Baseball: Host Citadel Prevails
February 26, 2005 06:27 PM | General
By Tim Goodenow for MSNsportsNET.com
February 26, 2005
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The West Virginia University baseball team continued its grueling early season schedule with a loss to host Citadel, 11-1, at the Homewood Suites Shootout on Saturday at Riley Park.
The Mountaineers (2-5) struggled to find any offensive rhythm totaling just five hits on the afternoon.
The two teams posted a scoreless first inning while senior Lee Fritz singled to center field for the game’s first hit.
Citadel (4-3) lit the scoreboard first with a pair of runs in the second inning off Mountaineer starter Wes Osbourn. The Bulldogs scored its first run on an RBI single to center field by Tripp Cappelmann. The Citadel went up 2-0 on an RBI single through the left side by leadoff batter Matt Covington.
The Citadel increased its lead with a three-run third inning on four hits and one West Virginia error. Osbourn loaded the bases before handing the ball over to right-hander Todd Dunham. Bulldogs Matt Matulia and Will Coker tallied back-to-back singles extending their lead to 4-0.
The West Virginia defense came up big in posting a scoreless fourth inning. Catcher David Carpenter hosed down a Bulldog runner attempting to steal to keep the base paths empty while second baseman Tyler Kuhn fielded a sharply hit ball to end the inning.
Citadel tagged on two more runs in the fifth inning on a single and sacrifice fly to go up 7-0.
West Virginia gained back a run in the sixth inning off a Fritz sacrifice fly to center field scoring Carpenter. Fritz collected two of the five team hits going 2-for-2 with an RBI.
Left-hander Brendan Bergerson entered the game in relief with a 1-2-3 sixth inning.
Citadel scored three more runs in the eighth inning off an error by the Mountaineer outfield for its final three runs of the game.
The game was called with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning because of a ten-run tournament rule. Sophomore Osbourn drops to 1-1 with the loss.
Bulldog pitcher Ryan Owens improved to 2-0 with his solid seven-inning, one run, six strikeout effort.
Junior Casey Bowling saw first action of this season making several adjustments against the wind in left field.
The Mountaineers will play their sixth consecutive game against 2004 NCAA Tournament teams with No. 27 ranked North Carolina State on Sunday at 10 a.m. Game time has been moved up one hour to avoid weather delays. Live in-game stats will be available on www.gopack.com through the Gametracker.
