Baseball: Mountaineers Shutout Hokies
February 25, 2006 09:09 PM | General
February 25, 2006
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| Joe Stupka |
GREENVILLE, N.C. – The West Virginia University baseball team shut out Virginia Tech, 5-0, Saturday, Feb. 25, in WVU’s second game of the Keith LeClair Classic at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
“That was a great performance by Joe Stupka,” coach Greg Van Zant said. “He made some big pitches when he got into some situations and it’s great that we were able to shutout a good Virginia Tech team and get the win.”
The Mountaineer pitching staff rebounded from yesterday’s loss to dominate Virginia Tech (2-2), holding the Hokies to just three hits.
WVU wasted no time in getting a couple of runs off of Hokie starter Rhett Ballard in his first collegiate start. After Tyler Kuhn walked, third baseman Justin Jenkins hit a double to the warning track in right field. With two men aboard, senior Stan Posluszny pulled a single down the right field line to score Kuhn and Jenkins, giving the Mountaineers a 2-0 lead after one inning of play. Posluszny finished 2 for 4 with two RBIs.
Adam White helped stretch WVU’s lead to 3-0 with an RBI single in the second, but Ballard was able to get out of the inning by forcing Jenkins to fly out with the bases loaded.
The Mountaineer defense got Stupka out of trouble in the third inning by turning a rare triple play. With the bases loaded, Stupka forced a shallow pop up to leftfielder Casey Bowling for the first out. The Mountaineer infield was then able to get Virginia Tech baserunners out at the plate and third base to get Stupka out of the jam. It was the first triple play ever at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
“That’s the first triple play we have had since I’ve been here,” Van Zant added.
The Mountaineers would add a run in the third and one more later in the eighth inning to increase its lead to 5-0. Bowling went 2 for 3 and Jenkins finished 2 for 4 with a double to lead a Mountaineer attack that posted 10 hits on the evening.
Stupka (1-0) pitched well in his Mountaineer debut. The junior from Pittsburgh, Pa., gave up two hits and walked five in six shutout innings on the mound to earn the win. Left-handed pitcher Kenny Durst allowed just one hit and struck out four in the final three innings to earn the save, his first of the season.
Freshman Ballard (0-1) gave up four runs in 2.1 innings and gets the loss for the Hokies in his first career start.
The Mountaineers, now 4-1, finish up at the Keith LeClair Classic with a game against Penn State (0-5) Sunday morning at 10 a.m.
“Penn State’s record is very misleading, they have a very nice ballclub,” Van Zant said. “You know any team out of the Big Ten is going to be pretty good.”
