Back to the Tournament
May 21, 2003 09:44 PM | General
May 21, 2003
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. – For three years Eric Grimm watched. He watched other teams in the Big East have their seasons extended at West Virginia’s expense. When May came around it was time once again to put away the bats and balls and wait until next year.
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| Senior Eric Grimm was committed to getting West Virginia back into postseason play. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
“It is kind of embarrassing when you’ve got a big-time university like this and a great program that has played in the NCAA tournament in the past and we’re finishing with sub .500 seasons,” said Grimm. “That’s just not acceptable. It’s really been a big disappointment for us the last couple of years.”
The last time West Virginia qualified for the Big East tournament was in 1999 when the league took six teams.
Grimm, one of only three seniors on the team, decided to take matters into his own hands this spring. “Tim (McCabe) and I did take a little of the pressure on ourselves because we’ve been through it and I think more is expected of us,” he said.
Grimm spent a miserable junior season in 2002 mired with back problems that weren’t finally corrected until he decided to have off-season surgery. The Parkersburg, W.Va., resident was the team MVP as a sophomore in 2001 after batting .358 with 12 doubles and 30 RBI.
His average plummeted to .287 last year and West Virginia slipped under .500 for the second time in three seasons. Avoiding another collapse and making postseason play were Grimm’s primary objectives coming into this year.
“Three years we’ve come up short and I think our team was pretty determined this year that we weren’t going to let that happen again,” said Grimm. “We just focused in on every Big East game and we were going to do whatever it took to get to the Big East tournament.”
Mission accomplished. West Virginia’s surprising turnaround has caught just about everyone off guard. The Mountaineers were picked to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the Big East preseason coach’s poll.
WVU (35-17) recorded an impressive 20-4 record at Hawley Field this year on the way to winning 18 regular season Big East games. That is the most regular season wins produced in Big East play for the Mountaineers since West Virginia joined the conference in 1996.
“This place has been a little more refreshing because we’ve played well and we’ve won a few games,” said Grimm.
The second baseman has been a big reason for West Virginia’s impressive record heading into tournament play Thursday night.
Grimm leads the Mountaineers with 52 RBI while boasting a solid .321 batting average. Grimm’s nine home runs ranks fourth on a team that has slugged a school-record 70 home runs to date.
In most years, Grimm’s production would be good enough to garner all-conference recognition. But three of the league’s top hitters – Virginia Tech’s Marc Tugwell, Rutgers’ Matt Wolski and Notre Dame’s Steve Sollmann – each man Grimm’s second base position.
Grimm owns a .310 batting average in 182 career games and is one hit shy of recording 200 for his career. When he gets it he will become one of just five players in school history to do so. Grimm says the success he’s enjoying batting in the number two spot this year can be attributed to a solid lineup from top to bottom.
“Our whole lineup swings the bat really well and that takes the pressure of each individual person,” he said. “Say our top three guys don’t swing then the seven, eight, and nine hitters swing it. That’s why our offense has been one of the best in the country this year.”
Grimm knows West Virginia batters are in for a big challenge Thursday night when the Mountaineers face No. 25-ranked Notre Dame. The Irish are expected to start sophomore right-hander Chris Neisel, who nearly no-hit the Mountaineers in a 1-0 Notre Dame victory in South Bend back on May 4.
“We’re excited about facing him again,” said Grimm. “He dominated us our first time out. We know that and we’re just excited to get another chance to face him.
“He had a good fastball that day and he really hit his spots,” the senior added. “He never really threw anything in the middle third of the plate where we could hit the ball hard. It seems on every hitter he was 0-2 or 1-2 and you’ve got to tip your hat to him because he pitched a great game. We’ve seen him once and now we’ll get a crack at him for nine innings instead of seven. We’ll just see if we can’t go out and put some better swings on the ball and get a few runs this time.”
West Virginia plans to counter with sophomore Shawn Miller, who held the Irish to just four hits and one unearned run in that loss against Neisel. Another pitcher’s duel could be in the offering.
No. 2-seeded West Virginia’s match up with No. 3-seeded Notre Dame follows the first game of the tournament pitting regular season champion Rutgers against No. 4-seeded Virginia Tech. Game one is slated to begin at 3:30 p.m. and game two is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
“Everybody is pretty excited and we’re ready to get after it,” said Grimm.
MSNsportsNET.com will have a link to U-92’s live webcast of each tournament game. A link will also be provided for the Big East’s LiveStats service.
If the Mountaineers should advance, Friday afternoon’s last two games will be televised live on College Sports Television and can be accessed on DirecTV at channel 610.
West Virginia has a high enough RPI to warrant serious consideration for an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament. Despite WVU’s lofty regular season record, Grimm isn’t inclined to take any chances though.
“We’ve decided as a group to not leave it up to a selection committee,” he said. “We’re going to try and do our best to win this tournament.”
