Tournament Notebook
May 24, 2006 11:19 AM | General
May 24, 2006
CLEARWATER, Fla. – The turning point in West Virginia’s 5-3 victory over St. John’s Tuesday evening came when Red Storm coach Ed Blankmeyer went to his bullpen with one out in the eighth inning. St. John’s freshman left hander Scott Barnes had blanked West Virginia on seven hits through seven innings, striking out 11.
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| David Carpenter watches his ball sail over the fence for an eighth inning grand slam against St. John's in a Big East tournament first-round game in Clearwater, Fla. West Virginia won the game 5-3.
Big East photo |
“Their kid was pitching great and I remember calling him on July 1st when we could first talk to recruits and he had about 50 schools calling him and St. John’s did a great job getting that kid,” West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant said. “He threw his fastball right by our hitters. His breaking ball was real sharp and we didn’t have a chance against him, to be totally honest.”
Even if Barnes was accumulating a high pitch count and tiring, West Virginia was glad to see someone else out on the mound.
“They brought in a good pitcher (closer Rich Armento) but we were not going to do anything off their lefty – he was really good,” Van Zant said.
Casey Bowling took a four-pitch walk off Armento to load the bases and put the tying run on first base.
“The one thing (Barnes) didn’t do was walk anyone and they didn’t really make any mistakes. They were going to make us beat them with all base hits and it’s hard to beat a team when you have to play for base hits for all your runs,” Van Zant said.
When Carpenter connected on Armento’s 1-1 pitch, Van Zant wasn’t sure he hit it well enough to get it out of the ballpark.
“I really didn’t think it was out when he hit it; I thought it was going to be a fly out to the warning track but it kept going and kept going,” Van Zant said.
Both bullpens were stacked on top of each other out behind the leftfield fence and West Virginia relief pitcher Dan Leatherman wound up catching Carpenter’s home run.
“At first I wasn’t sure if he reached over the fence and they were going to call a ground rule double,” Van Zant said. “It looked like when Tom House caught Hank Aaron’s number 715.”
Tournament Tidbits
“It might have been the best performance since he’s been here,” Van Zant said. “He walked the first two batters in the third and I’m thinking to myself, that’s the way to lose a game. But he got out of it with no runs.
“He made one mistake in the fifth when we had two outs and an open base at first and their cleanup hitter up,” Van Zant said. “He’s a .400 hitter and they had a lefty on deck. I told David and Kenny to pitch him tough which means don’t give him anything good to hit. We get him to two strikes and Kenny went after him and the kid doubled in a run.
“When they scored that third run I thought, boy, that might be it,” Van Zant said. “But he kept pitching after that and he didn’t let that mistake bother him.”
The right hander came in the ninth with the tying run at the plate and got a pair of strike outs and a liner to second baseman Tyler Kuhn to retire the Red Storm in order.
“He was awesome,” Van Zant said. “He had that look in his eyes when he came out of the bullpen.”
“I hated to lose the South Florida series because I hate to lose but it’s amazing how that has worked out so far,” Van Zant said. “If we pitched Kenny against South Florida last weekend there is no way he could have bounced back for Tuesday’s game.”
“It’s our biggest game of the year and he may not be strong enough to pitch us a complete game, but if he can just get us five, six or seven innings then we may try and go with someone else,” Van Zant said.
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| West Virginia fans celebrate David Carpenter's eighth inning grand slam.
Big East photo |
Samardzija is better known as an All-American wide receiver for the Irish football team, catching 77 passes for 1,249 yards and 15 touchdowns last year. The 6-foot-5-inch, 215-pound junior is 6-2 with a 4.66 earned run average this year. He owns wins over Air Force, Georgetown, Pitt, St. John’s and Rutgers. Most recently, he gave up six hits and five earned runs in thee innings in a 7-5 loss at Seton Hall on May 13.
Notre Dame holds a 29-13 record against West Virginia in series play.
