After a spring break full of baseball in sunny Florida, the Tommies start MIAC play with a doubleheader this weekend against Carleton (2-9).

Senior outfielder Drew Cremisino said the Tommies will be ready Saturday for their first conference matchup.

“I think Carleton will be a good test to show if we can carry over what we learned in Florida,” Cremisino said. “The rest of this week will help us get ready, and I think we’ll do well.”

The Tommies played games almost every day during spring break in Winter Haven, Fla. Coach Chris Olean said he values these early games to tinker with lineups and evaluate talent.

“We find out what we need to work on and who we want to play in these games,” Olean said. “A lot of position battles cleared themselves up this past week down in Florida.”

Without schoolwork to worry about, Olean said, the players had an opportunity to bond and to focus on baseball in Florida. The Tommies have a lot of young players on the roster, with 10 freshmen on the varsity squad.

“That is a very high percentage [of freshmen], and a lot higher than we’ve had in years past,” Olean said. “But they are pretty good freshmen, and they’ve shown they can compete.”

In consecutive games the Tommies played Anderson University, which led the country in hitting last year; Mount Vernon Nazarene, a perennial top-10 NAIA team; and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point, both of which are ranked top-10 in the country.

Olean said tough games early in the schedule help set the bar high for the team.

“It gives you a barometer. It lets you know where you’re at, and what you need to get to and achieve,” Olean said. “I made the schedule as tough as I did because I wanted to get pushed, and I wanted to see what these guys did under pressure.”

Senior Tayler Rahm said he was happy with his team’s hitting against such tough competition.

“We saw some great pitching down there, some guys [who] will be All-Americans, but we swung the bats well,” Rahm said. “If we continue to score a lot of runs, we should be good to go.”

The Florida trip showcased some strong play from seniors, namely outfielder Drew Cremisino, who was named the first MIAC player of the week of the 2011 season for his strong performance this March. The senior has hit .500 so far this spring, with 12 RBIs, 10 runs and two home runs.

But there were some speed bumps during the Florida trip. The team lost several close games and struggled at times, stumbling to a 4-8 record. Rahm said this experience is different than in past years.

“We’re not used to losing games down in Florida, because we usually play some easier teams,” Rahm said. “But it helps us grow as a team, and it helps the young guys get some experience.”

Olean said he wasn’t happy with the team’s record.

“Our team did compete hard in all of those games, but we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with our defense,” Olean said. “A lot of those losses were by one run, and those losses were due to playing poor defense.”

Olean said the team’s defensive play was probably its biggest weakness in Florida and is something it will have to address. Rahm said with such a young team, it is important for the seniors to lead by example.

“When things are going wrong, you can’t show as much emotion as you can when you’re younger, because you know these guys are looking up to you,” Rahm said.

With a few adjustments, Olean said, the Tommies should be able to play winning baseball as the season progresses.

“We have all the talent in the world to compete for as high as we want to go,” Olean said. “But some of the simple things have to be cleaned up, and we have to address these issues hopefully sooner rather than later.”

Cremisino said the team is still confident going forward.

“We showed that we can play with these teams, but we haven’t shown we can do it consistently,” Cremisino said. “I think if we keep getting better, we can be there at the end of the season with those top teams we played.”

The team plays Thursday at Winona State (9-5), followed by a Saturday doubleheader at Carleton.

Dan Cook can be reached at cook9156@stthomas.edu.