Sweep Completed

After a thrilling come-from-behind victory on Saturday, West Virginia needed no such heroics to put away Connecticut on Sunday.

The Mountaineers never trailed and scored 11 unanswered runs in pounding the visiting Huskies 17-3 for a three-game sweep of the weekend series.

WVU staked starter Matt Yurish to an early 1-0 lead when Justin Parks was hit by a pitch, moved to second on a Tyler Kuhn walk, then came home on Vince Belnome's single in the first. UConn made a game of it in the fourth by scoring a single run to tie things up at one-all, but that was short-lived, as the Mountaineer offense responded with a vengeance.

Dan DiBartolomeo started the parade with a three-run homer that scored Joe Agreste and Jordon Yost in the bottom of the fourth, but that merely set the stage for an eight-run outburst in the fifth. WVU batted around, and combined four hits with four walks to push its lead out to 12-1. Parks had the highlight of the inning, a two-run homer that capped the scoring in the inning.

Yurish, meanwhile, was holding UConn in check while benefiting from great support. He gave up seven hits but walked just one in 8 1/3 innings, and struck out six in gaining the win. He yielded three runs, but only two earned, before giving way to Ross Fetterly, who recorded the final two outs of the contest.

Although he didn't need it, WVU provided more support with four runs in the seventh. Yost smashed a solo home run, WVU's third of the game, to start things off, and then Tobias Streich drove in DiBartolomeo with a sacrifice fly. Jedd Gyorko closed out the scoring in the inning with a two-run double.

One inning later, Grant Buckner smacked an RBI double to make the final score 17-3.

Parks, Kuhn, Yost and DiBartolomeo each had two hits for the Mountaneers, who racked up 13 in the contest. DiBartolomeo and Streich each had three RBIs, while Parks and Gyorko added two apiece.

West Virginia (32-11, 11-7) forays out of conference against Maryland on Tuesday, April 29, at Hawley Field in a 4 p.m. start before returning to league play this weekend.