CLEARWATER, Fla.– The No. 4 seeded West Virginia University baseball team will face No. 5 seed Seton Hall on Wednesday, May 25, in the opening round of the BIG EAST Championship at 5 p.m., at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Fla. The Mountaineers (28-25, 14-13 BIG EAST) earned the No. 4 seed on the final day of the regular season with a 14-5 win against Rutgers.
WVU improved its record to 14-13 in the conference, tying Cincinnati, Louisville and Seton Hall for fourth in the conference. In the mini-conference between the four teams, WVU had the best record against the other three, giving WVU the tie-breaker.
Seton Hall reached the tournament by winning seven of its final nine games, including sweeps over Louisville and Georgetown. Earlier in the season in Morgantown, WVU took two out of three from the Pirates to win the season series.
In that series, WVU batted .267 (24 for 90) with one home run, 11 RBIs and 12 runs scored. Redshirt seniors Grant Buckner and Mark Dvoroznak led the team with .556 batting averages. Buckner had three runs, one home run and three RBIs.
Seton Hall had an average of .214 (21 for 98) and scored 10 runs with eight RBIs.
Redshirt freshman lefty Marshall Thompson will earn the start on Wednesday. Thompson finished the regular season with a 4-2 record and a 4.59 earned-run average (ERA) in 10 starts. Thompson leads the team with 47 strikeouts in 64.2 innings pitched. Against Seton Hall, Thompson was 0-1 with a 4.05 ERA in 6.2 innings pitched, allowing eight hits and three earned runs in the loss. Freshman Ryan Tezak and Corey Walter each saw time out of the bullpen, with Walter relieving Thompson and allowing just one hit in 2.1 innings pitched. Tezak had two saves in 2.2 innings, allowing just one hit.
The Mountaineers also are on pace to finish above the .300 mark at the plate for the ninth straight season. WVU is currently batting ..301. Buckner has been WVU’s marquee hitter this year, leading the team in batting average (.368), home runs (eight), RBIs (46), base hits (74), total bases (114), slugging percentage (.567) and runs (48). Redshirt senior Jeremy Gum came alive offensively in 2011 with a ..343 batting average, including 32 runs, 58 hits, a team-leading 13 doubles and a school-record 23 hit by pitches.
Redshirt junior Dan DiBartolomeo and sophomore Brady Wilson also are each batting over .300. DiBartolomeo owns a .343 mark with 39 runs, five doubles, one triple, six homers and 27 RBIs, while Wilson is hitting at .333 with 45 runs, 69 hits, eight doubles, two homers and 27 RBIs.
Seton Hall is led offensively by Zack Granite who is hitting ..296 with a team-leading 39 runs. Granite also has eight doubles and 10 RBIs. Sean Gusrang is batting .292 with 57 hits, four doubles, three homers and 30 RBIs. Starting right-hander Joe DiRocco looks to defeat WVU for the second time in as many tries. He is 6-1 with a 1.54 ERA, striking out 71 and allowing just 36 walks in 99.2 innings. Against WVU, DiRocco earned his team’s lone win of the series with seven innings worked, allowing just two earned runs on six hits and striking out five.
Depending on the outcome, WVU will face the winner or loser of No. 1 Connecticut and No. 8 Notre Dame on Thursday at either 5 p.m. or 8 p.m. All WVU baseball games at the BIG EAST Championship can be heard locally on WAJR, with Kyle Wiggs on the call. Every tournament game will have live video and stats at BIGEAST.org.
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