Spring Forward
February 15, 2007 05:57 PM | General
February 15, 2007
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| Greg Van Zant |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When you’re asked to deal with sub-freezing temperatures and several inches of snow, baseball coaches in the Northeast sometimes have to improvise. West Virginia University’s Greg Van Zant has done just that.
The Caperton Indoor Practice Facility can accommodate just about anything except for live fly balls so Van Zant and his coaching staff went outside and got their work done in the parking lot.
“We did that on Sunday behind the Shell Building for about a half-hour,” Van Zant said.
The Mountaineers christen another baseball season Friday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C., playing a three-game weekend series against Cleveland State – a northern team doing some improvising of their own.
“They’re in the same boat that we’re in. It’s not exactly sunny skies in Cleveland, Ohio, right now,” Van Zant said.
West Virginia (36-22 last year) will put a remodeled lineup out on Ernie Shore Field Friday afternoon with five new hitters being penciled in on Van Zant’s lineup card.
However, West Virginia’s top three hitters are expected to be among the best in the Big East Conference in centerfielder Adam White, shortstop Tyler Kuhn and leftfielder Justin Jenkins. Each hit better than .365 last year and Jenkins collected 10 home runs, 25 doubles and drove in 49 runs as a junior. He was named a second-team preseason All-American by Collegiate Baseball.
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| Justin Jenkins |
“Justin is the same as he was last year when he wasn’t preseason All-America. We just want him to do what he can do,” said Van Zant. “He’s not going to be able to single handedly win games for us.”
The same goes for White, who had an outstanding freshman season swiping a league-best 19 bases and hitting .368.
“Adam’s best freshman year was his freshman year when he sat out and worked his tail off during BP becoming a better defensive outfielder when he played behind Lee Fritz. He just gives us a heck of a defensive outfielder out there because he might be the fastest player in college baseball,” Van Zant said.
Kuhn moves from second to short this season and is expected to be one of the best offensive infielders in the conference, coming off a .365, 20-double, 92-hit campaign in 2006.
After those three, Van Zant said the rest of the lineup will be a work in progress. On Friday, it will be Michael Burger batting clean-up at DH, Trent Ridgley or Mike Schmidt hitting fifth and playing first base; sophomore Austin Markel is expected to hit sixth and play right field.
The bottom of the lineup will have promising freshman third baseman Vince Belnome batting seventh, catcher Justin Parks hitting eighth and senior second baseman Jason Pape hitting ninth.
“It may take us a month to figure out how we’re going to go in the conference,” Van Zant said.
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| Kenny Durst |
This weekend’s rotation features three experienced pitchers in junior lefthander Kenny Durst, junior righthander Levi Maxwell and junior lefthander Matt Yurish.
Durst went 5-4 last year and won West Virginia’s opening round Big East tournament game against St. John’s. Maxwell has the best arm strength on the team and will be a target of major league scouts this summer, and Yurish threw a no-hitter last year against Coppin State.
“We’re going to have to at least throw six pitchers,” Van Zant said. “There is no way we’re going to get complete games unless they do it in 75-85 pitches. We’ve got some capable, unproven young guys who are going to get the ball after that.”
Relief candidates including senior lefthander Brendan Bergerson, junior lefthander Eric Saffell, senior righthander Trent Ridgley and improving freshman righthander Billy Gross.
Freshman righthander Chris Enourato of Bridgeport will start the season as the team’s closer.
“Chris Enourato has the makings of being a heck of a closer,” Van Zant said. “He’s throwing a slider about 76 to 78 mph that our hitters can’t touch. I already trust Chris Enourato and he hasn’t even pitched for us yet.”
West Virginia qualified for the eight-team Big East tournament last year in Clearwater, Fla. The tournament has been moved to KeySpan Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., and the Mountaineers will have to play well to get there again this year. West Virginia was predicted to finish eighth in the 12-team conference ahead of Pitt, Seton Hall, Villanova and Georgetown.
“I think the Big East is going to be better than ever this year,” Van Zant said. “South Florida had a great early signing period and they’re already 3-0. Notre Dame has got a lot of arms coming back. St. John’s is picked to win the league and the freshman lefty they threw against us in the Big East tournament is legit. From what I’ve heard they’ve got 12 arms touching 90 mph.
“Rutgers is going to bounce back. They’ve got the Team USA player Todd Frazier playing shortstop. I think the league is going to be really good,” Van Zant said.
The 13th-year coach, who is 349-301-1 at WVU, believes his club can be solid this season if it can remain healthy.
“Any time you put five new players on the field you’re anxious to see how it will all work out. We can easily make a lot of mistakes early on and we just have to work with them and be patient,” he said. “Of all the teams I’ve coached this team by far has tried to do what we’ve asked them to do the best. They’re really good guys and they want to do well.”
