University of Connecticut Athletics
West Virginia Slips Past Huskies with 12-11 Victory
4/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
MORGANTOWN, W. Va. (April 26, 2008) — An in-the-park homerun by West Virginia's Austin Markel with two outs in the bottom of the ninth as the Mountaineers came from behind to defeat the University of Connecticut baseball team 12-11 on Saturday night in BIG EAST Conference action at Hawley Field.
The Mountaineers improve to 31-11 overall this season with the victory while the Huskies fall to 21-24 and 7-13 in BIG EAST play. In the conference, West Virginia picked up their 10th conference victory to improve to 10-7.
West Virginia picked up some early runs in the bottom of the first inning as they did a day ago. With a 3-0 lead after the first inning, on four hits, the Mountaineers' starting pitcher Stephen Morrison gave up four runs off four hits, led by senior catcher Brad Olt (Branford, Conn.) who hit a two-run home run over the left field wall to give the Huskies a 4-3 lead. But the Mountaineers recorded two more runs in the bottom of the inning as UConn starting pitcher Dan Mahoney (Boston, Mass.) gave up a walk then a two-run homerun to Tyler Kuhn.
The Mountaineers added four runs to their tally in the fourth inning as Jedd Gyorko recorded a three-run homerun over the left field wall to extend West Virginia's lead to 9-4. UConn added one run in the sixth inning as freshman Pierre LePage (Wolcott, Conn.) singled to start the inning. Elliot Glynn (Los Alamitos, Calif.) added a single before a Pat Mahoney (Des Moines, Iowa) walk to load the bases. Freshman Mike Olt (Branford, Conn.) recorded a sacrifice fly to center field to score LePage and cut the lead to four.
But West Virginia took back the one run in the bottom of the sixth with a homerun by Kuhn over the right center field wall. The Huskies scored one more run in the seventh inning as Brad Olt led off the inning being hit by a pitch and later scored on a Harold Brantley, Jr. (Silver Spring, Md.) sacrifice fly to center.
In the eighth inning, UConn took an 11-10 lead with five runs led by a grand slam by Peter Fatse (Hampden, Mass.) after three hits from LePage, Mahoney and Mike Olt. But Markel came up big in the end, scoring the winning run from an in-the-park homerun.
UConn will continue it's weekend at Hawley Field as the Huskies return to action on Sunday as they take on West Virginia in BIG EAST Conference action once again. Tomorrow's first pitch is set for 1:00 p.m.
