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CLEARWATER, Fla. – The No. 4 seed West Virginia baseball team (28-26) will face No. 8 Notre Dame in an elimination game of the 2011 BIG EAST Championship today at 5 p.m. at Bright House Field. Kyle Wiggs will once again be on the call for WAJR in Morgantown and MSNsportsNET.com. The game will also be video streamed online through BIGEASTBaseball.com.

The Mountaineers are expected to start senior right-handed pitcher Andy Berry, who has made 14 starts this season. Berry would tie for second all-time in WVU history for starts in a single season if he gets the nod tonight.

The Virginia Beach, Va., native has the best record on the staff at 8-3, including five wins in conference play, and has pitched 95.1 innings. Berry also has a team-best 4.44 ERA.

After struggling offensively late in the season, West Virginia seems to have warmed up its bats in its last couple of games. The Mountaineers pounded out 15 hits and scored 14 runs on Rutgers in the regular season finale on May 21, WVU followed that up with 13 hits yesterday off of Seton Hall’s first team all-BIG EAST pitcher Joe DiRocco and relievers Henry Warner and George Fernandez, but scored just four runs as it stranded 11 baserunners.

Notre Dame (22-28-1) fell to top-seeded Connecticut, 4-2, Wednesday night in the first round of the BIG EAST Championship. The Irish took the lead in the eighth inning off of a two-run home run from left fielder Eric Jagielo, but the Huskies answered with three runs in the bottom of the eighth before bringing on Kevin Vance to pick up his 13th save in the ninth.

First baseman Trey Mancini leads Notre Dame at the plate with a .331 batting average, but the Irish as a team are last in league batting average (.241).

West Virginia won two contests in the regular season three-game series in South Bend, Ind., in April.


WVU-Notre Dame Notes:
- West Virginia has taken five out of its last six games against the Irish.
- The Mountaineers and Irish last faced off in the BIG EAST Championship in 2008 when WVU defeated Notre Dame, 13-6, with both teams facing elimination in the loser’s bracket.
- WVU and Notre Dame have played each other nine times in the tournament, the most of any other team. Notre Dame holds a 6-3 edge and the teams have played twice at Bright House Field. The series in Clearwater, Fla. is even at 1-1.
- In his last six games against Notre Dame, redshirt senior shortstop Grant Buckner is 14 of 24 at the plate for a .583 average with three doubles, five home runs and 18 RBIs. Earlier this season, Buckner went 6 for 12 with a home run and four RBIs in leading WVU to a pair of victories in South Bend.
- Berry has also had success against Notre Dame. In the series finale this season, Berry pitched a complete game and allowed just one run on three hits. Berry also struck out five, including the side in the ninth inning.
- WVU (.972) and Notre Dame (.970) are the top two fielding teams in the BIG EAST Conference. The two teams also rank atop the league in sacrifice bunts (1. WVU - 84, 2. Notre Dame - 71).