Post by elp525 on May 24, 2011 7:21:36 GMT -5
Tuesday May 24, 2011
by Mike Casazza
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Greg Van Zant has now worked 17 seasons as West Virginia's baseball coach and has been on the bench for 503 victories and Big East titles for regular-season and tournament play.
There have been plenty of big moments with plenty of big-time players - 49 in all who have been drafted or signed professional contracts - and yet Van Zant is particularly fond of what his Mountaineers accomplished Sunday afternoon.
"I've told a lot of people," Van Zant said, "that was one of the biggest games we've had since I've been the head coach here."
WVU closed the regular season at home with a 14-5 victory against Rutgers, which won the first two games of the three-game series and finished 10th in the 12-team conference standings.
Yet the Mountaineers rid themselves of a terribly timed six-game losing streak and finished 28-25 overall and 14-13 in the Big East.
Maybe 27-26 isn't much different than 28-25, but 14-13 is a whole lot different than 13-14, if not in reality, than in perception and especially now with Oliver Luck working as the athletic director and having already told those who should be listening that "results matter."
Not that Van Zant is or should be in some sort of imminent danger. That's a decision and a discussion for people with bigger paychecks and more valuable opinions than for those who only pay attention and arrive at a conclusion when it's convenient for them.
The truth is Van Zant and the Mountaineers, as their roster was constituted and then compromised, deserved a better result than a lot of people probably realize. Their success despite an awful lot of obstacles is what matters here.
"We came into the last weekend 13-11 and I told the guys I was really proud of them," Van Zant said. "Of that 13-11, we had nine games at home and 15 on the road. When you only have nine home games and 15 on the road and you're 13-11, that's pretty good."
And for some, that's not going to be good enough. And those same people may not have known about the unbalanced schedule or the roster that was going to rely on contributions from young and new pitchers and position players.
WVU finished fourth in a league that featured a very good Connecticut (39-15-1, 22-5 Big East) team, the conference champion that was ranked throughout the season, as well as St. John's (32-18, 18-8), which is good just about every year, regular contenders like Louisville and Notre Dame and upstarts like Pittsburgh and Seton Hall.
WVU and the Pirates (29-23, 14-13) play at 5 p.m. Wednesday as part of the opening round of Big East Tournament games in Clearwater, Fla.
Had the Mountaineers been swept by Rutgers, they still would have made the tournament, but as the No. 8 seed, which would mean beginning with UConn, which tied the conference record for regular-season Big East wins. Instead, WVU is the home team against a lower seed.
"Oh, my god, it's huge," said Van Zant, who won the regular-season and tournament titles in 1996. "And if you go back to the first weekend of the Big East schedule, if South Florida beats us two out of three instead of us winning two out of three, they're in the tournament and we're in ninth place and we don't make the tournament. It's a really fine line."
WVU's success may have started there this season, but their troubles began much sooner. On opening day the Mountaineers had Dan DiBartolomeo, Elkview's Grant Buckner and Matt Frazier batting Nos. 2, 3, and 4. It was a formidable lineup.
DiBartolomeo, who redshirted last season after shoulder surgery, batted .439 in 2009 - best all-time at WVU and No. 4 in college that season. Buckner was one of the Big East's best returning hitters and Van Zant was certain Frazier could become a premier power hitter.
Well, Frazier broke his leg in the eighth game of the season while running the bases and DiBartolomeo's shoulder started acting up in late April. He missed 14 games and WVU was 4-10 without him before he returned and went 4-for-5 with three runs and three RBI Sunday. He's hitting .343 with six home runs and 27 RBI.
Those absences only make Buckner's .368 batting average, eight home runs, 46 RBI and 47 consecutive games reaching base even more commendable.
All of that doesn't even cover the pitching. Harrison Musgrave, a left-handed freshman, had been the starter for the first game of most series and was 3-1 with a 3.54 ERA in Big East games before he was lost to Tommy John surgery. Marcus Broadwater, who was an all-star last summer in the Valley League (a wooden bat league in Virginia), had a career-ending arm injury.
"Eventually, it caught up to us," Van Zant said.
WVU lost six in a row and eight of 10, but might not have been that bad. Four losses were by three or fewer runs and one was in 11 innings at Akron and a huge ballpark. Three came to a Pitt team that turned out to be pretty good.
When the end came and DiBartolomeo started 2-for-2 and brought relief to a struggling offense, the Mountaineers were in the top four for the second time in three years. They were picked ninth in the preseason poll and 18 points behind the No. 8 team.
"We were struggling," Van Zant said.
"You can't call one win a winning streak and we're definitely not on a roll, but it was good to get our lineup back together and to get a win. It was a nice finish to what's been a nice season."
by Mike Casazza
Charleston Daily Mail
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Greg Van Zant has now worked 17 seasons as West Virginia's baseball coach and has been on the bench for 503 victories and Big East titles for regular-season and tournament play.
There have been plenty of big moments with plenty of big-time players - 49 in all who have been drafted or signed professional contracts - and yet Van Zant is particularly fond of what his Mountaineers accomplished Sunday afternoon.
"I've told a lot of people," Van Zant said, "that was one of the biggest games we've had since I've been the head coach here."
WVU closed the regular season at home with a 14-5 victory against Rutgers, which won the first two games of the three-game series and finished 10th in the 12-team conference standings.
Yet the Mountaineers rid themselves of a terribly timed six-game losing streak and finished 28-25 overall and 14-13 in the Big East.
Maybe 27-26 isn't much different than 28-25, but 14-13 is a whole lot different than 13-14, if not in reality, than in perception and especially now with Oliver Luck working as the athletic director and having already told those who should be listening that "results matter."
Not that Van Zant is or should be in some sort of imminent danger. That's a decision and a discussion for people with bigger paychecks and more valuable opinions than for those who only pay attention and arrive at a conclusion when it's convenient for them.
The truth is Van Zant and the Mountaineers, as their roster was constituted and then compromised, deserved a better result than a lot of people probably realize. Their success despite an awful lot of obstacles is what matters here.
"We came into the last weekend 13-11 and I told the guys I was really proud of them," Van Zant said. "Of that 13-11, we had nine games at home and 15 on the road. When you only have nine home games and 15 on the road and you're 13-11, that's pretty good."
And for some, that's not going to be good enough. And those same people may not have known about the unbalanced schedule or the roster that was going to rely on contributions from young and new pitchers and position players.
WVU finished fourth in a league that featured a very good Connecticut (39-15-1, 22-5 Big East) team, the conference champion that was ranked throughout the season, as well as St. John's (32-18, 18-8), which is good just about every year, regular contenders like Louisville and Notre Dame and upstarts like Pittsburgh and Seton Hall.
WVU and the Pirates (29-23, 14-13) play at 5 p.m. Wednesday as part of the opening round of Big East Tournament games in Clearwater, Fla.
Had the Mountaineers been swept by Rutgers, they still would have made the tournament, but as the No. 8 seed, which would mean beginning with UConn, which tied the conference record for regular-season Big East wins. Instead, WVU is the home team against a lower seed.
"Oh, my god, it's huge," said Van Zant, who won the regular-season and tournament titles in 1996. "And if you go back to the first weekend of the Big East schedule, if South Florida beats us two out of three instead of us winning two out of three, they're in the tournament and we're in ninth place and we don't make the tournament. It's a really fine line."
WVU's success may have started there this season, but their troubles began much sooner. On opening day the Mountaineers had Dan DiBartolomeo, Elkview's Grant Buckner and Matt Frazier batting Nos. 2, 3, and 4. It was a formidable lineup.
DiBartolomeo, who redshirted last season after shoulder surgery, batted .439 in 2009 - best all-time at WVU and No. 4 in college that season. Buckner was one of the Big East's best returning hitters and Van Zant was certain Frazier could become a premier power hitter.
Well, Frazier broke his leg in the eighth game of the season while running the bases and DiBartolomeo's shoulder started acting up in late April. He missed 14 games and WVU was 4-10 without him before he returned and went 4-for-5 with three runs and three RBI Sunday. He's hitting .343 with six home runs and 27 RBI.
Those absences only make Buckner's .368 batting average, eight home runs, 46 RBI and 47 consecutive games reaching base even more commendable.
All of that doesn't even cover the pitching. Harrison Musgrave, a left-handed freshman, had been the starter for the first game of most series and was 3-1 with a 3.54 ERA in Big East games before he was lost to Tommy John surgery. Marcus Broadwater, who was an all-star last summer in the Valley League (a wooden bat league in Virginia), had a career-ending arm injury.
"Eventually, it caught up to us," Van Zant said.
WVU lost six in a row and eight of 10, but might not have been that bad. Four losses were by three or fewer runs and one was in 11 innings at Akron and a huge ballpark. Three came to a Pitt team that turned out to be pretty good.
When the end came and DiBartolomeo started 2-for-2 and brought relief to a struggling offense, the Mountaineers were in the top four for the second time in three years. They were picked ninth in the preseason poll and 18 points behind the No. 8 team.
"We were struggling," Van Zant said.
"You can't call one win a winning streak and we're definitely not on a roll, but it was good to get our lineup back together and to get a win. It was a nice finish to what's been a nice season."
