Baseball: WVU Travels to Kent State
May 14, 2003 02:39 PM | General
May 14, 2003
CANTON, Ohio – The West Virginia University baseball team can make a compelling case for an NCAA tournament at-large berth with a victory at Kent State Wednesday night at Thurman Munson Stadium in Canton, Ohio.
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| Sophomore Lee Fritz is ranked 18th in the country this week in hitting with a .420 batting average. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Of course beating the Golden Flashes is easier said than done.
“I’m glad we’re playing them on a neutral field,” said Van Zant. “They have four guys who can really swing the bat.
“Win or lose it’s going to be a good RPI game for us. If we could somehow win tonight’s game that would be great,” Van Zant added.
Kent State comes into tonight’s game with an impressive 30-16 record. The Golden Flashes sit atop the Mid-American Conference East Division two games ahead of Miami, Ohio with a 16-4 conference record.
Kent State counts impressive non-conference victories over Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. Kent has not lost a conference series this season and shows a solid RPI of 57, according to Boyd’s World.
Like West Virginia, Kent State has used a potent lineup to score 357 runs in 46 games (an average of 7.8 runs per game). The Golden Flashes have four players with 10 or more home runs this year and show 67 home runs for the season. Chad Kinyon, a 6-foot, 205-pound junior first baseman from Lima, Ohio, leads Kent State with 14 dingers. Kinyon has slugged 27 home runs for his career.
Outfielders Adam Crowder and Pat O’Brien have 12 home runs each while senior second baseman Chris Welsch has socked 11.
As a team Kent State is hitting .299 with three players batting better than .300. Crowder leads the way with a .386 average and an impressive .736 slugging percentage. Kinyon is hitting .347 and slugging .665 while Welsch is hitting .333 and owns a .622 slugging percentage.
Dirk Hayhurst, Matt Lorenzo, Pat Frank and Josh Mayle started last weekend’s four-game series against Miami, Ohio. Lorenzo lasted just two innings on Saturday while Frank pitched four innings on Sunday and both could be available for action tonight.
Lorenzo owns a 5-5 record with a 4.15 earned run average in 11 appearances. Frank is 2-0 with a 6.43 earned run average in 12 appearances.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t throw their No. 1 pitcher tonight,” said Van Zant. “It’s going to be a very tough game for us.”
West Virginia counters with an offense that ranks seventh in the country with a .337 batting average.
Sophomore Lee Fritz leads WVU with a .420 batting mark. Junior Jarod Rine is also hitting better than .400 at .417 with 8 home runs and 31 RBI from his leadoff spot. Junior Kurtis Clinton leads the team with 12 home runs.
Pitchers available for tonight’s game for WVU include: Ryan Lipscomb (0-0, 0.93 ERA), Chris Amedro (2-1, 4.91 ERA), Tino Medina (1-4, 6.21 ERA), Justin Asbury (2-1, 7.64 ERA), Todd Dunham (1-1, 8.15 ERA), John Riffle (0-0, 12.79 ERA) and David Walker (0-0, 12.86 ERA).
“We’re going to start Walker and see how far he goes,” said Van Zant. “I’d like to get some of our other pitchers some work, too.”
After facing West Virginia tonight, Kent State wraps up its regular season at home with a four-game series against Buffalo.
West Virginia, 34-14, completes its regular season at Boston College for a three-game series that will decide the Big East regular season championship. Friday’s games will get start at noon while Saturday’s single game has been moved up to 11 a.m.
The Mountaineers are currently a half-game ahead of Rutgers in the conference standings. The Knights travel to Villanova to wrap up their portion of the regular season.
LiveStats for tonight’s game will be carried on MSNsportsNET.com. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
