Hat's Off
April 05, 2008 09:15 PM | General
April 5, 2008
BOX SCORE
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Jedd Gyorko’s walk-off RBI single to right field in the bottom of the 10th gave West Virginia a stunning 15-14 come-from-behind victory over USF in the second of a three-game series Saturday afternoon at Hawley Field.
The Mountaineers, down 13-4 heading into the bottom of the eighth, scored 11 runs over the final three innings to secure the series win.
“I don’t remember ever being down nine runs in the eighth inning and us coming back to win,” West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant said. “That’s a lot of runs to score in a few innings but that’s why you play all nine innings.”
Entering the eighth, the teams were locked in a competitive game with the Bulls clinging to a 6-4 lead when USF broke the game open in the top of the frame against West Virginia reliever Ross Fetterly, scoring seven runs on four hits.
The two-out trouble began when right fielder Brian Hobbs walked before catcher Cory Johnson blasted a towering three-run home run to right center.
Things worsened from there for Fetterly, who hit the next batter he faced putting shortstop Jonathan Kosco on first. Designated hitter Mike Consolmagno then laced a single up the middle, moving Kosco to second. Fetterly hit Addison Maruszak to load the bases. Joey Angelberger promptly cleared them, crushing a 3-2 fastball over the centerfield fence to give the Bulls a comfortable 13-4 lead.
West Virginia (24-6, 6-2) used six hits to score seven runs in its half of the eighth. Jordan Yost led off with a walk and was quickly moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Justin Parks. Kuhn then launched an RBI double to center, scoring Yost from second. Gyorko followed that up with an RBI double down the first base line, scoring Kuhn to make it 13-6.
The scoring continued. Vince Belnome hit an RBI single up the middle plating Gyorko. Joe Agreste walked on four pitches, ending Bulls reliever Zach Pietrzyk’s afternoon. Kyle Eastman came in relief and promptly surrendered a single to Tobias Streich loading the bases.
An RBI single by Austin Markel scored Belnome before Dan DiBartolomeo lined a sacrifice to center, scoring Joe Agreste to make it 13-9. After two straight wild pitches to Yost Eastman was pulled in favor of closer Shawn Samford, who was greeted rudely when Yost slapped a two-run single to left to make the score 13-11.
“All we were doing in the eighth inning was competing in the batter’s box and trying to get their closer into the game,” Van Zant said. “We wanted to get him in the game and then get his pitch count up. We competed and didn’t quit and I’m so proud of these guys.”
Fetterly returned to the mound in the ninth and promptly retired the first two batters before giving up an infield single to Brian Hobbs. Eric Saffell came on to face Johnson and induced a ground ball, but a bad hop at second allowed the ball to fly over Gyorko’s head for a single, moving Johnson to third.
Saffell was pulled in favor of righthander Yost. Hobbs scored on a passed ball by Streich and Yost posted back-to-back walks to Kosco and Consolmagno before finally getting Maruszak to fly out to center to end the inning with the bases loaded and WVU trailing 14-11.
Belnome drew a one-out walk and advanced to second on a balk. Agreste singled to right to score Belnome, and then advanced to second when Hobbs misplayed the ball in right field. Streich doubled down the right field line scoring Belnome. After Markel flied out to right, DiBartolomeo singled up the middle to score Dvoroznak, who came in to pinch run for Streich.
Sanford was able to get Yost out on strikes to end the ninth.
“I felt like once we tied it we had a great chance to win the game especially being the home team with Chris (Enourato) on the mound,” Van Zant said. “I knew he wouldn’t let them score much if at all.”
That he didn’t. Enourato came on and got Angelberger to ground out, caught Lockwood looking at strike three and eventually got Rey struck out swinging to end the 10th.
With one out, Kuhn doubled down the left field line to set up Gyorko’s game-winning single.
“I didn’t look to do more than I could. I just tried to go up there and hit the ball hard and he threw me a slider away and I found a hole, Gyorko said.
Enourato (3-0), who closed out last night’s suspended game earlier in the afternoon, earned the win after giving up just one hit and no runs in an inning of work. Sanford (4-3) takes the loss for South Florida, giving up four runs on seven hits in 1 2/3 innings of work.
Every Mountaineer that had an official at bat got at least one hit in a game in which the teams combined to score 29 runs on 38 hits. Agreste continued to carry a hot bat in the series, going 4 for 5 at the play today. Gyorko and Belnome had three hits each for the Mountaineers.
Lockwood, Hobbs and Johnson had three hits each for USF, now 14-15, 4-7.
The three-game series concludes tomorrow afternoon at Hawley Field with the first pitch slated for 12:30 p.m. WAJR-AM 1440 will carry the game live in Morgantown.
