Baseball: WVU Looks to Reach Postseason
May 19, 2010 06:25 PM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
May 19, 2010
VILLANOVA GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University baseball team prepares for its home finale when it faces Villanova in a quest to secure a berth in next week’s BIG EAST Championship. First pitch at Hawley Field is scheduled for Thursday, May 20, at 7:05 p.m., followed by another 7:05 p.m. start on Friday. The series concludes on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Mountaineers (25-27, 8-16) have won seven of their past eight games, including five of their last six contests in conference play. Their recent success has started first and foremost with pitching, showing a 4.03 ERA in the last eight games.
Photo by WVU Photography
“Our team has fought hard to battle back into contention for a spot in the BIG EAST Tournament,” coach Greg Van Zant said. “We have to take one game at a time and worry about what we can do instead of paying attention to what is being done around us. We’ve got a lot of character and a lot of fight left and hopefully we’ll get to play some more baseball next week.”
Seniors Andy Altemus, Chris Enourato and Steve Morrison will each be honored prior to Saturday’s contest on senior day. Altemus has made four appearances over the last eight games, showing a 2-0 record with a 1.93 ERA. The Morgantown native is 5-5 this season and is tied with Villanova’s Justin Diaz and Seton Hall’s Matt Singer for the conference lead with 26 appearances.
Enourato, a Bridgeport native, is WVU’s career leader with 21 saves and 70 appearances. He holds an 18-6 career record, including a 5-2 mark this season, to put him at sixth-place on the school’s all-time winning percentage list.
Junior Jedd Gyorko continues to lead the Mountaineers in nearly every offensive category. The Morgantown native, who holds a career .404 batting average, is hitting .381 this year with a career-high 17 home runs, 53 RBIs, 24 doubles, 66 runs scored, and has a .734 slugging percentage as well as a .469 on-base percentage. The All-America candidate now has 39 walks compared to just 18 strikeouts.
Over his last 13 games, Gyorko has raised his batting average by 31 points, tallying four home runs, eight doubles and 10 multiple-hit games dur¬ing that stretch. Last season, Gyorko ended the year on a 14-game hitting streak, and raised his mark at the dish from .377 to .421 during that span.
With at least three games remaining in its season, WVU is ready to embark on a couple Top-five offensive marks in school his¬tory. Entering the series against Villanova, the Mountaineers already have 123 doubles to tie the 2006 squad for the fifth-most in school his¬tory. WVU is six shy of tying the 2005 team for fourth place, 11 shy of the 1998 team’s third-place mark and 12 short of the 2008 squad’s second-place spot.
Gyorko leads the Mountaineers with 24 doubles, follow by 21 from Dom Hayes. Justin McDavid shows 17 two-baggers, followed by Grant Buckner (14) and Jeremy Gum (10). WVU is also just 10 extra-base hits shy of tying the ‘98 team’s fifth-place mark in school history.
A sweep over Villanova would also give the Mountaineers an opportunity to finish above .500, which would mark the fifth consecutive season of finishing above the mark. The last time WVU ended above .500 in at least five consecutive seasons was from 1982-90.
The Wildcats (28-21, 8-16) have faced arguably the toughest conference schedule of any BIG EAST squad, playing seven opponents who have either locked up a spot in the conference championship or are in contention. They have separate six and five-game winning streaks in non-conference action, defeating Kansas State, Indiana and Purdue.
Like WVU, Villanova faced the top three teams in the BIG EAST all within the first month of conference play, going 0-9 against No. 11 Louisville, 18th-ranked Connecticut and Pitt. The Wildcats own series wins over Cincinnati, Georgetown and Rutgers.
Matt Szczur leads Villanova with a .435 bat¬ting average, while Justin Bencsko follows with a .363 average. The Wildcats are hitting .304 and have stolen 87 bases in 109 attempts.
Szczur, an Erma, N.J., native, will play in his first game since facing Temple on April 28. He has missed Villanova’s last 10 games after undergoing a bone marrow transplant on May 4 that allowed him to donate peripheral blood cells to a 19-month-old girl.
Reliever Kevin Crimmel leads the team with a 2.75 ERA in 22 appearances, including three as a starter. He is 6-1 with 44 strikeouts and just 14 walks. Starter Kyle Helisek is second on the team with a 4.12 ERA, and is 3-7 overall.
Friday night’s contest is the final “Dollar Night” of the season, with all tickets, hot dogs, popcorn and Coca-Colas available for purchase for just one dollar each.
Redshirt junior third baseman Grant Buckner, who recently ended his 18-game hitting streak on Tuesday, will be presented a commemorative plaque by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association prior to Friday’s first pitch. Buckner was honored as the Pro-Line Athletic National Hitter of the Week by the organization on May 11 for his standout performance against Notre Dame.
