Almost In
May 15, 2008 02:32 PM | General
May 15, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The math is really simple for the West Virginia University baseball team this weekend. Any combination of one qualifies the Mountaineers for postseason play. One victory by West Virginia against Cincinnati, or a combination of a loss by South Florida, Villanova or Rutgers will get the Mountaineers to Clearwater, Fla., for the 2008 Big East Baseball Championships.
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| Josh Whitlock takes a 7-5 record into this weekend's series against Cincinnati.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
This weekend South Florida plays at second-place Notre Dame, Villanova is at league-leader St. John’s and Rutgers plays at Louisville.
West Virginia (34-16) is presently in sixth place with a 13-11 conference record.
“We’re still not in but a lot of things would have to happen,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. “If those three teams sweep and we get swept, we’re out.”
Last year the season came down to one game against Georgetown for the Mountaineers to make the Big East Tournament. West Virginia lost, 10-0 after taking the first two games of the series. West Virginia’s last appearance at the Big East Tournament came in 2006 when it won the opening game against St. John’s before dropping a pair to Notre Dame and St. John’s to exit the double elimination tournament.
Since the league expanded the tournament field to eight teams, no team with at least 12 regular season victories has been left out of the tournament.
This weekend, West Virginia faces a difficult assignment against a 32-19 Bearcat team that has already clinched a spot in postseason play. Cincinnati is 6-3 at home in conference games this year having taken two of three from Pitt, Georgetown and Rutgers. The Bearcats swept a series at Connecticut, April 4-6, and also went on the road to claim two of three at Notre Dame and Seton Hall.
Junior Dan Osterbrock tied the school record for career victories with 19 last weekend at Seton Hall, and he is second in the conference with seven victories this season. Osterbrock’s 3.32 earned run average ranks him 10th among Big East pitchers.
Junior Tony Hill is coming off a 10-strikeout performance against the Pirates and he also became the first Bearcat pitcher in nine years to strikeout four batters in a single inning when he did it to the Pirates last Saturday.
Josh Harrison is ninth in the conference with a .366 batting average. Harrison is also sixth in total hits with 74, ninth in RBI with 45, and fourth in doubles with 17.
Tony Campana is the top base stealer in the conference with 50 thefts in 60 attempts. Campana recently swiped his 100th career against Seton Hall in just 107th career game.
A strong weekend could give West Virginia an opportunity to establish a school record for wins during the regular season. The Mountaineers are presently two wins shy of the 36 regular season victories posted in 1998. A strong postseason could get WVU to the 40-win mark for only the second time in school history.
Senior shortstop Tyler Kuhn is currently ranked eighth in the country in batting average with a .427 mark. Kuhn chose to turn down an offer to play professional baseball last year to return to West Virginia for his senior season where he has rewritten the record book.
Kuhn ranks first in career hits (314), at-bats (881), runs scored (215), triples (15), RBI (186), games played (214) and games started (214).
Kuhn is second in career doubles with 65 and trails Justin Jenkins by four in that category. He is also second in career extra base hits with 100, becoming one of just two players in school history to have more than 100 career extra base hits. Kuhn is fifth in career walks and is tied for 14th in career home runs with 20.
Kuhn’s .356 career batting average is three points shy of 10th place, where Jon Szynal resides with a .359 career average.
Pitcher Matt Yurish is also marching up the charts. The senior is tied for fourth in career starts (41), sixth in career innings pitched 246.2, seventh in career strikeouts (246) and tied for 10th in career appearances (48).
Yurish takes a 17-11 career record into this weekend’s action.
All three games will air locally on WAJR-AM 1440.
A free link to WAJR’s stream of the broadcast is available through MSNsportsNET.com. WAJR will air all postseason action should the Mountaineers qualify.
Briefly:
“There isn’t a team that we feel we cannot beat and that includes St. John’s,” said Van Zant. “In order to do that, we’re going to have to play our best baseball.”
In fact, unless St. John’s fails to win the Big East Tournament the conference is likely to earn just one bid this year. Louisville is the only Big East team sitting on the bubble with an RPI of 59 before this weekend’s action against Rutgers.
Notre Dame has an RPI of 75, followed by South Florida (83), West Virginia (88) and Cincinnati (102). Only one Big East team, Georgetown, is ranked below 200 at 254.
The Big East is presently rated 11th among baseball conferences behind the Colonial, Sun Belt, Southern, West Coast and Big West, according to the web site Warren Nolan.com.
The Big East is 11-28 against the top five conferences in the country, but does have a 6-4 overall record against fifth-rated Conference USA.
