Downing the Domers
May 04, 2003 08:10 PM | General
May 4, 2003
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Zac Cline pitched his fifth straight complete game to lead West Virginia to an eye-opening, 5-1 victory over No. 13-ranked Notre Dame Sunday afternoon at Frank Eck Stadium.
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| Catcher Travis D'Amico's two-out, two-run single gave West Virginia some breathing room in the ninth inning. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Coupled with Saturday’s doubleheader split, West Virginia takes the series from the Irish on their home diamond for just the second time since joining the Big East in 1996. In ‘96, the Mountaineers swept a doubleheader from Notre Dame on the way to their first Big East title.
Cline was a workhorse once again for WVU, allowing just five hits in nine innings of work. The lefthander struck out 8 and walked just 1 to improve to 9-3 on the year. Cline threw 131 pitches for his sixth complete game of the season. Last year Cline had Notre Dame handcuffed through seven innings before losing a tough, 10-6 verdict.
Sunday, the Union City, Pa., native showed why he is one of the best pitchers in the Big East conference.
“It was a big win for us -- that’s for sure,” said Cline. “We’re really excited and really happy about the way the team played team and obviously it was big for us to win the series.”
“Zac was really sharp and he just controlled the game,” said Mountaineer coach Greg Van Zant.
The series pitted the best offensive team in the Big East (West Virginia) against the top pitching team (Notre Dame), but it was West Virginia’s three starting pitchers who proved most effective.
“Those three guys have really pitched well for us,” said Van Zant. “They just keep getting better and better.”
All three Mountaineer starters tossed complete games and if not for an unearned run allowed by game one starter Shawn Miller, West Virginia might very well have swept the highly-rated Irish.
Notre Dame pitcher Chris Neisel just missed a no-hitter when Lee Fritz legged out a bund single with one out in the seventh. After the game, Neisel was quoted on the local newspaper as calling the play “kind of bush”, which irked several Mountaineer players.
Because it was just a one-run game, a base runner would have put the go-ahead run at the plate with the school’s all-time leading home run hitter Tim McCabe coming to bat.
Van Zant downplayed Neisel’s remark and didn’t believe it was a big factor in Sunday’s game.
The Mountaineers (31-14, 14-4) got things going in the third when catcher Travis D’Amico singled to left to start the inning. Jarod Rine’s sacrifice bunt was mishandled by Irish first baseman Matt Edwards to put runners on first and second.
After a successful sacrifice bunt by Eric Grimm, Fritz grounded out to second to score D’Amico.
West Virginia plated another run in the fifth when shortstop Grant Psomas homered to left center, his seventh home run of the season. WVU tacked on another run in the sixth when Jake Serfass sent a Ryan Kalita pitch over the left centerfield fence for his eighth home run of the season.
“It was a two-two fastball right down the middle,” said Serfass. “He threw me a changeup earlier in the count and they working me away so I was looking fastball the whole time.”
Notre Dame responded with a run in the bottom of the seventh, but WVU tacked on two insurance runs in the top of the ninth when D’Amico hit a bloop single to center to score Psomas and designated hitter Stan Posluszny.
Van Zant had both Psomas and Posluszny moving with two strikes, and D’Amico was able to get the ball in play and score both runs for a big four-run cushion.
“I thought we’d surprise them and maybe the catcher would throw the ball over the third baseman’s head and we’ steal a run,” Van Zant admitted. “Travis did a great job of getting the bat on the ball, and Stan really hustled to score from first. That play was huge.”
Cline set down the Irish in order in the ninth to move the Mountaineers into a tie with the Irish for second place in the Big East standings one-half game behind Rutgers.
“Coach giving me the opportunity to go the whole game has really given me a lot of confidence and I just try and hit my spots and throw as many strikes as I can,” said Cline.
Notre Dame starter Ryan Kalita lost his first college decision as a collegian, dropping his overall record to 12-1. Kalita gave up 3 runs, 2 earned, in 5 innings of work to drop to 5-1 this year.
All of West Virginia’s offense Sunday came from the bottom five hitters in the batting order. Serfass went 2 for 5, Psomas went 2 for 4 and D’Amico went 2 for 4 for WVU.
“When your number eight hitter (Psomas) can hit the ball 450 feet you know you have a pretty good offense,” said Van Zant.
Matt Edwards had 3 of Notre Dame’s 6 hits. The Irish drop to 35-12 after Sunday’s loss.
West Virginia became the first team to win a conference series at Notre Dame since St. John’s did it in 1998. Coming into this weekend, the Irish had claimed 31 out of their lat 36 conference games at Frank Eck Stadium.
West Virginia’s pair of wins now boosts its record to 3-2 this year against nationally ranked teams, and gives WVU needed momentum to make a push for cracking the national rankings this week. The Mountaineers won a road series against a nationally ranked team for the first time in school history.
“Winning this series ranks right up there with some of the better wins we’ve had in the program,” said Van Zant. “To come out and take a series from a team as good as Notre Dame says a lot for the players we’ve got in this team. I’m very happy for them.”
West Virginia is idle this week for final examinations. WVU is back in action next Sunday at Hawley Field for a doubleheader with Villanova.
