Baseball: West Virginia and Toledo Split Series
March 20, 2005 06:43 PM | General
March 20, 2005
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Toledo defeated West Virginia 10-6 on a chilly Sunday afternoon at Hawley Field to split the four-game series. The Mountaineers claimed the first two games while the Rockets won games three and four.
Senior Marty Fagler took the hill for the Mountaineers (8-11) but did not earn a decision. Fagler pitched three 3.2 innings but gave way to the bullpen after yielding five earned runs. Rockets starter Steve Wenning only lasted four innings.
Toledo (5-10) jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning on two singles and a sacrifice bunt.
Fagler got in trouble in the top of the fourth when the Rockets knocked in one and then loaded the bases for clean-up hitter Travis Pilewski, who singled in two with a line drive to center. Rocket shortstop Jason Watson scored from third on the next pitch, which got past catcher Travis D’Amico giving the Rockets a 5-1 lead. Freshman reliever Mark Wyner (0-3) came in to record the final out.
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, right fielder Chad McKown drew a walk from Wenning. Junior Kyle Matuszek crushed a fast ball up in the zone over the left field wall for his first homer of the season, narrowing the Rocket lead to three runs.
West Virginia scored again in its half of the fifth inning. Chapmanville, W.Va. native Casey Bowling led off the inning with a double. Second baseman Tyler Kuhn followed with a single down the left field line sending Bowling to third. Lee Fritz attempted a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt down the third base line and the throw from the Rocket third baseman skipped away from the second baseman allowing Kuhn to advance to third and Bowling to score. First baseman Stan Posluszny followed Fritz with a blistering hit down the right field line. Both Kuhn and Fritz scored, knotting the game up at five. Greg Gompf (2-0) came out of the Toledo bullpen to pitch five effective innings to nearly silence the Mountaineer bats.
Senior reliever Todd Dunham came in to finish the sixth but he allowed two more runs. The Mountaineers rallied to score one more in the bottom of the sixth when Fritz singled in Doug Nelms for his 19th RBI of the season.
However, Toledo kept scoring in both the seventh and the eighth innings, belting two homers off of Dunham for its 10-6 lead, which would prove to be the final score.
West Virginia begins Big East conference play on Thursday with a doubleheader against Boston College at Hawley Field. The first pitch is scheduled for 1 pm.
