Baseball: Akron Visits For Wednesday Night Game
April 19, 2005 10:19 AM | General
By Tim Goodenow for MSNsportsNET.com
April 19, 2005
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| Nelms |
The Mountaineers (16-21, 5-8) are coming off a tough conference series loss to BIG EAST leader St. John’s. The teams split a doubleheader (4-7, 8-6) on Saturday before St. John’s took charge in game three (4-11) on Sunday for the series win.
Shortstop Doug Nelms leads the WVU offense with a .374 batting average and is riding a 15-game hit streak. Senior outfielder Lee Fritz sports a .357 clip from the plate and needs just two base hits for 200 in his Mountaineer career.
Akron (13-20, 4-3 MAC), which plays Cleveland State tonight at 6 p.m., is coming off a series win at Kent State over the weekend. The Zips took the first two games (4-2, 2-0) before dropping game three (2-7) on Sunday.
The Zips are led by senior Doug Kruthaupt who leads the team in batting average (.359), home runs (5) and RBI (27). Two Akron starting pitchers hold an ERA under 4.00 in freshman Tom Farmer (3.64) and junior Ross Liersemann (3.75).
Wednesday’s game will mark the 21st meeting between the two schools. The Mountaineers hold a 12-8 all-time advantage in a series that began in 1982. West Virginia took three of four games (7-1, 8-2, 4-8, 6-5) a year ago from the Zips.
The Mountaineers continue their homestand at Hawley Field with a four-game series against Maryland-Eastern Shore on April 22-24. The non-conference matchup is the first-ever meeting between the schools.
