Baseball: WVU at No. 24 Tennessee
February 28, 2003 11:20 AM | General
February 28, 2003
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| Rine |
KNOXVILLE, TENN. – West Virginia gets another taste of nationally-ranked competition when it plays a two-game weekend series at No. 24 Tennessee.
Saturday’s contest will get underway at 1 p.m. and Sunday’s contest will start at 2.
The Mountaineers (2-3) are coming off a 2-2 road trip in Wilmington, N.C., last weekend. West Virginia swept Fordham by scores of 3-1 and 9-5 and lost a pair to UNC Wilmington, 6-4 and 17-4.
Mountaineer coach Greg Van Zant is expected to run senior righthander Jason DiAngelo out on the mound for the first game, and come back with sophomore lefthander Zac Cline on Sunday.
DiAngelo is 0-2 with a 6.75 ERA and has had trouble finding the strike zone, walking 11 batters in eight innings. Cline has not allowed an earned run in nine innings so far this year and was named Big East pitcher of the week for his efforts in shutting down Fordham last Saturday.
Junior centerfielder Jarod Rine leads the WVU offensive with a .421 batting average through five games. Other Mountaineer batters off to a good start include right fielder Lee Fritz (.412), catcher Travis D’Amico (.400) and first baseman Kurtis Clinton (.375).
Sophomore shortstop Grant Psomas has knocked in a team-best four runs for the Mountaineers.
Tennessee, 8-0 so far this year, having swept a three-game series against Morehead State, taking two from Bowling Green and posting single wins over The Citadel, James Madison and Old Dominion.
Tennessee is batting .345 as a team and is averaging 9.4 runs per game.
Saturday’s game will be the sixth time these two schools have met on the diamond. Tennessee owns a 4-1 overall mark. WVU’s lone victory against Tennessee came in the 1996 NCAA tournament at Clemson, S.C.
Baseball fans can follow the game via the Internet. MSNsportsNET.com has provided a link to radio station WNOX’s coverage of the series and can be accessed at the Baseball Live Events section on the main page.
