Baseball: Mountaineers Take Game One
March 24, 2006 08:35 PM | General
March 24, 2006
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| Joe Stupka |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s Joe Stupka out-dueled Pitt ace Billy Muldowney in an 8-4 Mountaineer win over the Panthers Friday night at Hawley Field. It was the Big East opener for WVU; Pitt took two of three against Seton Hall to open Big East play last weekend.
Stupka pitched eight strong innings before tiring in the ninth. The junior gave up seven hits and four runs while striking out eight to improve to 3-0. Eric Saffell pitched the final inning for the Mountaineers, now 11-0 at home this season.
“Once Joe settled down he pitched a great game,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. “He was able to get a couple of quick innings and Eric was able to get us out of a jam in the ninth.”
After Pitt scored a run in the first, West Virginia (17-3, 1-0) managed to come up with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Tyler Kuhn led with a bunt single and he advanced to second on a Justin Jenkins single to left. Stan Posluszny followed with a single to right to score Kuhn and move Jenkins to second. A double steal by Jenkins and Posluszny forced Panther catch Jeff Stevens to make an errant throw into left field, scoring Jenkins and advancing Posluszny to third. Posluszny scored on Casey Bowling’s bunt single.
Leading 3-2 in the sixth, the Mountaineers tacked on five more runs to knock Muldowney out of the game. Jason Pape began the sixth with a walk and advanced to second on David Carpenter’s sacrifice bunt to the Muldowney. Adam White beat out a grounder to second, moving Pape to third. Pape scored on Kuhn’s second infield single of the game, and another double steal by White and Kuhn ended up with a run on Stevens’ second throwing error of the game.
“Our running game was able to put some pressure on their defense,” Van Zant said.
With two outs, Muldowney hit Jenkins to keep the inning alive. After Jenkins stole second, a passed ball scored Kuhn and moved Jenkins to third. Posluszny then knocked Muldowney out of the game with a double down the left field line.
Kyle Matuszek greeted Panther reliever Justin Cicatello with a single up the middle to score Posluszny and give West Virginia an 8-2 lead.
The Panthers (11-9, 2-2) made it interesting in the ninth, loading the bases and scoring two runs before Eric Saffell got Pitt’s Sean Conley to fly out to right to end the game.
Posluszny went 3 for 5 and a pair of RBIs, while Kuhn, Jenkins and White had two hits each. Jimmy Mayer, Peter Parise and Seth Button had two hits each for the Panthers.
West Virginia stole eight bases against Pitt and it is now 44 of 46 in stolen base attempts for the season.
“It was very important for us to get that first win and play above .500 in the conference,” said Van Zant. “We’ve struggled against Pitt in the past and it was good for our confidence to be able to get that first win tonight.”
The Panthers swept last year’s three-game series in Pittsburgh and came into today’s game having won six in a row against the Mountaineers.
Muldowney took the loss to drop to 2-2, allowing 11 hits and eight runs, four earned, in 5 2/3 innings pitched. He struck out eight and walked two.
“That kid is an awesome pitcher so it was great to be able to get a win against him today,” Van Zant said.
The two teams will play the middle game of the three-game series Saturday afternoon at 3 pm. The series will wrap up with a 1 pm game on Sunday.
“Tomorrow’s game will be equally as important as today’s,” Van Zant said.
