Baseball: Yurish Holds Down USF
May 19, 2006 10:35 PM | General
May 19, 2006
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Matt Yurish pitched eight strong innings to lift West Virginia to a 5-3 victory over South Florida Friday night at Hawley Field.
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| Matt Yurish delivers a pitch in the third inning of West Virginia's 5-3 victory over South Florida Friday night at Hawley Field in Morgantown, W.Va.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
“The big thing Matt’s doing is he’s attacking the strike zone,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. “He’s always had good stuff. He just walked one an inning. Since he’s been here he’s cut his walks down.”
The left hander overcame some shaky Mountaineer defense early by limiting the Bulls to just one earned run after falling behind 2-0 through three innings. South Florida (22-33, 11-15) benefited from three West Virginia errors to take its early 2-0 lead.
In the second, Joey Angelberger’s double to right center was misplayed by Stan Posluszny into a three-bagger. South Florida’s next batter Josh LeRoy hit a sharp ground ball that went right through second baseman Tyler Kuhn’s legs to plate Angelberger.
South Florida’s second run of the game was also the result of an error, this time by third baseman Justin Jenkins’ who two-hopped a throw to first baseman Kyle Matuszek that put Braulino Pardo on second. Pardo eventually scored on Addison Matuszak’s sharp single to right.
“Those guys have played great all year long behind us and after the third inning they made every play they had to make,” said Yurish. “I just kept throwing strikes and making them hit ground balls and they’re going to make the plays late.”
West Virginia (35-19, 14-12) answered with a four-run fourth off South Florida starter Davis Bilardello, who drops to 1-7 on the season.
Doug Nelms got things going with a one-out single to left. A wild pitch moved him into scoring position and after Jenkins grounded out to short for the second out, West Virginia got four straight singles from Posluszny, Kyle Matuszek, Casey Bowling and David Carpenter.
David Carpenter’s soft liner to right went through the legs of Angelberger, scoring Bowling from first.
West Virginia picked up an important insurance run in the eight when Posluszny delivered a key single up the middle to score Tyler Kuhn, who led off the inning with a single to right.
Van Zant decided to send Yurish back out in the ninth but lifted him in favor of Levi Maxwell when No. 3 hitter Kris Howell knocked a 3-2 pitch into right to begin the inning.
Brian Baisely greeted Maxwell with a towering blast off the United Bank sign in right center to score James Rowe, inserted as a pinch runner for Howell. Baisely’s triple pulled the Bulls to within two with no outs.
Maxwell was able to get Angelberger to chase a pitch down and away for strike three, and got pinch hitter Brandin Daniel to line out to shortstop Doug Nelms for the second out. Nelms recorded the final out of the game on another fine play, going on the other side of second base to snag Pardo’s ground ball and throwing him out at first.
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Current Big East Standings |
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| * 1. Notre Dame | 20-5-1 | |
| * 2. Connecticut | 17-6-1 | |
| * 3. Louisville | 16-10 | |
| * 4. St. John's | 15-10 | |
| * 5. West Virginia | 14-12 | |
| * 6. Rutgers | 13-13 | |
| * 7. Cincinnati | 13-13 | |
| 8. South Florida | 11-15 | |
| 9. Pitt | 10-16 | |
| 10. Georgetown | 9-17 | |
| 11. Villanova | 8-17 | |
| 12. Seton Hall | 7-19 | |
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Today's Results Notre Dame 6, Villanova 2 Pitt 3, Georgetown 2 Cincinnati 7, St. John's 5 Louisville 7, Seton Hall 3 West Virginia 5, South Florida 3 Connecticut 7, Rutgers 4 * Clinched playoff spots |
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Yurish (6-2) gave up three runs, one earned, on seven hits with six strike outs. The sophomore did not walk a batter after a pair of West Virginia pitchers walked 12 yesterday. Bilardello also pitched a fine game, allowing five runs, four earned, on nine hits in 7 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked one.
“He pitched an awesome game for us,” said Van Zant of Yurish. “It’s hard to hit him: he’s got good down-angle. You swing and either miss it, ground out or pop up. He just has a knack for missing bats.”
“I still got behind on a lot of guys tonight but I just figured: shove it in there and if they hit it they hit it,” Yurish said. “Have them earn their way on instead of putting them on.”
Maxwell collected his first save of the season.
Posluszny went 2 for 4 with two RBI, while Nelms was 2 for 3 with a run scored for West Virginia. Posluszny’s pair of hits moved him past Kirk Taylor into sixth place in school history with 212. Posluszny already owns the school record for career RBI, extending that to 171 tonight. Jenkins had his 15-game hitting streak snapped by going 0 for 4.
Baisley was 2 for 4 with an RBI for South Florida.
West Virginia moves into fifth place in the Big East standings a game ahead of Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights dropped a 7-4 decision at Connecticut earlier today. The worst West Virginia can finish now is sixth place.
“I’m just glad we won this game – this was a big win for us,” Van Zant said.
In other conference games Pitt beat Georgetown 3-2, Notre Dame downed Villanova 6-2, Cincinnati came back to beat St. John’s 7-5, and Louisville topped Seton Hall 7-3.
South Florida must either win tomorrow or have Georgetown beat Pitt to become the final team to make the eight-team Big East tournament. Saturday’s game has been moved up to 11:30 am to accommodate an early South Florida flight back to Tampa.
“The game was scheduled for noon and it’s a huge game for us and it’s a huge game for them because if they win tomorrow they make the tournament,” Van Zant said. “We just didn’t want to take a chance where we put them in a situation where the game ends after seven innings because of a time limit and they’re behind.
“They might very well come out and beat us 100-0 but I just thought that’s what they wanted to do and I think we need to be fair to them to at least have enough time for a full nine-inning game.”
Tomorrow’s contest represents the final home game for seniors Casey Bowling, Marty Fagler, Kevin Korzun, Ryan Lipscomb, Kyle Matuszek, Doug Nelms and Stan Posluszny.
The game will air locally on WAJR and on the Internet through CSTV All Access.
