Softball: Pitt extends winning streak to five games

The Pitt softball team smacked four home runs on Wednesday afternoon — and all of them came in… The Pitt softball team smacked four home runs on Wednesday afternoon — and all of them came in the same inning.

After sweeping Providence last weekend, the Panthers (22-17, 5-6 Big East) used the offensive explosion to extend their winning streak in conference play to five games by winning both contests of a doubleheader against Georgetown (15-25, 0-8 Big East) at the Petersen Sports Complex.

Freshman pitcher Alexa Larkin said that Pitt’s disappointing 0-6 start in Big East play served as a rude awakening for the team.

“We got a big wakeup call and realized we had to get it together,” Larkin said in an interview. “We know we have the talent and that we’re a good team, it was just a matter of stringing everything together, and we’re doing that now.”

Pitt 2, Georgetown 1

In the first game, Pitt freshman pitcher Savannah King conceded just one run on three hits as she tied the school record for wins in a season with 16.

Georgetown took the lead in the third inning, but the Panthers offense immediately responded.

Senior Ciera Damon and freshman Maggie Sevilla each singled before Kelly Hmiel brought both base runners home with a two-run double that gave Pitt the lead for good.

After the game, King said that despite falling behind, the Panthers remained confident that they would earn the victory.

“We worked hard to pull that first game out,” she said. “Kelly did a great job to get those two runs batted in. We knew we would come back and we did.”

Pitt 11, Georgetown 0

After winning the tight affair in game one of the doubleheader, the Panthers made sure that the result in game two was never in doubt.

Leading off the second inning, senior Kristen Cheesebrew opened the scoring with her fifth home run of the season.

But the Pitt offense was just getting started.

Freshman Carissa Throckmorton made it back-to-back long balls with her fourth home run and, following a walk, fellow freshman Carly Thea drilled her first career home run to give Pitt a 4-0 lead.

Then, Hmiel finished off the inning with the longest home run of them all. Her towering shot hit the press box of the adjacent soccer stadium at the Petersen Sports Complex and increased the Panthers’ lead to six runs.

“Hitting is contagious,” Hmiel said of the rare four-home run inning. “When you see everyone getting hits, you know everything is coming together.”

Pitt followed up the second inning by adding four runs in the third and one more in the fourth as head coach Holly Aprile’s team built an insurmountable lead.

That was more than enough run support for Larkin, who recorded her sixth victory of the season and narrowly missed throwing a no-hitter.

The Hoyas tallied their only hit with two outs in the final inning to spoil Larkin’s no-hit bid.

“I wish I could’ve made one more pitch to get that last out, but I’m still happy with the win,” Larkin said after the game. “Our team had so much energy today.”

Coming off their best offensive performance of the season, the Panthers will now travel to Chicago to face the DePaul Blue Demons (23-12, 5-1 Big East) this weekend in a crucial three-game series.

Entering the showdown riding a five-game winning streak, King believes Pitt is in the right frame of mind going into the challenging series.

“We’re definitely excited to take on DePaul,” she said. “Our confidence as a team is high right now and we’ll be ready for them this weekend.”

Hmiel said the Panthers need to follow up Wednesday’s offensive display by scoring more runs this weekend to continue their winning streak.

“The defense and pitching is there, and we need to stay focused on hitting by taking things once pitch at a time and making things happen,” she said.