Stan's the Man
April 23, 2006 04:38 PM | General
April 23, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Stan Posluszny’s two-out single up the middle in the bottom of the ninth drove in Adam White to give West Virginia at 6-5 come-from-behind win over Louisville Sunday afternoon at Hawley Field.
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| West Virginia's Stan Posluszny tries to break up a double play in the first inning of Sunday's game against Louisville at Hawley Field. The Mountaineers took game three of the series 6-5.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“I knew they were going to try and work me away and I was just trying to focus on that space in left center field and I was trying to hit something out there: something deep enough so Adam could score from second base,” Posluszny said. “I was lucky enough to reach out and hit it.”
The senior rightfielder was the hitting star of the game for the Mountaineers, knocking in runs in the first, eighth and ninth innings and finishing the game 3 for 5 with his seventh home run of the year and the 30th of his career.
“We were down two at the time (in the eighth) and we were just battling trying to get a couple of runs,” Posluszny said. “The first pitch he threw me was a fastball and they were throwing me a lot of off-speed stuff all day. He came back with a curveball and I was fortunate enough to put a pretty good swing on it.”
The Mountaineers, which snapped their season-long nine-game losing streak last night, took two of three from the Cardinals to improve to 27-13, 7-8.
West Virginia’s Eric Saffell came in relief of starter Joe Stupka in the seventh to get the victory, his fifth of the year. The lefthander allowed a two-run single to Derrick Alfonso in the seventh that gave Louisville a 4-3 lead, and Saffell permitted another run in the eighth when Jorge Castillo singled in Chris Cates.
“When he comes in he usually does a great job and he was able to hold them down enough to give us a chance to win the game,” Posluszny said.
In the bottom of the eighth, West Virginia tied the game on back-to-back home runs by Posluszny and Kyle Matuszek.
“After Kyle and I went back-to-back we tied the game up and we had all of the momentum at that point and we felt like we were going to win the game,” Posluszny said.
In the Louisville ninth, the Cardinals got a pair of runners on with just one out, but Saffell got Michael Urti to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play – the Mountaineers’ third double play of the game.
White led off the bottom of the ninth with a single up the middle. After Tyler Kuhn’s unsuccessful sacrifice bunt attempt was caught by Louisville pitcher Brian Halford, Nelms put down a bunt to third to get White into scoring position. Halford then walked Justin Jenkins on four pitchers before giving way to the lefthander Gavin Lodgson to face the lefthanded-hitting Posluszny.
Halford, who was touched up for three runs in the first on four hits, retired nine of 10 batters at one point. He finished the game allowing six runs on 12 hits with four strikeouts and three walks to take the loss and drop to 3-2.
Stupka got West Virginia into the seventh, giving up four runs, three earned, on seven hits with five strikeouts and five walks.
Nelms, Casey Bowling, David Carpenter and White had two hits each for West Virginia, which had 13 hits for the game.
Castillo and Alfonso had three hits each for the Cardinals, now 17-23, 8-7. Isaiah Howes went 2 for 4 with a home run.
The victory today moves West Virginia into a tie for sixth place in the Big East standings with Rutgers at 7-8. The Scarlet Knights dropped a 14-12 decision at Notre Dame earlier today to lose all three in South Bend. Pitt beat South Florida 11-9 to take two of three from the Bulls and drop them to 8-9, while Cincinnati moved into a tie with Louisville for fourth place with a 9-5 win over Georgetown on Sunday to make the Bearcats 8-7 in conference action.
The Connecticut (13-3) and St. John’s (8-6) game in Queens, N.Y., has been pushed back due to rain, and Villanova (4-8) and Seton Hall (4-12) was a late start.
“We played well last Tuesday night at Maryland and we came up a little bit short, but we were able to get two this weekend and I think we’ve gotten our confidence back and we’ll be all right for the rest of the season,” Posluszny said.
West Virginia returns to action for a two-game midweek series at Hawley Field on Tuesday and Wednesday.
