Baseball Travels to Georgia Southern
February 19, 2015 02:19 PM | General
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| BJ Myers will get the nod on Friday evening after starting his first career game in the 2015 season opener at Clemson. | |
| Mark Crammer photo |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University baseball team will head to Georgia Southern this weekend for a three-game series at Clements Stadium in Statesboro, Georgia.
The first pitch is set for Friday at 4 p.m., Saturday’s game will begin at 1 p.m., and the series will wrap up on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
“They have always been good and they play with a lot of confidence,” coach Randy Mazey said. “They competed really well in the Florida State Regional last year and once you do that and kids get a taste of success it’s hard to get it out of your system. They’re going to be just as good as anyone else on our schedule.”
The Mountaineers (2-1) are coming off a series victory at then-ranked No. 24 Clemson to start the 2015 season. It marked the first time since 2012 that WVU has won a season-opening series.
Mazey will stick with last weekend’s rotation, sending freshman right-hander BJ Myers to the mound for Friday’s game, junior left-hander Ross Vance on Saturday and sophomore right-hander Chad Dontato on Sunday.
The pitching staff posted a 1.04 ERA in 26.0 innings with 20 strikeouts and 10 walks, holding opponents to a .253 batting average against Clemson. Myers started on Friday, taking the no-decision after allowing no runs on four hits with five strikeouts in 5.0 innings. Donato got the victory on Sunday, allowing one run on seven hits with five strikeouts in 6.0 innings.
“We went into the season thinking Vance was our guy, so if he could win his game and one of the new guys could scratch and claw, we could win a series,” Mazey said. “The way it worked out Vance didn’t win his game and the other two guys did so that is super encouraging because Vance is going to win his games. He is a great pitcher, his stuff is really hard to hit and he’s a winner; he’s still our guy.”
Seven of the eight relievers did not allow a run last weekend. Junior right-hander Blake Smith picked up the win in game one after throwing 4.0 innings of shutout relief. Smith allowed two hits, struck out five and walked two.
“It’s still a tryout situation on the mound for the first 15 or 20 games,” Mazey said. “Guys like Shane Ennis, Alec Horvath and Josh Bornstein haven’t pitched yet and it will be encouraging to add those guys into the mix and maybe we will have some depth on this staff.”
Senior third baseman Justin Fox leads the team offensively, batting 5-for-11 (.455) with one run. Freshman second baseman Shaun Corso and sophomore first baseman Jackson Cramer each have one home run.
Georgia Southern (3-1) opened its season with a three-game sweep of Bethune-Cookman, before falling 7-4 against Georgia Tech on Tuesday.
Eagles coach Rodney Hennon will start left-hander Evan Challenger (1-0, 0.00 ERA) on Friday, right-handed Adam Kelly (0-0, 21.69 ERA), on Saturday and left-hander Connor Simmons (0-0, 0.00) on Sunday. All three pitchers started against Bethune-Cookman last weekend.
As a team Georgia Southern is hitting .281. Kody Adams leads the team thus far, batting 7-for-16 (.438), while Chase Griffin is hitting .368 (7-for-19) and Will Hudgins is batting .357 (5-for-15)
Links to live video, live audio and live stats are available on WVUsports.com. The video stream is pay-per-view, while the audio is a free service.
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