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Show T-birds look stronger for 1972 baseball season despite losses Southern Utah State Thun-derbird Thun-derbird baseball opened Its 1972 road season last week with a double header against University of Nevada Las Ve- Bowden, freshman from Salt Lake City. Ivan Otero, freshman All-New All-New York City shortstop, is the new man in the veteran -infield of Jon ' Hoover, senior third baseman, .294; Russ Chester, second base senior; .386; and junior first baseman base-man Mike Ogrin, .274. Junior catcher Val Culli-. more, -253, makes up the re- ' ceiving end of the battery with newcomers Craig Lloyd,, right handed sophomore from Sacramento, and Mike Clark, freshman left hander from , Traer, Iowa, getting the nod for the mound. gas in Las Vegas. The T-Birds were downed 7-5 and 13-1 by the strong Rebel team. Earlier SUSC whipped the University of Utah, 6-4, at Cedar Ce-dar City. The T-Birds hit the road March 16 for three days of baseball in Phoenix with one game against Colorado Mines and four games with Grand Canyon College. Six lettermen make up the nucleus of the T-Bird starting lineup leaving only the pitcher pitch-er and shortstop" new to the infield- Men with experience will help the T-Birds this year. Warm spring weather for the first time in years has helped bring the players around faster than expected. Nearly a month of outside work has been achieved by the warm weather. "We should be stronger overall ov-erall this year and have a good defense. Our hitting should improve over last year also," Coach Cleo Petty stated. "We'll miss Tex Anthony An-thony at short and in hitting." Anthony, Ail-American last year at shortstop, provided a strong stick for hitting and a quick glove to bolster the "Bird defense." Lettermen Russ Peterson, .310 last year, and Hack Mitchell, senior power hitter, will make up the starting outfield with newcomer Chuck |