Pack the Park
March 26, 2004 11:56 AM | General
March 26, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Coach Greg Van Zant knows his Mountaineer baseball team is going to have their hands full this weekend facing nationally-ranked Notre Dame in a three-game weekend series at Hawley Field.
 |
||
| Junior Grant Psomas leads WVU with a .418 batting average and 19 RBI.
(All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The Irish, ranked No. 6 by Collegiate Baseball Magazine, is off to an impressive start with victories over San Diego State, USC, Minnesota, Arizona and Texas Tech. The Irish are the second-highest ranked team to ever appear at Hawley Field. In 2002, the Mountaineers played host to No. 3-rated Wake Forest, dropping a 4-1 decision to the Demon Deacons.
Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri has a powerful lineup that has smacked 17 home runs in 17 games so far this year and features a couple of possible top-round draft picks in shortstop Matt Macrie and centerfielder Steve Sollman.
“In last four or five years in the early signing periods they have done very, very well. They’ve signed some of the best kids in the country,” said Van Zant.
The WVU coach runs down Notre Dame’s roster as if it’s the Who’s Who of College Baseball. In reality, it probably is.
“Greg Lopez is a kid from Columbus that we tried to recruit. He’s hitting .393. Matt Macrie coming out of high school in Iowa as one of the top two or three shortstops in the country. Macrie is a major league infielder,” said Van Zant.
“Matt Edwards was the top infielder in Virginia; Javy Sanchez caught in high school and I think he’s playing infield this year. And they’ve got Steve Sollman, the preseason Big East player of the year. He’s hitting .227 but he’s going to come out of that.
“Then they’ve got the pitching,” Van Zant continued. “Their pitching is just outstanding. They’ve got a 7-footer in Ryan Dougherty from New Jersey who they bring out of the bullpen. They have a big lefthander in their rotation in Tom Thornton that they haven’t had in the past. (Chris) Neisel has probably won 15 or 20 of his last decisions. Grant Johnson pitched for Team USA but he had surgery last year and has only pitched five innings. They’re just good.”
In years past, Notre Dame, now 14-3 after dropping a mid-week non-conference game to Central Michigan at home Wednesday, has had great pitching with an offense good enough to win games by manufacturing runs and playing small ball. This year the Irish have attempted to steal just 20 times, meaning Mainieri doesn’t want to run his team out of potential big innings.
“They’ve really got some pop in their lineup,” said Van Zant. “They do everything that a Top 10 team can do. They know how to play.”
Van Zant is feeling better about his team, too. The Mountaineers, now 8-10, swept a two-game mid-week series from St. Bonaventure on Tuesday and Wednesday and have won four of their last five games.
“Some of our better teams have lost to St. Bonaventure,” said Van Zant. “They came in with their pitching staff rested. They’re scrappy and if we didn’t play as well as we did they could have beaten us both games.”
The coach was pleased that he was able to win two games with freshmen pitchers toeing the rubber. Righthander Travis McGrath had a shutout going into the ninth inning and finished the game with a season-high 13 strikeouts.
The next day, Levi Maxwell pitched eight strong innings to help West Virginia to a 10-3 win over the Bonnies. Prior to those two efforts, WVU pitchers were a combined 1-7 when either juniors Zac Cline or Shawn Miller haven’t pitched.
“This might be a turning point winning back-to-back games throwing the freshmen,” said Van Zant
The coach says Cline (2-1, 2.50 ERA) and Miller (3-2, 4.40 ERA) will pitch two of the three games of the Notre Dame series. The third starter will probably be McGrath, coming off four days rest after last pitching on Tuesday.
Injuries and inexperience have enabled McGrath, Maxwell and freshmen Wes Osbourne to gain valuable experience against a very difficult early season schedule.
“The thing about the freshmen is every outing they’ve continued to show improvement. They came here kind of throwing in the fall and now they’re pitching, so that’s very encouraging,” said Van Zant.
Van Zant says he has also settled on an infield alignment that features Mike Christoforo at third and Doug Nelms at second.
“Mike Christoforo has done a great job at third base defensively,” he said. “We went through a period of time when any ground ball to third was an error. And Nelms has settled in at second base and for the most part has done a great job.”
The coach, who now shows a 273-230-1 career record, believes his team’s tough schedule has helped it prepare for the Notre Dame in the conference opener this weekend.
“You can schedule yourself 18-0 or you can go and play some good teams and learn. We’ve seen Richmond, a Top 25 team, we’ve seen UNC Wilmington, we’ve seen Citadel, and we played Florida State, Minnesota and Nebraska out in Minneapolis,” said Van Zant. “Notre Dame, although they’re very good … it won’t be a big shock to our team.
“I don’t think we’re going to have to do any motivating to get our guys ready to play Notre Dame,” he added.
Junior Grant Psomas is one of seven West Virginia regulars hitting better than .300 with a .418 average. Psomas is tied for the team lead with three home runs and has also knocked in a team-best 19 runs.
Sophomore Stan Posluszny and senior Jake Serfass have also hit three home runs each.
Saturday’s game is “Pack the Park Day" with fans being eligible to win great prizes from Papa Johns Pizza and Coca-Cola throughout the afternoon.
Sunday is “High School Day” with teams receiving special discounted tickets by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office in advance. The ticket office toll-free number is 1-800-WVU GAME.
“The weather is supposed to be in the 60s and from everything I’ve heard I’m anticipating Saturday to be a fun day with a lot of people out there,” said Van Zant. “One of the highest ranked teams to ever come to Hawley Field: it ought to be a great day to see some baseball.”
Saturday’s doubleheader will start at 1 pm and Sunday’s single game will also get underway at 1.
U-92 will carry all three games live on the Internet and a link to those broadcasts is provided at MSNsportsNET.com.
