Fab Frosh
April 22, 2007 10:30 PM | General
April 22, 2007
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| Chris Enourato |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Greg Van Zant was sitting in the dugout in the fourth inning of Sunday’s game against Notre Dame wondering if he should go to his bullpen and bring in a freshman that had pitched just 16 innings this season.
For the second straight day his starting pitcher was throwing BP to the Notre Dame hitters, and an Irish series sweep was staring his team right in the face. A loss would have put the Mountaineers at 5-9 in the Big East and made it much more difficult for them to qualify for the eight-team conference tournament.
“I’m sitting there thinking if we don’t change pitchers we may not have a chance to win,” Van Zant said.
West Virginia had lost the first two games to the Irish by scores of 5-2 and 17-6. WVU’s three starting pitchers had a combined 12.15 earned run average in 13 1/3 innings, giving up 24 hits and walking seven.
Incidentally, Notre Dame had also won 10 straight games against the Mountaineers spanning the last four years. That and a 6-5 Irish lead is what confronted Chris Enourato when Van Zant made up his mind to hand him the baseball with one out and runners standing on first and second.
Enourato got A.J. Pollock to fly out to center and Ross Brezovsky to ground out to short. The right-hander then put up goose eggs in the fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings – setting the Irish down in order in the ninth – to help the Mountaineers to a critical 16-7 victory. It was just WVU’s second conference road win of the season.
“I tried to keep them off balance,” Enourato said. “I was throwing all of my pitches for strikes and the ball just happened to bounce my way. They were hitting ground balls right at people and I got a couple of guys to swing and miss.”
The Bridgeport High School product, just an hour’s drive down I-79 from Morgantown, gave up one run in the sixth and worked out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth, getting Brezovsky to fly out to center to end the inning.
“My slider was working well today and I threw it a lot,” Enourato said. “I was throwing all three pitches for strikes, but when I was in trouble I went to my slider.”
In addition to having good stuff, Van Zant really likes Enourato’s competitive nature on the mound -- a competitive streak rarely found in freshmen. That is perhaps his best attribute.
“He’s got good ability and he’s got a real good touch and feel on his pitches,” Van Zant said. “But he’s really just a big-time competitor.”
Enourato admits he was expecting to spend his freshman season in the dugout pitching mostly in a mop-up capacity. Just 12 months ago at this time he was also pitching against Notre Dame – Clarksburg Notre Dame High School.
“The competition has definitely moved up a couple of notches but it’s still the same – you just want to go out there and throw as many strikes as you can and compete,” he said.
The 6-foot, 205-pounder was primarily a starting pitcher in high school, helping the Bridgeport Indians to the state playoffs his sophomore year. Last year, Bridgeport was a game away from the state playoffs but Enourato balked in the winning run against Jefferson for a 1-0 loss in the regional finals.
“That’s probably my biggest disappointment,” he said.
Enourato also played regularly at third base as a senior; his first three years were spent at shortstop until a serious knee injury suffered in football kept him out for eight months and necessitated the move to third.
“I didn’t have to move much laterally at third,” Enourato said.
Colleges were interested in him as both a hitter and a pitcher, but Enourato made an early commitment to West Virginia.
“I kind of had it in my mind that I wanted to come to West Virginia,” he said. “I got phone calls but I committed so early that I didn’t even go through the process.”
Van Zant knew he was getting an outstanding high school pitcher. What he didn’t realize was that Enourato was going to be this dependable this quickly.
“He’s a reliable strike thrower. He fields his position well and he is comfortable out there on the mound,” Van Zant said.
One play on Sunday illustrates the type of competitor Enourato is.
“There was a high chopper – kind of a swinging bunt down the first base line – it was a tough play and he came off the mound and barehanded the ball for an unbelievable play,” Van Zant. “He just made it look easy.”
While most freshmen standing on the mound are counting the number of people in the stands or listening for every name they’re being called, Enourato says it’s natural for him to block everything else out and focus on the hitter.
“My parents were saying how many people were there screaming and yelling and I didn’t hear or see any of that … I try to focus on what I’m going to do,” he said.
Van Zant hopes to be able to use Enourato a lot more during the remaining 12 Big East games on the schedule.
“The last two or three weekends we never really got into a situation where we could use him,” Van Zant said. “We couldn’t bring him in when we were behind.
“I bet five or six of our eight (Big East) losses we haven’t even been in the game to where we could use him,” Van Zant said.
The coach admits Enourato isn’t perfect -- he’s going to give up some hits and some runs. But more importantly, what Chris Enourato does when he’s on the mound is give West Virginia a chance to win.
“We like our chances when he’s out there,” Van Zant said. “He just competes and that’s all you can ask.”
