Blanking the Dukes
April 16, 2008 12:36 AM | General
April 16, 2008
BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - West Virginia pounded out 13 hits and got solid pitching efforts from three different hurlers to shutout Duquesne, 14-0, in front of a season-high 674 fans on Dollar Night Tuesday evening at Hawley Field.
“We came out and we were ready to play. That’s the big thing," West Virginia Coach Greg Van Zant said. “Duquesne is a good ball club and if we had come out thinking we were going to win, we would have been in for a long night.”
West Virginia (27-9) wasted no time with the bats, jumping out to a 4-0 lead after the first. Justin Parks led off with a single, followed by a double to right by Tyler Kuhn. Jedd Gyorko then drew a walk to load the bases.
Vince Belnome walked on four pitches to bring in Parks and Austin Markel’s RBI bunt single plated Kuhn. Jordan Yost added an RBI groundout to score Gyorko, and Dan DiBartolomeo’s RBI bunt single scored Belnome. Markel also could have scored but was tagged out at home for the third out when he missed home plate.
After adding another run in the third to make it 5-0, WVU put together another big inning in the fourth. After Parks was hit by a pitch to lead off the frame, Kuhn promptly doubled, moving Parks to third. A wild pitch scored Parks and Gyorko’s sacrifice fly plated Kuhn. Joe Agreste reached on a fielder’s choice and Markel’s RBI double to left knocked in Agreste to make it 8-0.
Kuhn added a three-run line-drive home run to right in the fifth, his seventh of the year, to make it 11-0. The Mountaineers homered twice more in the seventh - Belnome with a solo shot to right center, his third of the season, and Yost on a towering two-run blast to left field to complete the scoring at 14-0. Yost’s round tripper was his fourth of the year.
“I told our hitters not to do more than they could do. We got our bunt hits down and just kind of picked away,” Van Zant said. “It’s not easy to score 14 runs but we did it just doing what we could do up there at the plate.”
Kuhn led the Mountaineers at the dish, going 4 for 6 with three RBIs and coming within a triple of hitting for the cycle. Belnome was a perfect 2 for 2 while drawing two walks.Yost added three RBIs.
Matt Yurish (3-1) takes the win for the Gold and Blue, scattering four hits and striking out seven. Yurish worked out of a bases loaded jam in the first and left 11 Dukes stranded in his five innings of work.
Freshman Jarryd Summers was solid in relief, allowing just one hit while striking out seven in three innings. Yost pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out the last Duquesne batter of the evening. West Virginia hurlers combined to strike out a season-high 15 batters.
Joe Perotti (0-2) takes the loss for Duquesne (15-16), allowing five earned runs off five hits while walking four in just three innings of work.
West Virginia returns to action this weekend for a three-game series against Big East leading Notre Dame. First pitch on Friday night is set for 7:05 p.m. All three games will be carried locally on WAJR AM-1440 and also on WWVU FM-92.
“Notre Dame is 10-2 in the league and they have great pitching. You can’t be leading the Big East and not have a great ball club,” Van Zant said. “We hope a lot of people can come see us play. You won’t see much better college baseball than West Virginia against Notre Dame on Friday night.”
