Baseball: WVU to Battle Eastern Michigan
March 21, 2003 11:45 AM | General
March 21, 2003
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| Serfass |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University baseball team puts its modest three-game winning streak on the line this weekend against Eastern Michigan in a three-game series at Hawley Field that begins with a Saturday doubleheader at 1 p.m.
WVU, winners of five out of its last six games and seven out of nine, come into this weekend’s series with a 10-6 mark.
Two of the Mountaineers’ last three wins have come in the bottom of the ninth in their final at bat. Last Sunday, senior Eric Grimm stroked a two-run, walk-off home run to defeat Le Moyne, 5-4, and Grant Psomas capped a five-run ninth inning rally by stroking a two-run single over the head of the leftfielder to defeat St. Bonaventure, 8-7.
The dynamics of West Virginia’s team has changed dramatically from recent seasons. Prior to this year, the Mountaineers have consistently ranked among the top teams in the Big East in team pitching. However, West Virginia scored just 275 runs last year to rank near the bottom of the conference, and hit just 37 home runs in 50 games.
This season, West Virginia batters are hitting .326 with 22 home runs and own a slugging percentage of .509. The Mountaineers have pounded out at least 10 hits in a game eight times this season and have scored eight runs or more seven times.
Junior Jake Serfass leads a lineup full of .300 hitters with a .485 batting average in 11 games. Sophomore Lee Fritz is hitting .481 with a team-best 26 hits.
Junior Kurtis Clinton leads the team with five home runs, while senior Eric Grimm is tops among Mountaineers with 16 RBI.
Senior Tim McCabe, a preseason all-Big East pick who started the season in a miserable slump, has brought his batting average back up to .283 with four home runs and 10 RBI.
Three other West Virginia players (Clinton, Derek Cisar and Grant Psomas) have also driven in more than 10 runs so far this year.
The pitching staff has gradually gotten better this year with Zac Cline (3-1, 4.18 ERA) and Jason DiAngelo (2-2, 4.09 ERA) logging most of the innings. Juniors Tino Medina (1-1, 5.25 ERA) and Marty Fagler (1-0, 4.50 ERA) went deep into games in their last starts. Overall, West Virginia’s team ERA is 5.24.
Eastern Michigan (2-8) has played a difficult early season schedule with road games at Florida International, No. 21 Florida Atlantic, at No. 21 Kansas and at Ohio State.
EMU’s pair of wins came at Florida Atlantic.
Eastern was predicted to finish second in the MAC West in the league’s preseason coaches poll, and return to preseason All-American picks in right fielder Ryan Goleski and shortstop Brian Bixler.
Bixler is batting .306 with a home run and an RBI in 36 plate appearances, while Goleski is batting .273 with two home runs and eight RBI in 44 at bats.
EMU’s top three pitchers are Daley Hayes (1-0, 2.45 ERA), Anthony Tomey (0-2, 3.60 ERA) and Dave Pieron (1-2, 3.98 ERA). They have combined to pitch 58.1 innings so far this year.
Eastern Michigan skipper Roger Coryell won his 400th career game against Florida Atlantic on Feb. 16. Last year Coryell was the MAC coach of the year.
All three weekend games will be carried on the Internet by U-92.
