Baseball Notebook
May 11, 2009 11:28 AM | General
May 11, 2009
 |
||
| Jon Jones |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In a weekend when West Virginia produced 48 hits, 42 runs, 20 extra base hits and Vince Belnome gave his best Ted Williams impersonation, the key to the Mountaineers’ three-game sweep was the pitching performance put forth by freshman Jon Jones on Saturday.
Jones sat in the dugout on Saturday and watched game one starter Jarryd Summers give up five home runs to a Cincinnati lineup that included two of the best hitters in college baseball in Mike Spina and Lance Durham.
Estimated wind gusts at Hawley Field approached 40 mph, making the long walk out to the pitchers mound seem like a walk to the electric chair. That is what confronted the freshman when he took to the hill for game two.
“We didn’t even tell him he was pitching until 40-50 minutes before the game,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. “The day before during practice (Billy) Gross asked me if was pitching on Saturday and I told him yes. Jones asked me if he was pitching on Saturday and I told him yes. They both looked at each other.”
After working out of a bases loaded jam in the first, Jones settled down to pitch 7 1/3 strong innings, giving up just one earned run on seven hits. More importantly, he was able to keep his pitches down and keep the ball in the ballpark.
“That’s the way he pitched when the season started,” Van Zant explained. “He’s a really good pitcher and for a freshman he’s done an unbelievable job.”
After a great start that included victories over Connecticut and Georgetown, Jones was removed from the weekend rotation after a tough outing against St. John’s. Van Zant believes the time off allowed Jones to get refocused.
“We gave him a rest and sometimes you gain a different perspective when those innings are taken away from you,” he explained.
The three-game sweep of Cincinnati clinched at least a fifth-place finish for West Virginia with a three-game series remaining at Pitt. The Mountaineers could finish as high as second with a strong performance against the Panthers.
West Virginia has hit consistently all year. The Mountaineers lead the Big East with a .360 team batting average, but Van Zant has been searching for another starting pitcher to go with veterans Summers and Gross. Jon Jones looks like he’s ready to take on that responsibility heading into postseason play.
Notes:
“He caught a pop up in foul territory that neither the catcher nor the first baseman could get to and a lot of pitchers would just stand there and look for someone else to make the play,” Van Zant said.
“There was a push bunt toward the second baseman and (Jones) kind of dove from his knees and gets the out. Then there was a slow chopper and he gets off the mound, fields it, and throws it to Tobias (Streich) and he tags the runner out at the plate. Those were three excellent plays.”
 |
||
| Jarryd Summers |
Because the Big East Tournament begins a day earlier on Tuesday, that means game-one starter Jarryd Summers will be working on just four days rest.
“He has worked on four days rest once before this year but doing it two times in a row is the problem,” said Van Zant. “We’ll have to watch his pitch count up at Pitt.”
Van Zant is familiar with what happened to regular-season champion St. John’s last year. The Red Storm’s Thursday game with Villanova was postponed due to rain, which forced a Friday doubleheader. Coach Ed Blankmeyer opted to use his No. 1 and No. 2 starters on Friday to win the regular season title, but it wound up backfiring when St. John’s got to the conference tournament.
St. John’s wound up losing both games to become the first team to get eliminated.
“They go to the conference tournament and they don’t even throw their No. 1 guy,” Van Zant said.
Fortunately this year, all eight teams are in the same boat. South Florida travels to Louisville to play for the league title; Notre Dame is at St. John’s battling for tournament positioning, while Connecticut, Seton Hall, Cincinnati and Pitt are fighting to get into the tournament.
“The only thing that will screw things up is certain sites get rained out and others play,” Van Zant said. “Then you’ve got the doubleheader Friday deal where you’ve only got three days rest for the tournament opener.”
As for West Virginia, Van Zant must weigh how important finishing third is as opposed to a fourth-place finish if it’s going to blow up the pitching rotation for the conference tournament. The Big East Tournament appears to be the Mountaineers’ only path to the NCAA Tournament with their RPI hovering right around 100 right now.
“Hopefully we can play well (tonight) and get 35,” Van Zant said, adding that last year Youngstown State defeated the Mountaineers after West Virginia was coming off a series win against Louisville.
Van Zant also expects a dogfight this weekend in Pittsburgh.
“Pitt is going to have an advantage because they have to win to get into the tournament,” he said.
The key to winning the Big East Tournament is to win the first two games, Van Zant said. “If you win on Tuesday and you win on Wednesday, you don’t even play on Thursday,” he explained. “Then on Friday somebody has to beat you twice, which is hard to do. If you win your bracket on Friday, you play the winner of the other bracket on Saturday.
“Plus, the deeper the tournament goes it favors the teams that have offense.”
 |
||
| Pat Sherald |
Van Zant said he is certain about one thing: hitting coach Pat Sherald will be the one grooving them in there for whoever represents the Mountaineers in the home run contest.
“He’s like a pitching machine,” Van Zant laughed.
Van Zant said Sherald is by far the most reliable batting practice pitcher he’s ever had.
“He may be the first coach in Division I history to throw every pitch of pregame batting practice this year,” Van Zant said. “At most places it takes a couple of coaches to go through BP. He’s not working on a complete game – he’s working on a complete season.”
Among the assistants who used to throw BP Jon Szynal was the most difficult to hit, Van Zant said. The Mountaineer players constantly complained because Szynal didn’t throw over the top and his ball always had natural movement.
“Szynal would run ‘em in and out, up and down,” Van Zant joked. “He had a tight slider, the good changeup and the fastball that rode in on their hands.”
