Baseball: WVU Completes Sweep with 17-3 Win
April 27, 2008 05:24 PM | General
April 27, 2008
BOX SCORE
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University baseball team used an eight-run fifth inning to pull away from Connecticut and cruise to a 17-3 victory, sweeping the three-game set from the Huskies.
“I can’t emphasize how important getting that sweep was,” West Virginia Coach Greg Van Zant said. “The best teams in this league are able to sweep other teams and we want to be one of the best teams in this league.”
The WVU offense continued its impressive play, scoring double digit runs in all three games in the series, while pounding out three home runs and 13 hits off of five Husky pitchers Sunday afternoon.
The Mountaineers got on the board in the first inning when Vince Belnome laced an RBI single to right field to score Justin Parks for the early 1-0 lead. Parks led off and was hit by a pitch before Tyler Kuhn drew a walk off of Connecticut starter Mike Hashem. Two batters later Belnome plated Parks for his team-leading 59th RBI of the year.
UConn (21-25, 7-14) tied the game in the fourth when Peter Fatse hit a slow ground ball to third that Belnome misplayed, scoring Mike Olt to make it 1-1.
West Virginia (32-11, 11-7) quickly responded in its half as Dan DiBartolomeo launched his first home run of the season, a three-run shot to left field to make it 4-1. Joe Agreste reached on a fielder’s choice and Jordan Yost drew a walk to set up the blast.
The Mountaineers blew the game open in the fifth, scoring eight runs to take a 12-1 lead. Ten West Virginia batters came up in an inning that saw WVU get four hits and benefit from four walks. The highlight was Parks’ fourth homer of the season, a two-run shot to left center to end the scoring in the frame.
West Virginia got four more in the seventh to take a 16-3 lead. Yost started it off with a solo shot to left field, his sixth of the season. After Dan DiBartolomeo hit a triple off the wall in center, Tobias Streich knocked him in on a sacrifice fly to center. Two batters later, Jedd Gyorko smacked a two-RBI double to score Parks and Kuhn. Grant Buckner pinch hit in the eighth and made the most of the opportunity, drilling an RBI double into the gap in left center to finish the scoring at 17-3.
All but one WVU batter got a hit on the day. DiBartolomeo led the way, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
Starter Matt Yurish turned in another strong performance, giving up three runs off seven hits and striking out six in 8.1 innings of work to improve his record to 5-1.
“He was awesome,” Van Zant said. “Last year their hitters really struggled against him up there. I thought he was the right guy for today. He shut them out 5-0 last year so I figured we should put him out there and see if he could do it again.”
Hashem (2-2) takes the loss, giving up seven earned runs off five hits while walking three and striking out three in four innings of work.
West Virginia returns to action against Maryland on Tuesday, April 29, at Hawley Field. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.
