Irish Take Two
March 27, 2004 08:35 PM | General
March 27, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The WVU baseball team was swept by No. 6 Notre Dame Saturday afternoon in front of a season-high 639 fans at Hawley Field.
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| Stan Posluszny tries to score on a suicide squeeze play in the eighth innning of Saturday's doubleheader against Notre Dame.
(All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The doubleheader was the Big East opener for both teams.
The Irish edged the Mountaineers, 5-3, in 10 innings in the first game and blanked West Virginia, 4-0, behind a masterful shutout performance by left-hander Tom Thornton in the nightcap.
In the first game, the Mountaineers took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning after Lee Fritz roped a two-out double down the left field line and Stan Posluszny followed with an RBI base-hit.
From that point on, it was a classic duel between WVU ace left-hander Zac Cline and Notre Dame All-American Chris Niesel.
Both hurlers stayed in control of the game till the fifth inning, when a two-out triple by Irish second baseman Steve Sollman preceeded Matt Bransfield's double to plate Sollman to tie the game. Notre Dame's Matt Edwards followed with another double to knock in Bransfield and give his team a 2-1 advantage.
WVU responded in the bottom half of the fifth as Jake Serfass singled, stole second, and was singled in by Grant Psomas. A Fritz single on a perfectly executed hit-and-run moved Psomas to third and Posluszny hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Psomas and give WVU a 3-2 advantage.
Notre Dame wasted no time tying the game up again as Cody Rizzo singled to lead off the sixth, advanced to second on a wild pitch, then scored on a Chris Fournier RBI single. The Irish loaded the bases with two outs, but Cline got Matt Bransfield to ground out to short to end the threat.
After tossing seven strong innings, Cline was replaced by reliever Chris Amedro, who got into some trouble in the eighth but managed to get Sollman to ground into a crucial bases-loaded, one-out double play to end the inning.
WVU had a huge opportunity to win the game in the bottom half of the eighth. The first two batters walked and and J.C. Sousa sacrificed them to second and third with one out. The next batter, Mike Christoforo, was asked to execute a suicide squeeze bunt that Notre Dame first baseman Edwards barehanded and tossed to catcher Javy Sanchez to tag out Stan Posluszny at home. Casey Bowling came up next as a pinch-hitter and laced a line-drive that Matt Macri snared out of the air to end WVU's bid to win the game.
Strong pitching by Amedro and Irish reliever Jeff Samardzija forced the game into the 10 inning, when Notre Dame's Rizzo led off with a single, advanced to second on a Macri sacrifice bunt, and then scored on a base hit by Lopez. The Irish added an insurance run when Sollman's sacrifice fly plated Lopez to take a 5-3 lead.
WVU was able to get the winning run on base after a two-out double by Kurtis Clinton and a J.C. Sousa walk made things interesting, but Irish closer Ryan Doherty was able to end the threat and pick up his fourth save of the season.
Amedro (0-2) took the tough loss for the Mountaineers, while Samardzija (1-0) tossed two scoreless innings of relief for the victory. Sollman and Rizzo led Notre Dame with three hits apiece.
In the nightcap, it was all Tom Thornton as the Notre Dame sophomore left-hander pitched brilliantly to notch his first career shutout.
Thornton (4-1) scattered six hits through nine innings and struck out five WVU hitters while walking just two.
"(Tom) Thornton threw one of the best games you'll see all year long. He had nice change up and kept our guys off balance all day," said Van Zant. "Shawn Miller pitched a solid game, too, but we just couldn't get any offense going."
West Virginia wasted a solid start by junior Shawn Miller (3-3), who allowed four runs on 10 hits through eight and one-third innings pitched while striking out four and walking two.
Notre Dame scored one run in the first inning on a Rizzo one-run single and another run in the fifth on an RBI groundout off the bat of Sean Gaston.
The Irish tagged on two more runs in the seventh inning as Steve Andres blasted a triple to right centerfield that scored Gaston and Danny Dressman, who both singled.
Kyle Matuszek and Travis D'Amico each had two hits for WVU while Rizzo went 2 for 4 for to finish the afternoon with five hits for Notre Dame.
WVU falls to 8-12 overall and 0-2 in conference play while Notre Dame improves to 16-3 overall and 2-0 in the BIG EAST.
"Their pitching staff did the job today. They all came in and got our batters out," said Van Zant. "To win, we need to do a little more but I am very proud of our effort today."
The two teams conclude their series on Sunday, March 28, at 1 p.m., at Hawley Field
