April 17, 2011
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – West Virginia’s Andy Berry handcuffed Notre Dame to just three hits en route to a complete game victory as the Mountaineers took the rubber match of a three-game series, 8-1, Sunday afternoon at Frank Eck Stadium. The Irish dropped to 14-18-1 and 5-7 in the BIG EAST, while West Virginia improved to 22-15 and 8-4.
Berry improved to 5-2 on the year with his first career 9.0-inning complete game. The right-handed hurler did surrender a solo home run to Notre Dame rookie Trey Mancini in the bottom of the sixth inning, but retired the final 11 Irish batters. Berry even struck out the side in the ninth inning.
Notre Dame senior RHP Todd Miller was charged with the loss and evened his record at 3-3 on the season. He was charged with eight runs on eight hits, but only three were earned. Miller struck out two and walked one.
With West Virginia holding a slim, 2-0, lead heading to the fifth inning, Miller was let down by the Irish defense as two crucial errors, both with two outs, led to five unearned runs. The latter error came with the bases loaded and allowed three runs to cross the plate. In all, the Mountaineers plated six in the inning, but only the first was earned.
The eight-run cushion was more than enough for Berry.
Mancini provided the only offense on the afternoon for Notre Dame. The first baseman stroked his team-leading sixth home run of the season off the batter’s eye in left centerfield. Fellow freshman CF Eric Jagielo and sophomore DH Adam Norton were the only other Irish players with a hit.
The quartet of freshman LHP Anthony McIver, freshman RHP Sean Fitzgerald, Norton and freshman RHP Dan Slania combined to blank the Mountaineers over the final four innings. Each tossed one scoreless inning. Norton struck out a pair, while Slania managed to work out of a bases loaded, no out jam in the ninth.
West Virginia senior Grant Buckner paced the Mountaineer attack. He went 3-for-5 with a two-run home run, two runs scored and three RBI. He gave West Virginia a 2-0 advantage with a two-run blast in the top of the third inning and pushed their lead to 3-0 with a two-out RBI single in the fifth.
Buckner terrorized the Irish in last year’s three-game sweep with four home runs and 14 RBI, including three bombs and 10 RBI in one game. He owns a .432 (16-for-37) career batting average with 13 runs scored, three doubles, five home runs and 20 RBI in 10 career games against Notre Dame.
Notre Dame returns to action against Toledo at 5:35 p.m. on Tuesday at Frank Eck Stadium. The game will broadcasted live on WHME Harvest 103.1 FM and will be available online at UND.com. Live stats will also be available on GameTracker.
As always, please visit UND.com regularly for full coverage of all Notre Dame athletics news and events.
— ND —