Baseball: Twinbill Sweep in Home Opener
March 15, 2005 08:05 PM | General
By Justin Zackal for MSNsportsNET.com
March 15, 2005
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In its first home games of the season, the West Virginia University baseball team swept a doubleheader with visiting Niagara at Hawley Field Tuesday afternoon. The Mountaineers (6-9) scored six unanswered runs to win game one, 6-1, before hanging on from a five-run lead in the second game winning 6-4.
The highlight of the twinbill was senior outfielder Chad McKown hitting a fifth-inning grand slam to extend WVU’s lead from 2-1 to a five-run advantage it would preserve through the final 2 ½ innings. McKown deposited a two-ball, no-strike offering from Niagara relief pitcher Ryan Virture over the left field fence scoring Stan Posluszny, Lee Fritz and Tyler Kuhn. All three Mountaineer base runners reach on one-out singles.
The runs provided insurance for starting pitcher Marty Fagler (1-0), who hurled a complete-game four-hitter. Fagler allowed one run and two walks while striking out four in his first start and third appearance of the season.
Fagler was troubled in first inning when he hit Paul Solini with the bases loaded scoring the lone Niagara run of the game, but escaped the jam by striking out his next batter Jeff Vincent.
Junior Casey Bowling led the WVU offense in the first game by going 3 for 4 with an RBI-double in the third inning and scoring the eventual game-winning run on a Fritz double to right field later in the inning.
West Virginia collected 11 hits for the game off three Niagara hurlers, including losing pitcher Daniel Griffin who lasted 3 2/3 innings and gave up five hits and two runs.
In the second game, the Mountaineers put up two runs in the first, fifth and sixth innings and prevailed despite a late three-run rally by Niagara (0-13) in the top of the seventh. The Purple Eagles out-hit the Mountaineers, 12-9, in game two but a combined effort of WVU starting pitcher Brendan Bergerson, reliever and winning pitcher Ryan Hill (1-0), and closer Kevin Korzun secured the win.
Hill tossed 4 2/3 innings of work with five strikeouts and yielded three runs on seven hits and three walks. Bergerson left the game through two innings and a 2-0 lead and Korzun struck out one batter in the seventh inning for the save after Hill surrendered three runs including a one-out, two-run double from Mike Alati earlier in the inning.
Posluszny led the Mountaineer sticks in the second game going 2 for 3 with two RBI and two runs scored. He doubled home Tyler Kuhn in the first inning to put WVU on the board and later scored on a McKown RBI-single. Posluszny plated Bowling in the fifth inning and later scored on an error to give the Mountaineers a 4-1 lead.
Fritz knocked in West Virginia’s final two runs with a sixth-inning double to left-center field.
West Virginia returns to action Friday, March 18, for the first of a four-game series with Toledo. Game time at Hawley Field is 3 p.m.
