Baseball: Summers Stymies Eagles
March 19, 2010 06:29 PM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
March 19, 2010
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| Jarryd Summers |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Junior right-handed pitcher Jarryd Summers pitched seven shutout innings to lead the West Virginia University baseball team to a 4-0 victory over Eastern Michigan on Friday afternoon at Hawley Field.
Summers (1-2) enjoyed one of his best outings this season, striking out seven of his 30 batters faced. The Sharpsville, Pa., native was hurt by a lack of run support over his last two starts, including a 1-0 loss on March 5 against Western Carolina where he gave up one hit and struck out 11 in eight innings pitched.
Summers threw nearly 60 percent of his pitches for strikes, fanning at least one batter in every inning pitched. He only gave up four hits on the afternoon, and retired his final six batters before giving way to senior reliever Andy Altemus. Altemus threw the final two innings and surrendered just one hit and no runs in a non-save situation.
A pitcher’s duel was waged between both starters for most of the afternoon. Eastern Michigan right-hander Corey Chaffins (2-1) endured his first loss of the season by giving up four runs on seven hits in eight innings pitched. With both starters working at a good pace, today’s contest lasted just two hours and 11 minutes, tying for the shortest game this season involving WVU.
Eastern Michigan had a total of four runners in scoring position in today’s game, but Summers managed to leave each inning unscathed. His greatest threat came in the third inning when EMU had runners on third and first base with one out. The right-hander was bailed out when third baseman Grant Buckner made a remarkable diving catch in foul territory on Matt Skirving’s tailing pop-up, and Todd Graves followed by hitting into a fielder’s choice to end the frame.
With the game scoreless through 3 ½ innings, freshman Matt Malloy opened the scoring when he hit an 0-2 changeup for a solo home run to left center, his second of the season. WVU then extended its advantage with three runs in the fifth inning, as Jedd Gyorko and Dom Hayes smacked consecutive RBI singles through the right side, while Buckner’s groundout to the shortstop plated Gyorko to make it 4-0.
Gyorko finished 2-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored, extending his hitting streak to nine games. Hayes had another multi-hit performance, his team-leading 11th of the season, as he went 3-for-4 with an RBI. WVU finished with seven base hits while EMU had five altogether, and neither team recorded an extra base hit aside from Malloy’s home run.
The Mountaineers (8-9) are also the first team to shut out the Eagles (5-11) this season. Leading EMU at the plate was Daniel Russell, who finished 2-for-4 this afternoon.
WVU returns with a doubleheader against EMU on Saturday afternoon at Hawley Field. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 1 p.m.
