Baseball: WVU Travels to Seton Hall
March 30, 2006 04:35 PM | General
March 30, 2006
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| Adam White |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia puts its 15-game winning streak on the line this weekend when it takes on Seton Hall in a three-game Big East Conference series at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, N.J.
The Mountaineers (21-3, 3-0) are coming off a pair of wins over Maryland Eastern Shore earlier this week and have scored double-digit runs in each of their last three games (outscoring opponents 49-6 during that stretch). West Virginia is averaging nine runs per game and is hitting .348 as a team.
Freshman Adam White has boosted his batting average to .475 and has stolen a conference-best 16 bases. Sophomore second baseman Tyler Kuhn is hitting .418 with 10 doubles and 26 RBI.
Third baseman Justin Jenkins is batting .400 with a team-best seven home runs to go with 26 RBI, while cleanup batter Stan Posluszny is hitting .341 with 10 doubles, three home runs and 25 runs knocked in.
Seven of the nine hitters in West Virginia’s lineup are batting .300 or higher. The Mountaineers have been successful on 54 of 57 stolen base attempts this year.
Last weekend against Pitt in its Big East opener, West Virginia used the pitching rotation of Joe Stupka (3-0, 3.54 ERA), Kenny Durst (3-1, 2.28 ERA) and Marty Fagler (3-1, 2.86 ERA), with juco standouts Dan Leatherman and Eric Saffell ready in relief.
Saffell leads the team with a 0.53 earned run average in five appearances, while Leatherman is 4-0 with two saves and a 1.42 earned run average in seven appearances.
Seton Hall is coming off a 15-12 midweek win over Iona on Wednesday to improve its record to 7-15, 1-5. The Pirates dropped two of three to Pitt two weeks ago to open conference play, and lost three at South Florida last weekend.
Dan McDonald is Seton Hall’s best all-around player, serving as ace of the pitching staff and also one of the Pirates’ top hitters with a .338 batting average and 16 RBI. Despite having a 0-5 record on the mound, McDonald has a 3.50 earned run average with 24 strikeouts in 36 innings pitched.
Dan Merklinger, a sophomore lefthander, has fanned a team-best 35 batters in 33 2/3 innings and has a 2-4 record. Freshman Corey Young is 1-0 with 33 strikeouts and a team-best 1.95 earned run average in 32 1/3 innings of work.
Cleanup hitter Brandon Cohen is batting .337 with a team-best four home runs and 18 RBI. The Pirates are batting .273 as a team and their pitching staff has a combined 5.50 earned run average.
“My focus right now with the team is on doing everything we can to win that first game,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. “That’s really all we can do is keep the mentality of playing one game at a time.”
Last year West Virginia won all three games in Morgantown. West Virginia is 15-0 at Hawley Field this year and is 1-1 in true road games.
Friday’s game will get underway at 3 pm, Saturday’s game will start at 1 pm and Sunday’s game will begin at noon. All three games can be heard on the Internet by logging onto www.sportsjuice.com.
