Baseball Victory Snaps West Virginia's 20-Game Home Winning Streak

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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (April 13, 2006) – Junior pitcher Rich Sirois (Ipswich, Mass.) threw eight innings of eight-hit baseball and gave up a pair of runs to lead the University of Connecticut to an 6-3 victory over West Virginia on Thursday night in the first of a three-game BIG EAST series. UConn improves to 22-10 overall with the win and 9-3 in the BIG EAST while the Mountaineers fall to 25-9 overall and 5-5 in the league.

Sirois struck out eight in the game and gave up just three walks as he improved his record to 3-1 on the season. Junior Ted Garry (Rochester, Minn.) came in to pitch the ninth inning and surrendered singles top the first four batters he faced to give up a run. He came back to strike out the next two batters and David Carpenter flew out to right field to leave the bases loaded for WVU and end the game.

Senior Bryan Maler (Ansonia, Conn.) led the Connecticut offense with a three-for-five effort with a run scored and an RBI. Senior Austin Wasserman (Nashua, N.H.) and junior Matt Untiet (Berlin, Conn.) had two hits each for the Huskies.

UConn scored three runs in the second inning and three more in the seventh for its offense on the night. In the third inning, the Huskies picked up RBI singles from senior Steven Malinowski (Berlin, Conn.), freshman Dale Brannon (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and Wasserman.

The three runs in the seventh were also picked up on three RBI singles – these by Maler, junior Dennis Donovan (Center Moriches, N.Y) and Untiet.

Marty Fagler took the loss for West Virginia in just one and two-thirds inning of work as he gave up five hits and three runs. His record drops to 3-3 on the season. Justin Jenkins and Casey Bowling each had three hits for WVU.

The teams continue their series on Friday night in Morgantown with a 7:05 p.m. contest.

Connecticut 6, West Virginia 3

Connecticut  0 3 0  0 0 0  3 0 0  ---   6    12   1

West Virginia 0 0 0  2 0 0  0 0 1  ---   3    12   0

Rich Sirois, Ted Garry (9) and Steven Malinowski. Marty Fagler, Dan Leatherman (2) and David Carpenter. WP-Sirois (3-1). LP-Fagler (3-3). 2B-Bryan Maler (UC), Casey Bowling (WV). Team Records: UC 22-10 overall and 9-3 in BIG EAST; WV 25-9 overall and 5-5 in BIG EAST.