Baseball: WVU Travels to Akron
May 10, 2005 10:16 AM | General
May 10, 2005
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant hopes his team continues to swing its hot bats Tuesday night when the Mountaineers travel to Akron to take on the Zips in a 6 pm non-conference game at Canal Park.
West Virginia (22-26) had 52 hits and scored 54 runs in a three-game series sweep of Seton Hall last weekend to move out of last place in the Big East standings. Shortstop Doug Nelms went 9 for 15 for the series with a pair of home runs and 10 RBI to earn Big East player of the week honors.
The Mountaineers slugged 10 home runs in all against the Pirates to record their first three-game sweep of a league opponent this season and the seventh since joining the Big East in 1996.
“We’ve just got to keep swinging the bats the way we have been,” said Van Zant. “Don’t change a thing and we’ll see what happens.”
Seven everyday players are now batting .300 or better to lift the team’s overall batting average to .313. Senior centerfielder Lee Fritz and Nelms are each hitting .376, followed by sophomore third baseman Justin Jenkins at .351.
Sophomore catcher David Carpenter and junior first baseman Kyle Matuszek have boosted their batting averages to .321 while senior outfielder Chad McKown is hitting .311.
Freshman second baseman Tyler Kuhn has also lifted his batting average over the .300 mark with a strong weekend against Seton Hall. He is now hitting .301.
West Virginia is playing its final non-conference game of the season against the Zips, 20-23 and 8-5 in the Mid-American Conference. Akron is coming off a series win at Marshall last weekend and has won seven of its last nine games. The Zips are looking for their first winning record in conference play since 1996 and are currently second in the MAC East behind Miami, Ohio.
Earlier this year Akron defeated West Virginia, 11-2 back on April 20 in Morgantown.
“It was a 4-2 game going into the top of the ninth and they scored seven in the top of the ninth off us,” said Van Zant. “This team is much better than they were a few years ago.”
Van Zant says he will chose tonight’s starting pitcher from a pool of arms including Matt Yurish (1-2), Ryan Hill (2-2), Kenny Durst (0-2) and Brendan Bergerson (0-0) with Trent Ridgley available in relief.
“He’s starting the throw the ball a little bit better,” Van Zant said of Ridgley.
Fans can follow the livestats of the West Virginia-Akron game through CSTV’s Gametracker. A link can be accessed on the main page under The Mountaineers Play Here.
