Baseball: Agreste Leads WVU Past Duquesne
April 22, 2008 07:16 PM | General
April 22, 2008
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| Joe Agreste |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Junior Joe Agreste went 4-for-5 with a double, two home runs and a career-high six RBIs to lead the West Virginia University baseball team past Duquesne, 9-1, Tuesday afternoon at Duquesne Field in Pittsburgh.
The Chesapeake, Va., native finished just one triple shy of the cycle and had almost half of the Mountaineers' 10 hits in the game.
“He had a real big day for us and had some clutch RBIs in almost every at-bat,” Head Coach Greg Van Zant said. “He was a big reason we scored all those runs.”
Senior left-handed pitcher Matt Yurish gave up just one run through five innings to pick up the win and improve to 4-1. Freshman Jarryd Summers held the Dukes hitless in the final four innings of relief to get his first career save.
“Matt Yurish threw well for us and we had to take him out because of the pitch count, but then Jarryd Summers came in and pounded the strike zone,” Van Zant said.
The road win completed a season sweep of the Dukes as WVU previously topped Duquesne 8-1, on March 5, and 14-0, on April 14, at Hawley Field.
The Mountaineers (29-11, 8-7 BIG EAST) got on the board first with a pair of runs in the second inning. Austin Markel led off with a triple and Joe Agreste followed with an RBI double to put WVU up, 1-0. Agreste would come around to score later on a pair of sacrifice hits by Jordon Yost and Dan DiBartolomeo.
WVU pushed its lead to 5-0 in the third inning thanks to an Agreste three-run homer off Duke starter Matt Passauer.
Duquesne (15-21, 10-5 Atlantic 10) answered and threatened to put together a two-out rally in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Anthony Manley got things started with a single to centerfield. Aaron Janusey followed with a single to right, leaving runners at the corners for WVU pitcher Yurish. Leftfielder Matt Carroll drove in Manley with an RBI single to trim the lead to 5-1. After Pat Kimutis drew a walk to load the bases, Yurish managed to get out of the jam with limited damage with an inning-ending strikeout of Eric Morrison.
Agreste continued his career day with another RBI single in the fifth to give WVU a five-run lead. The Mountaineers then put the game out of reach with three more runs in the seventh; including another home run by Agreste, a solo shot.
Passauer lasted 6.1 innings, giving up seven runs on seven hits and fell to 2-1 with the loss. Janusey led the Dukes’ eight-hit effort at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a stolen base.
Tobias Streich and Jedd Gyorko each had a pair of hits for West Virginia.
West Virginia picked up its 29th victory of the season, already matching last season’s win total, and is now just one win away from earning 14th-year coach Van Zant his sixth 30-win season.
Duquesne has now lost nine of its last 11 games in its current skid and WVU now owns a 67-8 lead in the all-time series.
West Virginia next welcomes BIG EAST club Connecticut to Hawley Field for a three-game set this weekend, April 25-27. WVU ranks fifth in the conference standings, while the Huskies are currently sitting in ninth place in the league standings, just one spot out of qualifying for the BIG EAST tournament.
Friday is “Dollar Night” with all tickets and select concessions available for $1 each. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m.
