Baseball: Mountaineers to Face Red Storm
May 20, 2006 06:06 PM | General
May 20, 2006
 |
||
| Kenny Durst |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia (35-20, 14-13) will face St. John’s (37-17, 16-10) in a Big East tournament first-round game at Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, Fla., on Tuesday, May 23 at 5 pm. The Mountaineers are the tournament’s fifth-seeded team while St. John’s is a No. 4 seed.
“Crazy things can happen in an eight-team tournament,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant, his Mountaineers making their first tournament appearance since 2003. “The team that wins their first two games has a big advantage in this setup because they’ve got Thursday off and a team must sweep a double-header to knock them out on Friday.”
Notre Dame (41-14-1, 21-5-1) is the top-seeded team in the tournament after this weekend’s three-game sweep of Villanova. The Irish will face No. 8-seeded South Florida (23-33, 12-15), which went on the road to take two of three at West Virginia to earn the conference’s final tournament spot on Saturday.
No. 2-seeded Connecticut took a three-game series at home from Rutgers and boasts a fine 38-16-1 overall record that includes an 18-6-1 mark in league play. The Huskies will face No. 7-seeded Cincinnati (32-24, 13-14), which finished a game under .500 in league play after taking two out of three from St. John’s this weekend.
No. 3-seeded Louisville (28-28, 17-10) finished the regular season strong by winning its last eight conference games including taking two out of three at Notre Dame. Louisville will play No. 6 seeded Rutgers, losers of three at Connecticut this weekend.
Louisville and Rutgers will play the first game Tuesday at 10 am, followed by the UConn-Cincinnati game at 1 pm. Notre Dame will play South Florida at 8 pm.
The winner of the Louisville-Rutgers game will face the Connecticut-Cincinnati winner Wednesday at 5 pm. The St. John’s-West Virginia and Notre Dame-USF winners will play at 8 pm Wednesday.
West Virginia clinched a spot in the tournament after last weekend’s three-game sweep at Cincinnati, and Van Zant wanted to use this weekend’s three-game series against South Florida as an opportunity to get his starting pitching set for the tournament. The coach has announced that sophomore lefthander Kenny Durst will start game one against St. John’s.
“After that I’m not sure,” he said. “We’re going to take 11 pitchers down there and the good thing is that all of them have either won a game or saved a game this year.”
The Mountaineers come into the tournament as the best hitting team in the Big East, but West Virginia hitters were stifled against South Florida this weekend, scoring one, five and four runs in losing two of three to the Bulls.
“I’m not concerned,” Van Zant said. “South Florida had its back to the wall and its pitchers threw well this weekend. I’m sure our guys will bounce back next week in the tournament.”
West Virginia departs Morgantown Sunday morning for Clearwater and will have a Monday workout at the ballpark. The Big East awards banquet will take place at 7 pm Monday night.
The tournament is double elimination.
