A Rocket Shot
May 22, 2010 04:46 PM | General
May 22, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s baseball season is still alive. It took a rocket shot by Kevin Griffin over the ticket booth in left field to keep the Mountaineers in contention for the last spot in the Big East playoffs.
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| Kevin Griffin's ninth inning home run keeps West Virginia's postseason hopes alive.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
West Virginia (27-28, 10-17) will know later this afternoon if it gets in if Louisville can sweep Notre Dame in South Bend (Louisville is presently winning game three 13-1 in the eighth).
The Mountaineers got all three of their runs in the bottom of the ninth on Griffin’s fifth home run of the season - his first-ever in walk-off fashion he says going all the way back to his Little League days.
“As soon as I hit that one I knew it was getting out of here,” Griffin said.
Griffin, a junior from Martinsburg, W.Va., figured he might as well take a slower-than-normal jog around the bases to soak that one in.
“I kind of froze and stood there in the box for a couple of seconds,” he said. “A walk-off bomb in the bottom of the ninth inning to keep our season alive … I think I kind of earned that a little bit.”
Before Griffin’s moon shot over the 325 sign in left field, West Virginia had done very little against Villanova, which had its post-season hopes erased Friday night after blowing a 5-0 third-inning lead in a 9-7 loss to the Mountaineers.
Today, Wildcat starter Kevin McLachian worked out of a bases-loaded first-inning jam without giving up a run, and then blanked the Mountaineers through eight innings before giving way to Villanova closer Mike Francisco after Justin McDavid singled up the middle with one out in the ninth.
Jeremy Gum greeted Francisco with a bad-hop single to right to advance McDavid to second.
Then pitcher runner Chase Pickering nearly ended the rally (and the season) when he didn’t see third base coach Greg Van Zant hold up McDavid on Colin Durborow’s sharp single to right center and was tagged out between second and third with McDavid standing on the bag.
“Chase just got excited,” said Van Zant. “He was just trying to move up and he had his head down and wasn’t watching the guy ahead of him.”
Pickering's base running mistake was forgotten when Griffin took the first pitch from Francisco (a fastball down the middle) and parked it over the left field fence to win the game.
“Griff did a great job there,” said Van Zant. “He looked for a pitch and crushed it and that’s what you’ve got to do to win tight games. Your guys have got to step up in big situations and Kevin did.”
The Villanova series encapsulated all of the things the Mountaineers have experienced this season – the good, the bad and yes, even the ugly.
All three starting pitchers failed to last beyond the fourth inning with the game two and game three starters pitching a combined 3.2 innings. But relievers Chris Enourato and Andy Altemus came to the rescue, eating up a combined 12 innings to get victories.
“We didn’t get a quality start in this series and when you go a three-game series and you don’t get any quality starts you are fortunate to win a game,” said Van Zant. "Altemus and Enourato carried us this series. We’re fortunate we’ve got those guys.”
There were also plenty of base running and field errors this weekend that typically come with a young and inexperienced team.
“We have a lot of new players,” Van Zant admitted. “Even when you have new players from junior college they are still rookies at this level. I realize it and our coaches realize it but I’m not sure if a lot of people realize how much talent we lost from last year.”
Despite that – plus a few key early-season injuries to Dan Dibartolomeo and T.J. Kuban - West Virginia was able to fight through a tough stretch in April to finish the regular season by winning nine of its last 11 games. Regardless of what happens later this afternoon in South Bend, the Mountaineers will have the satisfaction of knowing they finished the season on such a strong note.
“This year we have played without question the toughest schedule in our school’s history and when you combine that with the inexperience we have, we’re fortunate to be 27-28 to be honest with you,” said Van Zant. “Our guys have really competed well.
“I’d rather coach a bunch of guys that work to get better and improve as the season goes along and win a bunch of games down the stretch then to have a bunch of guys shut it down on you and lose 10 or 12 at the end of the season,” he added.
Plus, it’s always nice to get a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth when things are looking really shaky.
“A lot of people ruled us out,” said Griffin. “They didn’t think we had a chance and we came back and won nine out of 11 and here we are on our last day still having a chance to get into the tournament. I really think that’s going to carry over into next year – just showing that when we get down we can come back and persevere through all of the losses we had at the beginning of the year and fight through this.”
