Notre Dame Preview
April 18, 2008 08:32 AM | General
April 18, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia takes on first-place Notre Dame tonight in the first of a three-game Big East series at Hawley Field. First pitch is 7:05 p.m. and the game will air locally on WAJR-AM 1440 and on WVU’s student radio station U-92.
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| Josh Whitlock takes a 6-2 record on to the hill tonight against Notre Dame at Hawley Field.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
The Irish head into weekend play with a 23-9-1 record under second-year coach Dave Schrage, who was 28-28 during his first season at South Bend after taking over for longtime Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri.
Notre Dame has won 10 straight after dropping two out of three at home to Cincinnati in conference play on March 29. In succession the Irish swept a three-game series from Rutgers, captured non-conference games against Valparaiso and Manchester College, took a three-game series at Villanova last weekend and won non-league games earlier this week against Toledo and Northern Illinois.
Notre Dame is 10-2 in Big East play, going on the road and sweeping Georgetown to open conference play on March 20.
Notre Dame’s seven non-conference losses have come against Liberty, Albany, Boston College, Lehigh, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Arizona and Texas-Pan American. The Irish and Central Michigan tied 2-2 on March 17.
“Notre Dame has got a great ball club,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. “They are already over 20 wins, they’re 10-2 in the league … you’re not in first place in the Big East if you’re not good.”
Notre Dame is expected to start righthander David Phelps (4-3, 3.31 ERA) tonight with lefthander Wayne Korpi (5-1, 3.80) going on Saturday and righthander Eric Maust (3-1, 2.23) going on Sunday.
A.J. Pollock leads the Irish with a .400 batting average and 14 stolen bases. Ross Brezovsky is hitting .364 and Jeremy Barnes is batting .339 with 11 doubles, two home runs and 30 RBI. The Irish are batting .326 as a team and are averaging 7.2 runs per game.
“Obviously they pitch well and they’ve got some really good position players that play hard and we have a lot of respect for them,” Van Zant said.
West Virginia (27-9, 7-5) also fields a strong offensive team, batting .364 overall with 31 home runs and a team slugging percentage of .557. West Virginia has scored 10 or more runs in a game 16 times this year and is averaging nine runs per game.
Senior Tyler Kuhn is enjoying a terrific year, batting a team-best .447 with 16 doubles, four triples and seven home runs. Kuhn has 113 total bases for an impressive .743 slugging percentage.
“Tyler is a good hitter,” Van Zant said. “He’s a professional baseball player playing college baseball. Tyler coming back for his senior year has made our team. It’s going to be a sad day when I’m not writing Tyler Kuhn’s name in the lineup anymore.”
Sophomore third baseman Vince Belnome is hitting .428 with a team-high 53 RBI, while Jedd Gyorko (.413), Justin Parks (.409) and Joe Agreste (.402) are also hitting better than .400. Every hitter with the exception of one in West Virginia’s lineup is batting better than .300.
Josh Whitlock will be on the hill tonight. Whitlock is 6-2 with a 4.80 earned run average. Saturday, lefthander Steve Morrison (4-2, 3.09) is slated to get the nod with righthander Billy Gross (5-1, 2.54) going on Sunday.
West Virginia defeated Duquesne 14-0 on Tuesday night before a crowd of nearly 700 and with unseasonably warm temperatures another big turnout is expected tonight.
“West Virginia-Notre Dame on a Friday night? It doesn’t get much better than that,” said Van Zant. “We’re looking forward to it.”
Notre Dame has won 10 of the last 11 from West Virginia and owns a 34-14 mark against the Mountaineers in series play.
After going 4-12 on the road last year, Notre Dame is 6-0 in road games this year with all six coming in conference play against Georgetown and Villanova. West Virginia is 20-2 at home this year with the two home losses coming against St. Bonaventure and USF.
