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| Greg Van Zant | |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If West Virginia is going to reach post-season play this year then the Mountaineers are going to have to win some games on the road. What better way to do that than to win some games this weekend at Notre Dame?
“For us to be successful we’ve got to be able to go on the road and win games,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant.
The Mountaineers have gone 15-3 at Hawley Field so far this season but have struggled on the road, going 2-6. Two weeks ago WVU got its first road win at South Florida and added its second road victory on Wednesday night at Ohio. Sophomore Josh Whitlock pitched eight strong innings and the Mountaineers got some timely hitting early.
“Josh pitched a heck of a game. He got into two jams with the bases loaded with two outs and both times he got big outs and kept them from scoring,” Van Zant said.
The Mountaineers (22-11) had lost the last three times they had played Ohio – all on late-inning Bobcat comebacks.
“Winning at Ohio was a good start (to the road trip),” Van Zant said. “We’ve won at South Florida and we’ve won at Ohio and now our guys are starting to get some confidence.”
The team bussed from Athens, Ohio, to South Bend Thursday in time for an evening workout at Frank Eck Stadium in preparation for this weekend’s important three-game Big East series with the Irish.
Notre Dame is an uncharacteristic 19-17 overall including just 4-7 in Big East play. However, the Irish are playing much better of late under first-year coach Dave Schrage and are coming off a 1-0 win over Purdue Wednesday night.
Pitching has once again been Notre Dame’s strong suit. The Irish have a team ERA of 3.25 and opponents are batting just .254 against Notre Dame pitchers.
Friday night’s starter David Phelps has an outstanding 1.34 earned run average to go with a 5-3 record.
“I know their front-line guy is one of the best pitchers in the league. David Phelps is a right-hander and he’s been their guy and he’s had great numbers,” Van Zant said.
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| Levi Maxwell | |
West Virginia is expected to counter with junior right-hander Levi Maxwell, who is 4-2 with a 5.77 earned run average in six starts. Maxwell is coming off a couple of sub-par outings after starting the season strong.
“He skipped his outing last weekend because the game was rained out so we’re going to throw him the first game,” Van Zant said. “Levi is capable of going out and pitching a heck of a game.”
Van Zant will use lefthanders Matt Yurish and Kenny Durst on the weekend.
Notre Dame has just three hitters batting better than .300 in its lineup. Shortstop Brett Lilley leads the team with a .366 average. A.J. Pollock is batting .349 with a pair of home runs while Danny Pressman is hitting .328 with just three extra base hits. Notre Dame has only hit 13 home runs in 36 games and shows a .285 team batting average.
By comparison, West Virginia is hitting .336 with 30 home runs in 33 games. Senior leftfielder Justin Jenkins is batting .429 with six home runs, 18 doubles and 37 RBI. Redshirt freshman Jordon Yost has a team-best eight home runs to go with a .323 average.
Eight of West Virginia’s nine regulars are hitting better than .300.
This weekend’s series is important for both team’s playoff chances. West Virginia is tied with Cincinnati for sixth place in the conference standings with 5-6 records. Notre Dame is four spots behind in 10th place with a 4-7 conference mark. Eight out of 12 teams qualify for the 2007 Big East tournament to be played at Keyspan Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., May 22-26.
“Nobody has really broken away from the rest of the league,” Van Zant said. “Rutgers leads the league and they have to go down and play at South Florida this weekend. You don’t know how many wins it’s going to take to get to the tournament. Eleven might get you in; 12 or 13? We’re just going to try and win each game that we play.”
West Virginia has lost eight straight to Notre Dame dating back to 2004, but has won 5 of 13 games played at Frank Eck Stadium. The two teams did not play during the regular season last year.
Friday night’s game is scheduled to start at 6:05 pm; Saturday’s game will get underway at 3:05 pm and Sunday’s series-ending contest will get underway at 1:05 pm.
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