Post by elp525 on May 24, 2010 5:17:42 GMT -5
Monday May 24, 2010
by Mike Casazza
Daily Mail sports writer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - At the beginning of the 2010 season, and not long after his preseason all-Big East third baseman was lost before it ever started, West Virginia baseball Coach Greg Van Zant had a talk with his staff about what to expect.
What they'd known previously wasn't entirely optimistic. Gone from one of the best offensive teams in the country were leadoff hitter Justin Parks, Austin Markel and his 15 home runs, Vince Belnome and his school-record 81 RBI, Joe Agreste, who'd been drafted previously, and catcher Tobias Streich, who went in the second round to the Minnesota Twins.
"We lost not only five good players, but five of the better players in school history," Van Zant said.
Not that there wasn't promise with Jedd Gyorko, Grant Buckner and Dan DiBartolomeo atop the lineup. As the Mountaineers were ready to begin their season in Myrtle Beach, S.C., DiBartolomeo, who batted WVU-record and fourth-best in the nation .439 last season, reinjured a shoulder he'd had fixed in the offseason.
"At that point, with all the new players we had, we thought if we could somehow have a winning season and get to the Big East Tournament, that would be a huge success," Van Zant said.
The Mountaineers finished their regular season Saturday with a 3-2 victory. A walk-off home run by catcher Kevin Griffin pushed WVU's record to 27-28 and 10-17 in the Big East.
Yet Griffin's heroics salvaged the season sent his team to a once unthinkable conference tournament appearance. WVU is the No. 8 seed and plays Big East champion Louisville (46-10).
On May 1 the Mountaineers were 18-26 and 3-15 in the Big East and headed to a school-record for losses in a season (32). They'd just been swept in a three-game series at Cincinnati and had lost nine of 11. Van Zant commenced another one of those discussions about what to expect the rest of the way.
"I'm not going to make excuses for our guys because we did get out-played that weekend, but it was the weekend before finals and it's always hard to play your best when you've got three, four, five finals coming up," Van Zant said. "We're on the road and guys are trying to study and, to Cincinnati's credit, in that three-game and 27 innings they walked three guys. We walked 15 or 16 and only scored nine runs. "You're not going to win many three-game series when you score nine runs. Cincinnati just out-played and out-pitched us. At that point we just told the guys to take a couple days off for finals and regroup and get back at it."
WVU is 9-2 since then as pitching, especially in relief, has improved and a lineup has taken form. WVU is batting .307, more than 30 points better than where it started this month.
One of the two losses came in 11 innings at Georgetown, when normally reliable closer Chris Enourato couldn't hold a lead and a single through the infield won for it for the Hoyas. The second came last Thursday, 5-4, in the first game of the three-game series against Villanova.
The Mountaineers, who started their surge with a rare three-game sweep against Notre Dame, were scoreboard-watching over the weekend as the Fighting Irish played at Louisville. The Cardinals won the first two games in their last at-bat.
The second coincided with a Connecticut loss against Seton Hall and created an opening for Louisville to win the conference title by sweeping Notre Dame and finishing above the Huskies. The Cardinals won the third game 13-3.
Notre Dame hadn't played a game against the conference's top-three teams - Louisville, UConn, and Pittsburgh - before the series. WVU played all three and went 0-9, a product of the league's unbalanced schedule in which a team plays a three-game series against nine of the other 11 teams.
"This has been, without questions, the toughest schedule we've played so far," Van Zant said. "By far."
The Cardinals are ranked No. 10 and outscored WVU 30-11 in the three-game sweep April 17-18. They play at 5p.m. Wednesday at Bright House Field, in Clearwater, Fla. The winner plays the USF-St. John's winner at 8 p.m. Thursday. The loser plays the other loser at 5 p.m. in the double-elimination format.
"I don't think as a baseball coach or a baseball player you can look at things like, 'Well, can we win this?'" Van Zant said. "Maybe we can. Maybe we can't. What we really have to do is focus on breaking it all down and keeping it real simple. As we know now, baseball has so many highs and lows you can't get caught up with what happened yesterday. It makes no difference with what happens today. You have to stay in the moment and not worry about what just happened or what happens next."
by Mike Casazza
Daily Mail sports writer
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - At the beginning of the 2010 season, and not long after his preseason all-Big East third baseman was lost before it ever started, West Virginia baseball Coach Greg Van Zant had a talk with his staff about what to expect.
What they'd known previously wasn't entirely optimistic. Gone from one of the best offensive teams in the country were leadoff hitter Justin Parks, Austin Markel and his 15 home runs, Vince Belnome and his school-record 81 RBI, Joe Agreste, who'd been drafted previously, and catcher Tobias Streich, who went in the second round to the Minnesota Twins.
"We lost not only five good players, but five of the better players in school history," Van Zant said.
Not that there wasn't promise with Jedd Gyorko, Grant Buckner and Dan DiBartolomeo atop the lineup. As the Mountaineers were ready to begin their season in Myrtle Beach, S.C., DiBartolomeo, who batted WVU-record and fourth-best in the nation .439 last season, reinjured a shoulder he'd had fixed in the offseason.
"At that point, with all the new players we had, we thought if we could somehow have a winning season and get to the Big East Tournament, that would be a huge success," Van Zant said.
The Mountaineers finished their regular season Saturday with a 3-2 victory. A walk-off home run by catcher Kevin Griffin pushed WVU's record to 27-28 and 10-17 in the Big East.
Yet Griffin's heroics salvaged the season sent his team to a once unthinkable conference tournament appearance. WVU is the No. 8 seed and plays Big East champion Louisville (46-10).
On May 1 the Mountaineers were 18-26 and 3-15 in the Big East and headed to a school-record for losses in a season (32). They'd just been swept in a three-game series at Cincinnati and had lost nine of 11. Van Zant commenced another one of those discussions about what to expect the rest of the way.
"I'm not going to make excuses for our guys because we did get out-played that weekend, but it was the weekend before finals and it's always hard to play your best when you've got three, four, five finals coming up," Van Zant said. "We're on the road and guys are trying to study and, to Cincinnati's credit, in that three-game and 27 innings they walked three guys. We walked 15 or 16 and only scored nine runs. "You're not going to win many three-game series when you score nine runs. Cincinnati just out-played and out-pitched us. At that point we just told the guys to take a couple days off for finals and regroup and get back at it."
WVU is 9-2 since then as pitching, especially in relief, has improved and a lineup has taken form. WVU is batting .307, more than 30 points better than where it started this month.
One of the two losses came in 11 innings at Georgetown, when normally reliable closer Chris Enourato couldn't hold a lead and a single through the infield won for it for the Hoyas. The second came last Thursday, 5-4, in the first game of the three-game series against Villanova.
The Mountaineers, who started their surge with a rare three-game sweep against Notre Dame, were scoreboard-watching over the weekend as the Fighting Irish played at Louisville. The Cardinals won the first two games in their last at-bat.
The second coincided with a Connecticut loss against Seton Hall and created an opening for Louisville to win the conference title by sweeping Notre Dame and finishing above the Huskies. The Cardinals won the third game 13-3.
Notre Dame hadn't played a game against the conference's top-three teams - Louisville, UConn, and Pittsburgh - before the series. WVU played all three and went 0-9, a product of the league's unbalanced schedule in which a team plays a three-game series against nine of the other 11 teams.
"This has been, without questions, the toughest schedule we've played so far," Van Zant said. "By far."
The Cardinals are ranked No. 10 and outscored WVU 30-11 in the three-game sweep April 17-18. They play at 5p.m. Wednesday at Bright House Field, in Clearwater, Fla. The winner plays the USF-St. John's winner at 8 p.m. Thursday. The loser plays the other loser at 5 p.m. in the double-elimination format.
"I don't think as a baseball coach or a baseball player you can look at things like, 'Well, can we win this?'" Van Zant said. "Maybe we can. Maybe we can't. What we really have to do is focus on breaking it all down and keeping it real simple. As we know now, baseball has so many highs and lows you can't get caught up with what happened yesterday. It makes no difference with what happens today. You have to stay in the moment and not worry about what just happened or what happens next."
