University of Connecticut Athletics
University of Connecticut
West Virginia
Huskies Drop Final Game Against West Virginia 7-4
3/22/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 22, 2009
STORRS, Conn. - West Virginia came from behind to take a 7-4 victory over the University of Connecticut baseball team in the Huskies' series finale against the Mountaineers on Sunday afternoon at J.O. Christian Field.
The Mountaineers, who fell behind 4-1 in the fourth inning, rallied at the plate in both the fifth and seventh innings to take a 5-4 lead before added two more runs in the late innings to take the BIG EAST victory behind starting pitcher, Billy Gross.
Gross earned the win for the Mountaineers, his second of the year, as he threw a complete game, allowing four runs and eight hits, while striking out six.
The Huskies fall to 0-3 in the BIG EAST and 7-10 overall after the loss as West Virginia picks up their third straight conference victory, improving their record to 15-5 on the year.
UConn's Peter Fatse (Hampden, Mass.) led the Huskies with a three-run homerun in the fourth inning to give the Huskies the lead before the Mountaineers' rally.
West Virginia scored the first run of the game in the top of the fourth inning as Vince Belnome reached base on a throwing error by UConn third baseman Nick Ahmed (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and advanced to second on the throw.
Tobias Streich recorded his sixth double of the season as he scored Belnome from second to give the Mountaineers the 1-0 lead.
The Huskies answered in the bottom of the inning as they recorded four straight hits, led by Fatse's three-run shot over the right field wall. Harold Brantley, Jr. (Silver Spring, Md.) led the Huskies' charge with a base hit to right field with one out.
Matt Burnett (Endicott, N.Y.) moved Brantley to third on his 23rd hit of the season as he lined the ball up the middle into centerfield. Mike Olt (Branford, Conn.) picked up his team-leading 20th RBI of the year with a single through the left side of the infield to score Brantley and tie the game at one.
With runners on first and second Fatse gave the Huskies a 4-1 lead as he pulled the ball down the right field line and over the wall for his second homerun of the season and 14th of his career.
West Virginia cut the UConn lead to one, scoring two runs on four hits in the top of the fifth inning.
Greg Nappo (Madison, Conn.) started for the Huskies and allowed six hits and two earned runs while striking out three batters in five innings of work.
Dusty Odenbach (Rochester, N.Y.) took the mound in the sixth and gave up one hit while hitting one batter before striking out the last two batters of the inning to keep the score at 4-3 in the Huskies' favor. Odenbach came out in the seventh inning after throwing 1.1 innings.
Dennis Accomando (Monroe, Conn.) came into the game in the seventh and allowed two hits and one run before being taken out of the game for freshman David Fischer (Scotia, N.Y.). Accomando was given the loss.
In the seventh, West Virginia took back the lead, scoring two runs to give its ball club a 5-4 advantage. The Mountaineers added one run in the eighth as Joe Agreste scored on a fielding error by UConn first baseman Mike Nemeth (Washington, N.J.) to give West Virginia a two-run lead. In the top of the ninth they added another run to go up 7-4.
Senior David Erickson (Stratford, Conn.) took the mound in the eighth and finished the afternoon throwing 1.2 innings as he gave up one run, one hit and one walked batter, while striking out one.
Both Nemeth and Burnett finished the game with two hits a piece, while Fatse had one hit, a walk and three RBIs.
Pierre LePage (Wolcott, Conn.) and Olt each had one hit on the afternoon.
The Huskies will travel to Boston, Mass. on Monday, March 23 to take on the Northeastern Huskies in non-conference action. Game time is set for 3:00 p.m.
