The Getaway
April 27, 2006 07:26 AM | General
April 27, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – How does a guy from Louisville get away from the hometown Cardinals and end up playing college baseball for West Virginia? For sophomore second baseman Tyler Kuhn, it was simply a matter of wanting to go away to college.
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| West Virginia's Tyler Kuhn makes a play at second base during last Sunday's game against Louisville at Hawley Field.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
“I didn’t want to stay home,” he said. “I love the city and I like everyone there, but I just wanted to meet new people.”
Kuhn was one of the city’s top middle infielders at powerful Trinity High School in 2004, earning all-metro honors and being invited to play in the state’s East-West all-star game. That is where Mountaineer coach Greg Van Zant found out about him.
“One of my coaches at the East-West all-star game said Coach Van Zant from West Virginia had asked about me and I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t really take into consideration what it could end up being,” Kuhn said.
“I was at the Kentucky East-West all-star game and he was playing for the West team and he was the best infielder in Kentucky. It wasn’t even close,” Van Zant said. “I saw him make some unbelievable plays.”
Duly impressed, Van Zant asked Kuhn if he would be interested in coming over to Morgantown to take part in his camp and to also get a look at the campus. From that point on Kuhn was hooked on West Virginia.
“I liked the facilities, I liked the guys I met and I don’t know? I was just certain that I wanted to come here,” Kuhn said.
Another factor helping Kuhn make his decision was the fact that he had a good opportunity to play immediately at West Virginia. Louisville had two veteran players manning both middle infield positions.
“I realized the opportunity I had here,” he said. “If I went to Louisville I knew they had two returning infielders that were pretty good players. I just saw myself being able to come in and help the team right away.”
Kuhn started every game as a freshman in 2005 and wound up hitting leadoff. He explains his leadoff philosophy.
“My first at-bat I like to take a lot of pitches,” Kuhn says. “If he throws a fastball I’m probably going to swing at it but if I see any type of breaking ball or changeup, I normally don’t swing at it because I can go back to the dugout and tell our, 4, 5 and 6 hitters he’s got a good breaking ball. That’s pretty much what I’m trying to look for.”
Tyler batted a very respectable .298 with three home runs and 22 extra base hits his freshman season. He also played second base for the first time since his sophomore year of high school.
“It’s a very easy position for a freshman to come in and play and that’s what helped me a lot,” Kuhn explained.
“He did a heck of a job for us last year as a freshman,” said Van Zant.
In 2006 Kuhn has taken his game to another level, batting .367 with 13 doubles and 38 RBI after last weekend’s Louisville series. He had a season-high five RBI against Niagara and has had three four-hit games, hoisting his average to a season-high .431 on March 18. He has 20 multi-hit games through April 23.
“At the plate he’s a lot more selective at what he swings at,” Van Zant said. “If you look at his numbers from last year he hardly ever walked. This year he’s got quite a few more walks.”
Even more impressively, Kuhn’s 38 runs batted in rank second to only clean-up hitter Stan Posluszny for the team lead.
“(Pitchers) have been feeding me a lot of fastballs and that’s why I’ve luckily been able to drive balls into the gaps and get some RBIs,” he said. “I’m normally not an RBI guy.”
Kuhn credits No. 9 hitter Adam White with some of his RBI production. Kuhn reasons that pitchers are throwing him more fastballs because they have to worry about White’s speed on the bases.
“We’re very similar in what we’re trying to do,” Kuhn said. “We consider ourselves table setters. (Doug) Nelms, (Justin) Jenkins, (Stan) Posluszny and (Kyle) Matuszek … all those guys are hitting and it seems like every time we get on base that opens up a huge part of our offense.”
Kuhn has also played well defensively, committing just five errors in 215 chances so far this year at second base. He teams with Nelms at short to give West Virginia one of the best middle infield combos in the Big East.
“We have really good chemistry up the middle,” Kuhn says. “I know the balls that he can make. If there is a chopper up the middle I know when I need to make the play and I know when he’s going to make the play.
“It’s an important thing as a pitcher to know that the defense behind them is going to make a play for them. I think our fielding percentage is among the best in the conference this year (tied for third) and it was one of the best last year,” Kuhn said.
Despite a midseason slump that saw West Virginia lose nine straight, the Mountaineers have bounced back by taking two of three against Louisville last weekend to improve their overall record to 27-13. West Virginia is in a dogfight to reach the eight-team Big East tournament and the Mountaineers are currently tied for sixth place heading into a weekend series at home against Villanova.
“We want to try and win as many Big East games as we can and get a good seed for the Big East tournament,” Kuhn said.
West Virginia’s last Big East tournament appearance came in 2003.
