Baseball: Jenkins' Streak Goes to 37 in WVU Loss
April 27, 2007 10:59 PM | General
April 27, 2007
BOX SCORE
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Justin Jenkins extended his hitting streak to 37 games with a solo homerun in the third inning as the WVU baseball team lost to St. John’s 8-7, in game one of the series Friday night at Hawley Field.
Jenkins, who has the longest hit streak ever by a BIG EAST player, finished the night 1-for-3 with three runs scored while hitting his seventh homerun on the year.
St. John’s (27-12, 12-4 BIG EAST) spread its offense out over the course of the game, scoring runs in every inning but the third, sixth and ninth. The Red Storm were led by leadoff hitter Brian Kemp’s 3-for-5 effort while Chris Anninos went 1-for-5 with two RBI.
After WVU (24-14, 6-9 BIG EAST) held an early 3-2 lead, first baseman Ryan Mahoney ripped a two-run homerun in the fourth inning to put St. John’s back on top.
Trailing 7-4 in the bottom of the seventh, the Mountaineers rallied to tie the game at 7-7 with three runs on two hits. Jenkins was the first baserunner after he was hit by Ryan Cole’s pitch. Cole then walked Austin Markel and Jordon Yost knocked an RBI single back up the middle before Red Storm coach Ed Blankmeyer went to his bullpen for Colin Lynch.
Facing Mike Schmidt, Lynch threw a wild pitch to move Yost up to second and Markel to third. Schmidt would strike out but Vince Belnome drove in Markel with a single to first base and Yost crossed the plate on a throwing error to first that went into the home dugout.
The Red Storm would get the game-winning run in the eighth, though, as Sam DeLuca’s sacrifice fly to center plated Kemp.
St. John’s reliever Lynch pitched the final 2.2 innings to pick up the win. Lynch moves to 1-0. Red Storm starter Scott Barnes surrendered five hits and four runs in his 5.1 innings before giving way to Cole.
WVU starting pitcher Levi Maxwell (4-4) went seven innings and gave up five earned runs on 11 hits. Chris Enourato came in and pitched the final two innings and did not allow a hit.
Schmidt was 2-for-5 with a solo homerun while Markel was 1-for-3 with a two run homerun.
St. John’s has now won 20 of its last 22 games. The Red Storm pitching staff entered the game giving up just two homeruns in the last 24 games before seeing three Mountaineers hit homeruns tonight.
West Virginia and St. John's will meet tomorrow at 3 p.m. for day two of BIG EAST action at Hawley Field.
