Series Sweep
May 12, 2003 06:24 PM | General
May 12, 2003
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia used three home runs and another complete-game pitching performance from lefthander Zac Cline to defeat Villanova, 11-6 Monday afternoon at rain-soaked Hawley Field.
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| Record-setting third baseman Tim McCabe was one of three seniors playing his final home game for West Virginia Monday afternoon. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The victory completes the three-game sweep for West Virginia, now 34-14, 17-4. Villanova drops to 13-29, 5-17 after Monday’s loss.
The Mountaineers got home runs from Jake Serfass, Kurtis Clinton and Lee Fritz to tie the team single season home run mark of 69 set in 1997.
Serfass got things going for West Virginia in the bottom of the fourth after Villanova starter John Yeager cruised through the first three innings, setting down nine in a row.
Trailing 2-0, West Virginia’s Eric Grimm led off the inning with a single to right center. Fritz’ bloop double to center advanced Grimm to third. After Tim McCabe popped out to left, Serfass crushed a 2-2 pitch over the center field wall for a three-run home run, his ninth of the year.
Despite trailing by two runs and playing with the threat of a shortened game due to the weather, Fritz says no one was panicking on the bench.
“We just knew we had to turn it up a notch,” he said. “We know when we get down that we have to turn it up to the next level and that’s what we’ve been doing all year.”
“I thought the rain was going to come in and we were going to get shortened,” added Clinton. “But we have confidence in ourselves that we’re going to score runs and that’s the way it’s been all year.”
The Mountaineers tacked on two more runs in sixth with two outs when Clinton caught up with Yeager’s 0-1 fastball and hit it over the Napa sign in left center to make the score 5-2, West Virginia.
Villanova answered with two runs in the top of the seventh when Dustin Downs took a belt-high changeup from Cline over the left field wall, plating Chris Graziano who reached on a single.
Downs hit his second home run of the game in the ninth with a runner on and finished the contest 3 for 5 with 4 RBI. Graziano also had three hits for the Wildcats.
As it turned out, West Virginia’s insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings were big.
Grant Psomas led off the seventh with a double to right and scored when Villanova third baseman Danny Poydenis threw wide of first base trying to get an out on Travis D’Amico’s sacrifice bunt. D’Amico went to second on the errant throw and later scored on Eric Grimm’s RBI groundout. Lee Fritz cleaned up the inning with his first home run of the year.
“I knew it (was gone) as soon as I hit it and I can’t wipe the smile off my face to tell you the truth,” said Fritz of his first collegiate home run.
WVU tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the eighth off Villanova reliever Dan Marino. West Virginia got three straight doubles from Serfass, Clinton and designated hitter Stan Posluszny to start the eighth. Posluszny’s two-bagger was a two-run shot off the right field wall. Posluszny eventually scored on Jarod Rine’s infield single.
Those six runs gave Mountaineer starter Zac Cline enough room for error. The lefthander, who has pitched a Big East-leading 107.2 innings this year, began to tire with two outs in the top of the ninth.
He allowed four straight hits, including Downs’ second home run of the game. Cline was able to finish off the Wildcats when he got Adrian Schau to fly out to right.
Cline allowed 6 runs on 11 hits. He fanned 8 and walked 2 to improve to 10-3 on the season. Cline is now fourth on the WVU single season wins list and is the first West Virginia player to reach 10 wins in a season since Chris Enochs won 12 in 1997.
Yeager took the loss for Villanova and his record drops to 2-7.
Rine, Grimm, Fritz, Serfass, Clinton, Posluszny and Psomas each had two hits for the Mountaineers. West Virginia had 15 hits for the game.
Monday’s game was the final home performance for West Virginia seniors Jason DiAngelo, Eric Grimm and Tim McCabe. The group helped West Virginia record a remarkable 23-4 record at Hawley Field this year.
“We’ve kind of showed other teams this year that this is our ballpark and we play well here,” said McCabe.
The third baseman says this season has been a gratifying one for him personally.
“We don’t have a whole lot of seniors right now but the ones we have are playing a big part in the team right now,” he said. “Every single guy on the team is playing a role and every guy is doing a different job each day so it’s nice to always have someone to fall back on.”
West Virginia wraps up the non-conference portion of its schedule Wednesday afternoon in Canton, Ohio, against Mid-American Conference leading Kent State before finishing the regular season at Boston College for a three game series. The Kent State game is scheduled to get underway at 7:05 p.m.
