Following a start to the season that saw Pitt baseball play its best first half in program history, Pitt baseball has cratered.
Pitt had as close to a sure thing as a matchup could go with the ACC’s worst-performing baseball team, the Cal Golden Bears. They came to town for a three-game series this weekend, but Pitt could not muster a single win. In fact, Pitt was blown out in all three games, getting outscored on the weekend by a margin of 39-9 and losing two games in seven innings via the NCAA’s 10-run mercy rule.
Game 1
The first game was a sign that things were not going to go as planned for the Pitt baseball team, as they struggled immediately. After a quiet three innings that saw Pitt get on the board first off a sacrifice fly by senior shortstop Caden Dulin that drove junior catcher Sebastian Pisacreta in, the fourth inning was a chaotic one. Cal scored 10 runs, with nine coming off graduate student starting pitcher David Leslie.
After that, Cal added two more runs in the sixth inning, reaching the final score. Pitt lost the series opener in a mercy-rule shortened seventh inning, with a final score of 12-1.
Game 2
When the second contest came around, there was still some hope that the first matchup between the two teams would be a one-off, but Cal proved too tough to defeat once again.
Dulin had yet another strong game, as his mid-season surge has proven vital to Pitt’s success, notching a three-hit game. Yet, Cal began the scoring this time, with the Golden Bears taking a 3-0 lead by the time the third inning rolled around. Pitt got their first run in the third inning off a triple and wild pitch by redshirt sophomore outfielder Derrick Tarpley Jr., but Cal added another to maintain a three-run lead.
A six-run fourth inning gave Cal a 10-1 lead heading into the fifth inning, where Pitt put two more back on the board. Through seven innings, Pitt trailed 13-5 and would be unable to add more than one run before the end of the ninth. Both teams added one more before the game concluded, with Pitt losing the second game and therefore the series in a full nine-inning loss with a score of 14-6.
Game 3
Cal gave Pitt their final blow, and likely a dagger to their at-large postseason hopes, with another loss in the third and final game of the series. With typical Sunday starter Drew Lafferty on the mound, the Pitt team was once again dominated by its West Coast foes. Dulin was the only standout from the batting side, with two hits, including a double, as he moved his hitting streak to 14 games.
A six-run third inning and a four-run fourth inning would all but end the day for the Panthers, who were unable to get anything going with their bats to ensure they would not be subject to the 10-run mercy rule once again. Once the bottom of the seventh inning came and went, Pitt found themselves on the receiving end of a series sweep to the team with only a single ACC win coming into the weekend. Pitt fell in a seven-inning affair, with a final score of 13-2.
Pitt will take on Akron this Wednesday, April 15, at 6 p.m. at Charles L. Cost Field.