Unusual Position
April 16, 2009 02:43 PM | General
April 16, 2009
KYLE WIGGS SERIES PREVIEW
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With about a month left in the season, West Virginia at this time of the year has been more accustomed to doing the chasing than being the ones chased. Yet that’s what confronts the Mountaineers this weekend when they take on Notre Dame in a three-game series that begins Friday night at 6:05 pm ET.
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| Coach Greg Van Zant offers instruction to his team during an indoor practice earlier this year.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
“All of the games are equally important but when you’re playing well you just want to win them all,” said Coach Greg Van Zant. “Obviously, the more you win, the better your chances are of advancing into the postseason. We realize every single one of our remaining 19 regular season games is critical.”
The critical stretch begins with this weekend’s three-game series at Notre Dame. What is separating this year’s West Virginia team from some of the others that started off well and then faded is its performance on the road. West Virginia is 7-2 in road games this year, including a 5-1 record so far in conference play.
A good road record is a clear sign of a mature team that pays attention to detail.
“I thought we did a great job on our first road swing to begin the season when we came home 3-3,” Van Zant noted. “That second road swing was remarkable to win seven out of eight. This road swing will be our most difficult of the season. We are playing two of the top teams in the league on the road and then we go to Ohio, who we had to beat in the bottom of the ninth in walk-off fashion here earlier this year.”
Obviously with a 27-7 start, Van Zant is enjoying this year as much as any other. But he said the team’s outstanding record is only part of the story.
“We have a very mature, hard-working group of players,” Van Zant said. “We have excellent leadership from our older players and they’re good players. It’s always good when your older players are good players because then they are going to be able to lead by example.”
Van Zant explains.
“When those older guys work so hard they are not so willing to give in when things don’t go well,” he said. “When you put a lot of time, effort, sweat, blood and tears into something you are not willing to quit and give up.
“We have a ton of desire and this team really wants to do well,” Van Zant continued. “They’ve done a great job with preparation and effort. My big things are maximum preparation and maximum effort. They’ve made my job easy because I don’t have to force them to want to win – our guys want to be successful.”
It helps, too, having a lineup full of .300 hitters. In fact, two months into the season, West Virginia still has four regulars hitting better than .400. That’s unheard of in college baseball today.
“We know we are capable of scoring runs,” Van Zant said. “You can’t fall behind seven or 10 runs and expect to win all of those games, but what we try to do is play every game inning by inning and try to win every inning.”
What will determine how far West Virginia goes this year will be a pitching staff that has two reliable starters in Jarryd Summers and Billy Gross, and a first-class closer in Chris Enourato. Van Zant said others are going to have to step up.
“You can’t advance far with three or four pitchers,” he explained. “You have to have some depth. There are a lot of teams still in contention to win the league and for us to win it, we’re going to have to have some pitchers step up.”
Van Zant is hopeful freshmen Jon Jones and Chase Pickering can become more consistent and pick up the slack. Jones won key conference games against Connecticut and Georgetown before hitting a wall last weekend against St. John’s.
Pickering, a 43rd round draft choice out of high school, has pitched well in his last two outings against Maryland Eastern Shore and Ohio.
“We need to get Pickering in the mix and we need to get Jon Jones back in the mix because they are very capable freshman lefthanders,” Van Zant said.
Meanwhile, Summers is proving to be a frontline guy comparable to some of West Virginia’s better No. 1 starters of the past. With Summers on the mound, Fridays are no longer an automatic loss.
“The thing Jarryd does is he’s a big competitor and he gives us a chance,” Van Zant said. “We will have to wait until he’s done with his career before we compare him to the better No. 1s that we’ve had. But he comes after hitters and he’s got the right mentality.”
As does No. 3 starter Billy Gross.
“He attacks the strike zone and he doesn’t back down,” Van Zant said of Gross. “He minimizes his walks and tries to do all the little things to be a successful pitcher.”
Junior College transfer Andy Altemus has also come on and is showing an ability to throw strikes. With a lineup as potent as West Virginia’s, strike throwers may be the most important commodity on the team right now.
“Up to this point our guys have done a great job,” Van Zant said. “We’ve put ourselves into a position to have a chance, but the big part of our season is coming up.”
It starts with Friday night’s game against the Irish.
