Baseball: WVU Suffers Loss to St. John’s, 10-3
May 03, 2008 05:42 PM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
May 3, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University baseball team fell to St. John’s, 10-3, on Saturday afternoon at Jack Kaiser Stadium in Queens, N.Y.
The Mountaineers (32-13, 11-9) were led by senior Tyler Kuhn’s three hits as well as Vince Belnome’s two RBIs. The offense mustered seven hits against solid pitching from the Red Storm (34-10, 15-5).
Sophomore left-hander Steve Morrison (5-3) took the loss after allowing four earned runs on seven hits in six innings pitched. George Brown (9-0) earned the win for the Red Storm after giving up only three earned runs on six hits in seven innings.
WVU got off to a good start when Belnome contributed to the game’s first run with an RBI double in the top of the first. Justin Parks led off with a hit by pitch, and Kuhn singled to center field to put Parks in scoring position at second. Belnome’s double to left plated Parks to give the Mountaineers an early 1-0 lead.
In the third the Mountaineers created a 2-0 margin courtesy of Jedd Gyorko’s run-scoring single. With two outs Kuhn hit a triple before Gyorko’s single to center field extended the WVU lead.
The Red Storm responded in the bottom half when Dan DiBartolomeo committed a two-run error in left field. Paul Karmas reached base on the error while Gino Matias and Jeff Grantham scored unearned runs to knot the game at 2-2.
St. John’s took the lead in the fourth on Daniel Benedetti’s sacrifice fly to right field, giving the Red Storm a 3-2 lead. Greg Hopkins started the inning off with a double to left field, and Michael Aicardi advanced him to third with a single before scoring on the flyout.
The Red Storm pulled away by scoring seven more runs between the fifth and eighth innings. Three runs were scored in the seventh as Benedetti’s two-run double helped seal the victory for St. John’s. Chris Anninos’ sacrifice fly and Hopkin’s run-scoring single in the eighth added to the offensive attack.
WVU could only respond in the sixth on Belnome’s RBI single to center field. With one out Gyorko started things off with a double before he was plated by Belnome’s run-scoring hit.
The Mountaineers return to action on Sunday, May 4, for the final game of the three-game series at St. John’s. First pitch is set for noon.
