April 25 Notebook
April 25, 2007 10:10 AM | General
April 25, 2007
JENKINS BY THE NUMBERS
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| Justin Jenkins is quickly establishing himself as the best pure hitter in WVU baseball history.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The best pure hitter in WVU baseball history? Paul Popovich? Darrell Whitmore? Mark Landers? Actually, in all likelihood it’s going to be senior leftfielder Justin Jenkins when the spikes are finally put away this season.
What Jenkins has done in three short years at West Virginia is remarkable. He has every major WVU hitting record within sight and already owns school marks for career extra base hits (101) and career doubles (69).
He entered Tuesday night’s game against Maryland with a school-record 35-game hitting streak and extended it to 36 with a three-hit effort against the Terps. The only game he has failed to get a hit this year was the season opener against Cleveland State. He has amassed 23 multi-hit games (out of 37) so far this year and has 76 career multiple-hit games out of 150, meaning he has gotten at least two hits in more than half his career games.
“He’s a natural hitter,” says West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. “What he has is God-given ability. He’s strong, he’s got great bat speed and he is a big-time competitor in the batter’s box.”
The national record for consecutive games hitting safely is 58 set by Oklahoma State’s Robin Ventura in 1987. It would take all 14 remaining regular season games and eight post-season games for Jenkins to tie Ventura’s mark, making that a formidable challenge for the Ridgeley, W.Va., resident.
This year Jenkins has a team-best .434 batting average with six home runs, 21 doubles and 40 RBI following a 4 for 6 hitting performance on Sunday at Notre Dame.
Jenkins is nine hits shy of the school career record of 251 established by Tim McCabe in four years from 2000-03. Jenkins is also seven home runs shy of McCabe’s school record of 35, and 42 RBI away from tying Stan Posluszny’s four-year record of 174 set in 2006.
His .382 career batting average is just five points off Lance Williams’ school-record .387 batting mark set in 1999.
What makes Jenkins so remarkable is the fact that he can hit all types of pitches and pitchers to all parts of the field. That 101 of his 242 career hits are for extra bases proves that most of his hits aren’t cheap.
“You have to hit the ball hard over an extended period of time to put up the numbers Justin has put up,” says Van Zant.
Jenkins was moved from third base to leftfield mainly to improve West Virginia’s lineup, but also in part because Van Zant believes that is the position best suited for Jenkins in professional baseball.
“He played shortstop in junior college and he played two years at third base for us,” Van Zant. “Now he’s playing leftfield so that gives scouts a couple of options.”
Briefly:
* West Virginia’s conference starters Levi Maxwell, Matt Yurish and Kenny Durst had rough outings last weekend at Notre Dame. The three combined for a 12.15 earned run average in 13 1/3 innings pitched, giving up 24 hits and walking seven.
Maxwell was the most effective of the three going eight innings, giving up seven hits and four earned runs in a 5-2 loss Friday night. That was Maxwell’s best pitching performance in three weeks.
“Sometimes over the course of the season your starters struggle a little bit,” Van Zant remarked. “But in no way shape or form am I losing confidence in our three weekend starters. Matt Yurish is very capable of going out and getting hitters out. Kenny Durst has already beaten South Florida on the road and Levi has had some good outings for us this year.”
* West Virginia and Notre Dame are presently tied for seventh place in the Big East standings with 6-8 league records. If the season were to end today the Mountaineers would have the final Big East tournament spot because Notre Dame would own the tiebreaker over the Mountaineers due to head-to-head play.
West Virginia’s four remaining conference series’ are against second-place St. John’s (11-4) at home this weekend, at ninth-place Villanova (5-10) next weekend, at ninth-place Connecticut (5-10) on May 11-13, and at home against 12th-place Georgetown (3-12) May 17-19.
WVU does not play first-place Rutgers (12-3) or fourth-place Pittsburgh (11-6) during the regular season this year.
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| Bob Huggins |
* The busiest guy on campus since Bob Huggins’ hiring has been basketball strength and conditioning coach Jeff Giosi. Huggins has instructed Giosi to get all of West Virginia’s players bigger and stronger.
Senior guard Darris Nichols says it’s been difficult even lifting his arms this week.
“Next year you’re going to see a complete change in guys’ games and the way guys look because we’re going to be in the weight room all summer,” Nichols said. “We have no choice but to be dedicated in the weight room with him being the coach.”
Nichols says he weighs 192 pounds right now and could easily weigh 205 or 210 when the season rolls around next year.
“Everybody is excited but we also know it’s going to be a lot of hard work,” Nichols remarked. “If we just believe in what he’s teaching it will all pay off.”
What is the biggest difference in Nichols now after spending two weeks with Bob Huggins?
“I’ve started snoring and I don’t usually snore,” he laughed.
* A lot has been made of the different styles of play between former coach John Beilein and new coach Bob Huggins. Beilein used a precision offense and a containing defense that placed more of an emphasis on ball possession than on rebounding. Huggins, on the other hand, employs an in-your-face defensive approach with a preference for having athletic players that can score off the dribble and rebound the basketball.
Nichols believes the players here now will adapt easily to Huggins’ new style of play.
“You see teams like Tennessee...they have guys that are athletic and guys that are not so athletic. (The not-so-athletic players) are still big-time contributors on the team like Dane Bradshaw,” Nichols said. “He’s a big part of their team and the guys that don’t think they fit into (Huggins’ system), they just have to do what they do well.”
* What has West Virginia players most excited about the arrival of Huggins is the possibility of having a lot more Nike gear at their disposal. Huggins’ teams at Cincinnati and at Kansas State always wore the best Nike stuff, sporting their own uniform designs.
“You’re always excited about stuff like that,” Nichols admitted. “He told us in our first meeting, ‘If you want to be champions you’ve got to be treated like champions.’ We’re going to work just as hard on the court as anyone but off it he’s going to treat us as best as he can.”
This July, the entire WVU athletic department will be wearing Nike equipment.
* The University of Alabama had more than 92,000 attend its spring football game to watch new coach Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide scrimmage last Saturday afternoon. That confirms what all of us knew already: there is nothing else to do in Alabama. By the way, Alabama won the game.
* According to Sunday’s Ft. Myers News-Press, prized WVU football signee Noel Devine has achieved a passing ACT score and if he maintains his overall grade point average, he will be eligible to play for the Mountaineers this fall.
The 5-foot-8-inch, 170-pound speedster was the No. 6-rated player in the country, according to ESPN.com Scouts Inc.
* James Madison is the latest college football team to adopt Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense. JMU coach Mickey Matthews and his coaching staff visited West Virginia earlier this spring and decided to incorporate some of Rodriguez’ spread offensive principles.
Rodriguez’s advice to Matthews: overload the players with it in the spring. James Madison was 9-3 last year and ranked ninth in I-AA in total offense, averaging 391.2 yards per game.
That’s a pretty good testimonial for the spread when you consider a coaching staff with an offense that successful abruptly chooses to change what it is doing.
Have a great week!
