Tartans Complete Sweep of WVU
Box Scores: Game one » Game two »
By RYAN COMES
October 8, 2006
The Carnegie Mellon Tartans finished off their weekend series with West Virginia in dominating fashion, taking both games of a doubleheader. The Tartans were led in game one by pitcher Mike Borrebach's complete game. Borrebach allowed only 1 earned run while striking out 12.
After a couple of hits in the top of the first inning gave West Virginia an early 1-0 lead, CMU struck right back thanks to several WVU errors to take a 2-1 lead. In the second, catcher Brian Tabata singled home James Langhauser to extend the lead to 3-1.
The Tartan defense let Borrebach down in the third, letting in 2 unearned runs to tie the game. The offense immediately struck back, however. Keith Menchin led off the fourth and was hit by a pitch. One batter later, Langhauser drew a walk. Matt Corbett and Jim Stedman both came through with RBI singles, giving the Tartans a 5-3 lead they would not relinquish.
Borrebach got stronger as the game progressed. The last eight outs recorded were via the strikeout, as West Virginia's hitters were consistently overmatched by his fastball.
For game two, the Tartans got an equally dominant performance from ace Jon Coens. Coens threw a five inning complete game in the mercy rule shortened affair, allowing only 3 hits and 1 earned run. The Tartans put the game away early, scoring 9 runs with two outs in the second inning, to take a 12-0 lead. They plated one more in the bottom of the fifth to invoke the 10 run mercy rule, ending the game.
Claudio Reilsono summed up a successful weekend:
"It was a good weekend for us. It was again a total team effort, but the best part about it was we played the game right. We had timely hits, we made the routine plays on defense, we had great, tough pitching, we ran the bases well. Again, we palyed the game right.
"Mike Borrebach pitched a very strong game for us in the first game. When things got tight, he got even tougher. His velocity hit a little bit of a wall in the middle of the game and somehow he got it back the last 2 innings. He is really going to be a big part of whatever success we have as a team.
"Jon Coens just dominated WVU in the second game. He hit his spots about as well as he ever has since pitching at CMU. He has a no hitter going for a while, and I really wanted that for him and so did the team. I am just happy that we won all 3 games and what was best about it was the guys were having fun. Our goal with 7 games left was to win all 7. We have won 3. 4 more to go. I am confident that the way we are playing now, we can reach that goal."