Baseball: Mountaineers Win in 11th
May 10, 2005 09:58 PM | General
May 10, 2005
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Lee Fritz’ one-out single to left with the bases loaded in the top of the 11th inning helped West Virginia to a 6-5 victory over Akron Tuesday night at Canal Park in Akron, Ohio.
Fritz went 3 for 5 for the game and knocked in three of the Mountaineers’ six runs. Ryan Hill pitched an inning in relief of starter Kenny Durst to record up his third victory of the season. Todd Dunham entered the game in the bottom of the 11th after Hill surrendered a leadoff home run to Marcus Geiselman and was able to work out of a jam.
After Geiselman’s home run, Dunham put the tying run on base when he plunked Charlie Lenhard. Jim Bonnette sacrificed Lenhard to second, but Dunham was able to get Shaun Hinseen to pop out to second and Vince Chiera to fly out to left to notch his sixth save of the year
"That was a great game," said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. "Their outfield made a couple of diving catches to save runs and our guys made some great plays, too."
Stan Posluszny made a pair of game-saving plays. In the 10th he made a diving catch and was able to double off Andy Capraruolo at second to end the inning. Posluszny also made a diving catch to end the game in the 11th.
Durst was cruising along with a 4-0 lead until giving up a four-run sixth. Durst almost got out of the inning leading by a run, but WVU third baseman Justin Jenkins couldn’t handle Hinseen’s grounder to keep the inning alive. Durst then balked in the tying run.
"Other than one bad inning, Kenny shut them down," said Van Zant. "He had some life on his fastball and he was also getting his changeup over. It might have been the best-pitched game we've had this year."
The Mountaineers (23-26) got a run in the first when Fritz doubled in Jenkins, who reached on a fielder’s choice. WVU then plated two more in the third. Tyler Kuhn led off the inning with a double to left center and Jenkins followed with a double to right. Fritz moved Jenkins to third when he reached on an error by Chiera, and Jenkins scored on Stan Polsuszny’s double-play ground out.
WVU plated its fourth run in the fifth when Kyle Matuszek’s ground out to short scored Fritz, who reached on a walk.
Kuhn had three hits and Jenkins added a pair of hits for West Virginia, which managed 11 hits for the evening.
Akron reliever Steve Williams took the loss, giving up a pair of earned runs in 2 2/3 innings.
Akron, winners of seven of its last nine games entering tonight’s contest, drops to 20-24.
It was West Virginia’s ninth one-run game of the year and the Mountaineers snapped a three-game losing streak in one-run games.
"Our guys are getting some confidence now," said Van Zant.
West Virginia has now won a season-high-tying four games in a row. The Mountaineers return to the diamond on Friday at Villanova to start a three-game Big East Conference series.
