Baseball: WVU to Face Clemson Friday
February 17, 2005 12:00 PM | General
February 17, 2005
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| Miller |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University baseball team is in the unusual position of having a leg up on a Southern team when it faces Clemson Friday afternoon in the first game of the Baseball at the Beach Tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
West Virginia got an early start by playing two games last weekend at Norfolk State while one of college baseball’s perennial powers will be opening its season Friday against the Mountaineers.
“Isn’t it amazing, in the old days we would be playing Clemson and they would already have 10 games under their belt before facing us,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant.
But Van Zant, needing 10 more wins to reach 300 for his career, won’t be lulled into any false sense of security. Clemson has made 18 straight NCAA tournament appearances and considered last year’s 2004 campaign a disappointment because it failed to advance to the Super Regionals.
Veteran Clemson coach Jack Leggett will try to incorporate a 15-player recruiting class rated 12th in the nation by Baseball America into this year’s roster. Four of those 15 signees were rated among the nation’s top 50 prospects.
Pitching has always been a primary strength for Clemson and it appears to be the case again this year with junior righthander Jeff Hahn and junior lefthander Robert Rohrbaugh returning as the Tigers’ top two starters. Hahn has an 11-7 career record and his specialty is his control. Rohrbaugh has walked just 34 batters in 106.1 innings pitched.
Outfielder Chris Harvey is Clemson’s top returning offensive threat hitting .335 with eight home runs and 41 RBI in 2004 and sporting a career .328 average.
West Virginia, meanwhile, is 2-0 to start a season for the first time since beating Duke twice to open the 1994 campaign.
The Mountaineers defeated Norfolk State by scores of 5-1 and 6-4 last weekend with solid defensive play and pitching prevailing. Van Zant hopes his team’s bats will heat up this weekend; West Virginia had just 16 hits in two games against Norfolk and came away with a .246 average.
“I was pretty happy with our defense last weekend, we caught the ball and took care of it and hopefully we can continue to do that,” Van Zant said.
Senior Shawn Miller has been pegged as West Virginia’s starter Friday against Clemson. Van Zant says a lot of pitchers will see action this weekend.
“We’re going to see how things go and play it one game at a time,” Van Zant said. “I would imagine after playing these three games that by the end of the weekend we will have at least used the five pitchers we used last weekend plus some more.”
The Mountaineers will also face East Carolina on Saturday and Coastal Carolina on Sunday. The Pirates are currently 1-2 having lost two of three last weekend to No. 25 College of Charleston.
Coastal Carolina opened its season Tuesday losing to Campbell 8-4, but the Chanticleers were picked to finish second in the Big South behind Winthrop.
“We’ll be the underdog in all three of these games,” said Van Zant. “This is like playing in a regional.”
All three games this weekend are slated to begin at noon.
