Big Five AND A-10 conference game

Thanks for reading.