April 19, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – – West Virginia starter Steve Morrison threw 140 pitches and allowed six earned runs over 8.2 innings of work to lead the Mountaineers to an 11-6 victory over Norte Dame in BIG EAST college baseball action Saturday afternoon. The defeat snaps the Irish nation’s best 11-game winning streak and drops them to 24-10-1 overall and 11-3 in the conference. West Virginia improves to 28-10 and 8-6.
Sophomore David Mills (Battlecreek, Mich.) greeted Morrison with an inside the park home run in the top of the first inning to give Notre Dame a 1-0 lead. The southpaw struggled over the first two innings, but the Irish were unable to take advantage and stranded five runners over the first two frames.
Morrison would settle down and limit Notre Dame to just one earned run over the next seven innings before tiring in the ninth. With West Virginia holding an 11-2 lead, senior Ross Brezovsky (Naples, Fla.) lined a two-run double and junior Evan Sharpley (Marshall, Mich.) added a two-run, pinch hit single to bring the Irish within 11-6, but Mountaineer closer Chris Enourato retired freshman Greg Sherry (Mendham, N.J.) with runners on the corners to end the game.
Senior Brett Lilley (North Canton, Ohio) went 2-for-5 with an RBI, while sophomore A.J. Pollock (Hebron, Conn.) went 2-for-5 with a run scored and Brezovsky went 2-for-4 with a run scored and two RBI.
Senior Wade Korpi (Lake Worth, Fla.) struggled over his 3.0 innings of work. The southpaw dropped to 5-2 on the year following his shortest outing of the season. Korpi was charged with four earned runs on five hits in 3.0 innings. He walked three (two of which scored) and hit a batter.
Joe Agreste went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and four RBI, including his third home run of the year. Austin Markel and Tyler Kuhn also chipped in with three hits. Kuhn scored two runs and Markel scored two runs and drove in one.
Notre Dame returns to action tomorrow afternoon for the third and final game of the series with the Mountaineers. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. as sophomore Eric Maust (Alpharetta, Ga.) will take the mound. The game can be heard live on ESPN Radio 1490 AM and UND.com.
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