Baseball: Streak at 38 as WVU Falls to St. John's
April 28, 2007 07:57 PM | General
April 28, 2007
BOX SCORE
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| Justin Jenkins |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – On an otherwise dreary day, senior leftfielder Justin Jenkins stood alone as the only bright spot for West Virginia. The Ridgeley, W.Va. native extended his hit streak to 38 games with a two-run homerun to left center field in the eighth inning as St. John’s cruised past West Virginia 11-3 on a damp and chilly afternoon at Hawley Field.
Jenkins’ 38-game hit streak ties him with Nebraska’s Francis Collins (1996), Fresno St.’s Josh Hannah (1997) and Cal St. Fullerton’s Brent Mayne (1988) for 10th all-time in NCAA history. Jenkins, who has the longest hit streak ever by a BIG EAST player, finished the night 1-for-4 while hitting his eighth home run of the season.
“It’s a great honor for him to do that. He has had a heck of a season for us and I was just happy he hit that ball hard in that last at bat,” West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant said. “It is icing on the cake that he kept that hitting streak going but you can’t worry about those stats too much because it will cause you to play the game differently.”
Jenkins says despite a rough day up to that point, he didn’t feel the pressure of the streak as he approached his final at bat of the afternoon.
“I was struggling during the day and it came down to the last at bat and I really wasn’t thinking about the streak too much,” Jenkins said. “I just went up there like every at bat and tried to focus and compete.”
St. John’s (28-12, 13-4) jumped out to a 5-0 lead and were never threatened on the afternoon.
The Red Storm was led by Brian Kemp’s 3-for-4 effort with two RBI. Ryan Mahoney was 2-for-4 with a three-run homer in the top of the ninth. The Red Storm capitalized on three big innings in which they scored three runs in the third, eighth and ninth innings.
West Virginia (24-15, 6-10) was plagued by shaking pitching and sloppy fielding all afternoon.
Starter Matt Yurish (2-4) went seven innings giving up six earned runs on eight hits while striking out 10. Billy Gross came on in relief giving up four more runs in the final two innings. The Mountaineers also had three fielding errors on the day.
“We didn’t play very well in the field at all,” Van Zant said. “For us to beat that team we’ve got to be smarter, make better decisions about where we throw the ball and just make better decisions in general.”
Jason Pape had a solid afternoon, going 2-for-3 with a solo homerun and a double. Adam White and Jordan Yost each added two hits for the Mountaineers.
West Virginia and St. John’s will play the third and final game of the series Sunday at 1 p.m.
“Going 1-2 against them is a heck of a lot better than a sweep but we’ll have to play better than we played today,” Van Zant said. “We’re capable of beating any team in our league when we play well.”
NCAA ALL-TIME CONSECUTIVE GAMES HITTING STREAKS
1) Robin Ventura, Oklahoma St. (1987) - 58
2) Phil Stephenson, Wichita St. (1981) - 47
3) Roger Schmuck, Arizona St. (1971) - 45
4) Chuck Abbott, Austin Peay (Feb. 17-April 17, 1996) - 42
5) Michael Compo, Penn St. (March 28-May 28, 2000) - 41
Todd Nace, Southern Miss. (1989-90) - 41
7) Rusty Adkins, Clemson (April 10, 1965-May 17, 1966) - 41
8) Shane Robinson, Florida St. (June 5, 2004-April 3, 2005) - 40
9) Brandon Caraway, Houston (April 11, 1998-May 14, 1999) - 40
10) Justin Jenkins, West Virginia (Feb. 17-April 28, 2007) – 38
Francis Collins, Nebraska (March 13-May 11, 1996) - 38
Josh Hannah, Fresno St.(Feb. 26-May 25, 1997) - 38
Brent Mayne, Cal St. Fullerton (March 2-May 29, 1988) - 38
