MORGANTOWN,W.Va. (May 21, 2011) – On “Senior Day” at Hawley Field, the West VirginiaUniversity baseball team used an offensive outburst to defeat Rutgers 14-5 inthe final game of the regular season. The win secured WVU a winning regularseason, as well as a winning conference record.
“It was big that we got the bats going and weneeded to win that game because it guaranteed us a winning season,” coach GregVan Zant said. “We take a lot of pride in winning and that win was as big asany we’ve ever had here.”
The Mountaineers secured the fourth seed inthe BIG EAST Championship and will play No. 5 Seton Hall on Wednesday eveningat 5 p.m. in Clearwater, Fla. West Virginia was tied for fourth place withCincinnati, Louisville and Seton Hall, but had the tie-breaker when the teamswere split into a mini-conference.
“The teams that win these tournaments are theteams that go every year,” Van Zant said. “If you go once in awhile, it’s hardto win the tournament, but if you keep going, keep going and keep going, atsome point you get hot on the weekend and you win the thing.”
Seniors Andy Berry, Marcus Broadwater, GrantBuckner, Colin Durborow, Mark Dvoroznak, Kevin Griffin, Jeremy Gum, JonathanHash, Justin McDavid and Matt Morrone were all recognized for theircontributions prior to first pitch.
The group has accumulated 127 careervictories since 2008 and joins the 1999 squad as the only other group ofseniors to go to four BIG EAST Championships.
Buckner continued to lead the offense with a2-for-4 performance, including a grand slam home run, five RBIs, two runs andtwo walks. Buckner extended his reaching base streak to 47 games, the fourthlongest in the country.
In his first game back from injury, redshirtjunior Dan DiBartolomeo finished 4 for 5 with a home run, three runs and threeRBIs. Gum went 2 for 4 with a run and was hit by a pitch for the 23rdtime this season, while sophomore Chris Rasky was 1 for 4 with a run and washit by two pitches. Rasky has been hit 14 times this season, second on the teambehind Gum. Every Mountaineer starter recorded at least one hit, with fourstarters having multiple hit afternoons.
“We’ve been really struggling offensivelylately and a big boost was we got Dan DiBartolomeo back in the lineup today andhis presence was felt,” Buckner said. “We scored 14 runs going into the conference tournament, that’s big.”
Berry (8-3) pitched seven strong innings and allowed just three runs on eight hits, while striking out three. Freshman RyanTezak entered the game in the eighth inning and allowed two runs on six hits intwo innings of work.
West Virginia (28-25, 14-13) scored 14 runson 15 hits with no errors and Rutgers (20-30, 11-16) had five runs on 14 hitswith one error in its final game of the season.
The Mountaineers jumped on Rutgers early,scoring 10 runs in the first three innings to take a 10-0 lead.
Sophomore Brady Wilson, DiBartolomeoand Buckner led off with three-consecutive singles, with Buckner’s driving inWilson. Gum then walked to load the bases, while a single from McDavid advancedthe runners and scored DiBartolomeo. Freshman Isac Franklin hit into afielder’s choice that scored Buckner to bring the inning total to 3-0 in favorof West Virginia.
In the second inning, DiBartolomeohit a home run to left field that scored Dvoroznak to make it 5-0 WVU. Thehomer was DiBartolomeo’s sixth of the season and his second hit of the afternoon.
Buckner led the scoring attack inthe third inning with a grand slam to left center field, his eighth home run ofthe season. The blast drove in DiBartolomeo, Wilson and Dvoroznak. SophomoreMatt Malloy had also scored earlier in the previous at bat after a DiBartolomeosingle to center field.
The Mountaineers added to the lead in thebottom of the fifth, making the score 12-1. Franklin had an RBI single to rightfield scoring Gum, while Rasky was driven in by Malloy, who h The Scarlet Knights used sixdifferent pitches, with starter Ryan Fasano taking the loss in 1.1 innings.Fasano allowed five runs on six hits and walked two.
At the plate, Rutgers was led byD.J. Anderson who was 3 for 5 with two runs, while Brian O’Grady, JarrettSchack and Michael Zavala each had two hits apiece.
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