Mersing’s pitching gem wasted in 1-0 loss

Sophomore Sam Mersing’s masterful pitching performance was not enough as Pitt’s baseball team lost to Kent State on Tuesday, 1-0.

Mersing did not allow a hit until there were two outs in the seventh inning, when Kent State’s sophomore Conner Simonetti hit a home run to break the scoreless tie and put the Golden Flashes (20-12, 8-4 MAC) in the lead for good.

Pitt (14-21, 6-12 ACC) outhit Kent State 6-2, but could not bring any of those runners to the plate.

The Panthers had opportunities to win the game even down to the final inning, when sophomore P.J. DeMeo grounded out to third base to end the game.

In Mersing’s six starts, he has now taken a no-hit bid into at least the fourth inning on five of those occasions. But Mersing earned his second loss of the season as his offense could not produce a run to help him.

“Sam did a great job today,” Pitt head coach Joe Jordano said in a release. “He had all of his pitches working for him … [Simonetti] is their power guy, and he put a good swing on it and it carried.”

Senior outfielder Boo Vazquez finished the game 2-3, and redshirt sophomore Jacob Wright hit a double to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.

“That’s baseball,” Jordano said. “It’s a disappointing loss, but yet, all in all, we played well. We put some balls in play hard, and Kent State’s a great team.”

Pitt next travels to No. 8 Florida State for a weekend series. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 6 p.m.