Baseball: WVU Improves to 2-0
February 13, 2005 05:19 PM | General
February 13, 2005
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| Amedro |
NORFOLK, Va. – Senior Chris Amedro scattered three hits through five and two-thirds innings and junior Stan Posluszny knocked in two runs to help West Virginia to a 6-4 victory over Norfolk State Sunday afternoon.
Amedro struck out five and walked three to capture his first win of the season.
“We weren’t real sharp and our timing wasn’t there but it was good to get a couple of wins this early in the season,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant, now 10 wins shy of 300 for his career. “Everybody now has a feel for each other. About half of our team were playing their first Division I games.”
The Mountaineers, 2-0 to start the year for the first time since 1994, used a three-run first to get things going. Kyle Matuszek led off the inning with a walk and eventually scored on a Posluszny double to right center. Justin Jenkins followed with a sharp single to center to score both Posluszny and Lee Fritz, who reached on a walk.
West Virginia plated another run in the third when Tyler Kuhn scored on a fielder’s choice. Kuhn tripled to start the inning.
In the top of the sixth, Chad McKown led off with a double to right center. He moved to third on Trent Ridgley’s ground out and eventually scored on Doug Nelms’ sacrifice fly to center.
WVU got an insurance run in the seventh when Fritz singled in Matuszek.
Leading by two runs heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Mountaineers ran into trouble when closer Todd Dunham walked Wes Bush to lead off the inning. Two batters later, Moriba George singled to center with one out to move Bush to second.
Dunham was able to get T.J. Starkey to ground out to Kuhn for the second out, but that allowed Bush and George to get into scoring position.
With the count full on Charles LaLane, Dunham was able to get LaLane looking to end the game. Dunham pitched two innings, allowing one hit and striking out three for his first save of the year.
“He wasn’t as sharp as he will be,” Van Zant said of Dunham’s performance.
Freshman lefthander Kenny Durst pitched an inning and a third.
“We weren’t able to score a lot of runs so we weren’t able to use more pitchers,” Van Zant said.
Kuhn went two for four with a run for the Mountaineers, which had just eight hits total.
“Norfolk State played hard and were ahead of us having already played four games before facing us,” said Van Zant.
Norfolk State (0-6) managed just four hits.
Joey Seal (0-2) pitched six innings, allowing six hits and five earned runs to take the loss.
West Virginia returns to the diamond next Friday to take on nationally ranked Clemson in the Baseball at the Beach Tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The Mountaineers will also face East Carolina and Coastal Carolina in the three-day tournament; all three games are set for noon starts.
