Baseball: Despite strong play, Panthers go 0-3 at Notre Dame

In the opening series of its Big East schedule, the Pitt baseball team played three errorless… In the opening series of its Big East schedule, the Pitt baseball team played three errorless games and outhit its opponent, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 26-22. But despite the statistical success, the Panthers dropped all three games in South Bend.

“That was a very difficult series,” head coach Joe Jordano said. “We outhit them in two of the three games and had some situations in terms of hard hits that didn’t go our way. I’ve really never experienced anything like that before. We played errorless baseball this weekend, which was awesome. We did a lot of good things against a very good team, but, unfortunately, we came up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.”

Coming through with hits in clutch situations was important to surging Notre Dame to three wins by two or fewer runs.

“Baseball is one sport in which stats do not necessarily correlate with wins and losses,” senior Anthony Defabio said. “We swung the bats well this weekend, but Notre Dame had more timely hits than we did.”

The Panthers couldn’t get the clutch hits that Notre Dame got but showed some scoring production over the weekend, and they will look to grow from that as they get deeper into their conference schedule.

“Our issue right now is we have yet to play our complete game,” senior Rick Devereaux said. “Once we find a way to put it all together and play the complete game, we will see better end results.”

Pitt 5, Notre Dame 6

After two scoreless innings, Pitt exploded for four runs in the third inning of the Big East opener for both squads.

The Panthers came through with four big hits in the inning and capitalized on a throwing error that led to four unearned runs.

Senior lefty Matt Iannazzo was pulled in the fifth inning when he encountered some trouble, giving up four straight hits after striking out the first batter he faced.

Freshman Joe Harvey got the team out of the jam, only allowing one of the runs, credited to Iannazzo, to score by striking out the last two outs. After successfully leaving behind the trouble in the fifth, he gave Jordano two innings of scoreless baseball.

In the eighth, Casey Roche scored when Boo Vazquez doubled to the left center gap to stretch the lead to two runs. This was the only other inning in which the Panthers scored, and they failed to string even two hits together in any inning except for the fourth and eighth.

“Our offensive philosophy is a ‘foot on the gas, don’t let up’ kind of approach,” sophomore Derik Wilson said. “Sometimes I feel like, as an offensive unit, we sit back and count on the pitchers once we get a lead. We should keep pressing for more run support.”

Notre Dame tied the game up in the bottom of the inning with a big double and capped its comeback with a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the ninth.

Pitt 2, Notre Dame 3

An exciting first inning was all the scoring that Saturday’s matchup saw. Both pitchers struggled to find the plate early.

The Panthers got the hitting started in the top of the first inning when Devereaux doubled to score Defabio. Devereaux scored himself on a throwing error later in the inning to get the team’s only two runs.

“The pitcher was able to settle in, and we were unable to get him on edge,” Devereaux said. “Our pitchers did a great job settling in after tough first innings this weekend as well.”

Sophomore Ethan Mildren went all eight innings for Pitt, allowing three runs on six hits with six strikeouts.

“In the first inning, I was missing up in the zone,” Mildren said. “I caught myself trying to overthrow. In between innings, I refocused and made the adjustment. After the first, I had a great feel for all of my pitches. I was able to keep my pitch count down deep into the game and did everything I could to keep our team in the game.”

The team made good contact on the ball throughout the second game but struggled to string two hits together until the ninth.

“We hit the ball well in Game 2,” Roche said. “It just so happened we were hitting it right at guys. We worry about what we can control. We know there’s no excuse for not scoring in any of those innings.”

The best chance Pitt had to tie the game up came in the ninth. With runners on first and second and down a run, Wilson connected on a hard-hit ball to center field that was pulled in by the centerfielder to end the game.

Pitt 5, Notre Dame 7

Sophomore Matt Wotherspoon struggled in his Big East debut this season, going seven and two thirds of an inning allowing seven runs on only five hits.

The Fighting Irish started early, with three runs on two hits in the first inning.

In the top of the second inning, Pitt got two runs on four hits. Roche doubled to start the inning and later scored when freshman Elvin Soto grounded out. The other run came after junior Evan Oswald doubled in junior Sam Parente.

Notre Dame got a run back in the bottom of that inning. After the second, Wotherspoon settled in for five straight innings of no-hit baseball.

Soto’s sixth-inning double scored Vazquez, bringing the Panthers within one run of the Irish until the eighth.

With Wotherspoon still pitching in the eighth inning, Notre Dame connected on two doubles to bring three runs across the plate. Junior Kevin Johnson came in to record the final out for Pitt.

The Panthers plated two runs in the top of the ninth, but still fell two runs short of a late comeback.

Despite getting swept and digging a hole early in the season, the Panthers feel that they executed well over the weekend and look to build on what they learned in the three losses to the Irish.

“I look at those types of losses as the best kind of losses, if there’s such a thing,” Wilson said. “Knowing that you outplayed your opponent is something for a team to build on.”