Baseball: Pitt wins 3 of 3 in Philadelphia

The Pitt baseball team traveled to Philadelphia last weekend and won three games, each by at… The Pitt baseball team traveled to Philadelphia last weekend and won three games, each by at least six runs.

The Panthers (14-4) beat St. Joseph’s 14-1, La Salle 20-11 and Temple 7-1, victories which put the team’s win streak to seven after suffering a three-game losing streak.

On Friday, the Panthers began a three-game series in Philadelphia by taking on St. Joseph’s. Junior pitcher Corey Baker started for the Panthers, giving up only one run and three hits in seven innings.

The Hawks took the lead with their lone run, scored in the second inning, but the Panthers proceeded to score 14 unanswered runs, highlighted by four-run innings in both the fourth and seventh innings.

The entire Pitt lineup each recorded at least one hit, and Schultz, Sean Toole and Travis Whitmore recorded at least three. Toole, Danny Lopez and Cory Brownsten all had multiple RBIs.

The next day, the Panthers took on the La Salle Explorers. Pitt put the game out of reach early, scoring 11 runs in the first three innings. Starting pitcher Kevin Dooley earned the win, giving up five runs on nine hits while striking out four over 6.1 innings.

Leading the way offensively for Pitt was junior centerfielder Zach Duggan, who amassed five hits in six trips to the plate, one of which was a double. The Explorers finally broke through and scored seven runs in the seventh, but the Panthers put the game further out of reach with a seven-run inning of their own in the ninth to put the final score at 20-11. Pitt registered 27 hits in the game.

Senior starting pitcher Nathan Hood, who threw a complete game four hitter, led the Panthers to a 7-1 victory on Sunday against Temple to close out Pitt’s winning weekend.

Pitt struck first, scoring two runs in the second off consecutive singles by Chester and Whitmore, an error by the Owls and a sacrifice fly by Brownsten. They then proceeded to blow the game open with four runs in the fifth, highlighted by RBI singles from Duggan and Schultz, and a two-run error on a ball hit by Kevan Smith. The Panthers tacked on another run in the sixth and Temple scored a run in the eighth to bring the final to 7-1.

Both Smith and Brownsten drove in two runs, and Toole had three hits.

The Panthers were supposed to play their next home game today against Penn State at Trees Field, but the game has been canceled due to inclement weather forecasts. The game will instead be played Wednesday at 3 p.m. at Trees Field.

While the Panthers come into the game on a hot streak, Penn State limps into the rivalry game with a 6-10 overall record.

This three-game sweep comes after the Panthers finally opened their home schedule after a 14-game road trip with a come-from-behind victory against Youngstown State at Trees Field. Pitt jumped out to a 2-0 lead after two innings thanks to a John Schultz solo homerun in the first and a David Chester RBI groundout in the second. The Penguins’ bats exploded for five runs in both the third and fifth innings and added another in the seventh to take an 11-2 lead.

But the Panthers’ powerful offense would not be silenced, and they rebounded with a 10-run bottom of the seventh to take a 12-11 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. In the seventh, the Panthers sent 15 batters to the plate, rattled off seven singles and a double and took advantage of an error, a hit by pitch and two walks by Youngstown State. Every batter either reached base or had an RBI in the inning, highlighted by a bases-loaded double by Chester that drove in all three runners.

Pitt added three more insurance runs in the eighth to push ahead 15-11. Every Panther starter had at least one hit, six had at least two and eight scored at least one run.