WVU Wins Game Two
March 25, 2006 08:06 PM | General
March 25, 2006
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| Kenny Durst |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Kenny Durst pitched six strong innings and Kyle Matuszek went 3 for 3 and knocked in three runs to lead West Virginia to a 6-2 victory over Pitt in game two of a three-game series on Saturday at Hawley Field.
West Virginia (18-3, 2-0) plated a run in the second when Jason Pape’s sacrifice fly to right scored Matuszek, who got things going with a double to left.
“I’ve been tweaking my swing a little bit,” Matuszek said. “I haven’t felt like I’ve been getting my hands to the ball and it’s pretty easy when you’ve got guys hitting behind you that are confident and the coaching staff has confidence in you.”
The Mountaineers tacked on two more runs in the third when Matuszek singled in Justin Jenkins and a Casey Bowling ground out to second scored Stan Posluszny.
WVU’s added three in the fifth on home runs by Jenkins and Matuszek. Jenkins’ shot to right center was his sixth of the year and Matuszek’s first home run of the season sailed over the centerfield fence with Posluszny on first.
“It was a 1-0 changeup and actually I was expecting fastball,” said Matuszek. “He just hung a changeup out over the plate and I got the bat head on it.”
Durst was able to work himself out of a bases loaded jam in the fourth, giving up just two runs. With runners on the corner and two runs already in, Durst got Panther catcher Jeff Stevens to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Durst gave way to Dan Leatherman with one out in the seventh, and the junior completely shut down the Panthers. The right-hander pitched a scoreless 2 2/3 innings, striking out four and walking one to lower his earned run average to 1.48. Because the tying run was on deck when Leatherman came into the game, he picks up his second save of the year.
Durst went 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on six hits with a pair of strike outs and two walks. Durst improves to 3-1.
“It’s unbelievable the way our pitchers are pitching and they’re the reason why we’re 18-3 right now,” Matuszek said. “Pitching wins games and they’re doing it for us right now.”
Panther starter Rob Bryant went 5 1/3 innings, giving up six earned runs on 11 hits. He falls to 2-3.
In addition to Matuszek’s three hits, catcher David Carpenter went 3 for 3 and the Mountaineers got a pair of hits each from Doug Nelms, Jenkins and Posluszny. West Virginia collected 13 hits and stole three more bases to swipe 11 against the Panthers so far in the series.
Second baseman Jim Negrych went 3 for 4 with a run scored for Pitt, now 11-10, 2-3.
“I’ve never done well against Pitt and yesterday was the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve ever beaten Pitt,” Matuszek said. “Pitt-WVU is always a big rivalry and we wanted to come out and prove to them and to the league that we’re for real this year.”
West Virginia is now 12-0 at home and has won 12 straight – the fifth longest winning streak in the country right now.
“This is the first time in a while that it’s been fun to come out to the ballpark,” Matuszek said. “In past years we’ve been out of the Big East race after the second or third weekend. We’re here to win: we’re here to go to the Big East tournament and win a Big East regular season title and go to the NCAA tournament.”
The two teams will wrap up the three-game series on Sunday at 1 pm.
