Baseball: WVU Thumps Seton Hall
May 07, 2005 07:36 PM | General
May 7, 2005
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| McKown |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University baseball team put up a season-high 12 runs in the third inning to down BIG EAST foe Seton Hall 21-1 on Saturday, May 7, at Hawley Field in Morgantown, W.Va.
The Mountaineers (20-26, 6-11) batted an impressive .500 as a team for the game, recording 20 hits in 40 at-bats against the Pirates' (13-27, 5-12). Eight West Virginia batters had RBIs including senior rightfielder Chad McKown, who tallied five.
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| Fagler |
The WVU pitching staff was equally impressive as senior Marty Fagler threw eight innings and allowed only one run on 11 hits, while striking out seven. Trent Ridgley pitched the final inning and allowed no hits and fanned one batter.
After two innings the game was very evenly contested with the Mountaineers holding a slight 3-1 edge. That changed in the bottom of the third as 16 batters came to the plate to score 12 runs on seven hits.
Junior Stan Posluszny started the inning off with a walk and was moved over to second by a sacrifice bunt by first baseman Kyle Matuszek. Posluszny got a free pass to third on a wild pitch and then reached home on a throwing error by the pitcher trying to get Doug Nelms out at first. McKown stepped to the plate and belted his 10th home run of the year over the right-field fence.
Brandon Drespling struck out following McKown's two-run homer to put Seton Hall one out away from avoiding a big WVU inning, however, the Mountaineer batters kept the pressure on.
David Carpenter singled to center field and Tyler Kuhn got pegged with a wayward pitch to put runners on first and second for slugger Justin Jenkins. He came through with a single down the left side that scored Carpenter and ended starting pitcher Jake Haggerty's day.
Reliever Tim Sabo came in and faired no better allowing a double by Lee Fritz to score Kuhn and Jenkins. Posluszny was given his second of three walks on the day after the double to put two runners on for Matuszek, who loaded the bases after being hit by an arrant pitch.
With the bases jacked Nelms stepped in and singled up the middle to score Fritz and Posluszny. Back-to-back walks of McKown and Drespling loaded the bases again, this time for Carpenter. The catcher from Fairmont, W.Va., doubled to center and added three more runs to the lead and completed the scoring for the inning.
The WVU offense added five more in the sixth and one more in the seventh to bring the final score to 21-1 and snap its four-game losing skid.
The two teams return to action on Sunday, May 8, at noon when they play a doubleheader at Hawley Field to wrap up the three-game series.
