Baseball: Pitt blows late lead against Penn State
By: Gre / Staff Writer
Posted on 15. Apr, 2010 in Sports
Catcher Kevan Smith drove in three runs and scored one himself, but No. 24 Pitt still blew a late four-run lead against Penn State Tuesday.
Pitt (22-9, 6-3 Big East) led 8-4 at the seventh inning stretch, but the Nittany Lions (14-17, 2-4 Big Ten) notched five runs in the bottom of the inning and tacked on five more in the eighth for the 14-8 win.
“We played well through six and a half,” Pitt head coach Joe Jordano said. “I give credit to Penn State. They swung the bats great today.”
Corey Baker was saddled with his first loss of the season in one and one-third innings of relief for the Panthers, who drop to 22-9 overall. Baker surrendered three runs, one earned, on three hits. Penn State’s Jordan Steranka notched one of those hits, a double that drove in the game-tying run.
Cleanup hitter and catcher Ben Heath went 3 for 5, scored four times and had 3 RBIs for Penn State, and Mike Pierce earned the win in two-thirds scoreless innings of relief.
Pierce’s Nittany Lions started off the game hot as their first three batters reached base. Pitt’s starting pitcher, freshman Alex Caravella, worked out of the jam though, as Heath grounded into a double play, and Pitt escaped giving up only one run.
Caravella gave up five hits and three runs over four and two-thirds innings.
After Danny Lopez scored for Pitt on a Smith sacrifice fly in the third, Heath redeemed himself with a solo homerun in the fourth to give the Nittany Lions the lead again, 2-1.
The Panthers opened up an 8-4 lead by the seventh inning by scoring two in the fifth, two in the sixth and three more in the seventh. Although Pitt couldn’t shut down Heath at the plate, it took advantage of him behind it. The team stole four bases during the game.
Caravella left with the lead, but the bullpen lost it in the seventh. J.R. Leonardi gave up a two-run homerun to Penn State’s Sean Deegan before handing the ball over to Baker. Baker allowed the two runners he inherited from Leonardi to score and also sent Mario Eramo home when he hit Steve Snyder with a pitch.
Jordano said that miscues on the mound happen with a young staff.
“We are thin on the mound,” Jordano said. “Three of the four pitchers throwing tonight were freshmen. It’s a part of the learning process, but we have to get better.”
Pitt’s chances to come back from the 9-8 deficit shrank when the Nittany Lions tacked on another five runs in the eighth on two hits and a costly error by shortstop Lopez. If not for the error, the inning would have ended with only one run on the board.
However, the Panthers bounced back last night against Duquesne, winning 21-9. Junior pitcher Kevin Dooley picked up the win for Pitt. The Panthers will travel to Philadelphia this weekend to take on Big East foe Villanova in a three-game series.
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