April 15, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – These Duquesne Dukes West Virginia is facing tonight at Hawley Field are not the same Duquesne Dukes of old. After starting the year 0-10 Duquesne ran off 11 straight wins and comes into tonight’s contest in first place in the Atlantic 10 Conference with a 10-2 league mark.
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| Senior Matt Yurish gets the start Tuesday night against Duquesne. All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo | |
“They are in first place in the Atlantic 10 and I don’t think that has ever happened for them this late in the season,” said West Virginia coach Greg Van Zant. “Mike Wilson has done a great job there and this year they are way better than they usually are.”
Duquesne (15-15) took two out of three from LaSalle in Pittsburgh last weekend and also bagged two of three at Rhode Island two weeks ago. The Dukes opened conference play with a pair of three-game sweeps against UMass and St. Bonaventure.
“They’re pretty athletic and they run a lot. Their centerfield can run. They’ve got some other guys that can run and Mike Carroll is really hitting the ball,” Van Zant said. “They’ve got three or four really good threats in the batter’s box and they’ve got four or five guys that can steal bases.”
Carroll is batting .402 with 14 extra base hits and a .644 slugging percentage. Derek Mechling and Aaron Janusey are tied for the team lead in home runs with six and are both hitting better than .300.
“(Wilson) has got a lot of local kids and he’s done a good job of developing them and working with them,” Van Zant said. “He’s just a good baseball guy.”
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Duquesne has stolen 53 bases in 30 games this year, or 28 more than the Mountaineers in five fewer games.
Earlier this year, West Virginia beat Duquesne 8-1 in Morgantown on March 5 in a game played in the low 30s.
“This is not going to be the same Duquesne team we saw when they were 0-6. After we played them they got swept at South Carolina and that made them 0-10. Then they won 11 straight so they’re a different team,” Van Zant said. “If we show up prepared to play and we don’t take them lightly we’ll have a chance. If we show up thinking we’re going to win we’ll have no chance.”
Van Zant is planning to start senior Matt Yurish on the mound. The senior is 2-1 and has lowered his earned run average to 5.62. Yurish has struck out 39 in 32 innings of work but does show 24 walks.
“It will come down to who pitches the best,” Van Zant said.
The Mountaineers (26-9) are coming off a series loss at Seton Hall last weekend, but did manage to claim a win in game three, 7-4, on Sunday.
“They out-pitched us on Friday and Saturday and it was mainly walks. We walked or hit eight on Friday and we walked or hit eight on Saturday,” Van Zant said. “They kept their walks down – they just threw more strikes than we did.”
Van Zant said his hitters were a victim of Seton Hall’s big ballpark.
“Their ballpark is really big. I counted seven home runs we hit through two games and all we had to show for it were three triples. It was 405 to center and 430 to the gaps,” he said. “That’s baseball and you have to play according to the park but we crushed some balls that were caught.”
WAJR-AM 1440 will carry the game live in Morgantown. Fans can also access U-92’s free live coverage on the Internet through MSNsportsNET.com.
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