Parise sets hits record against Seton Hall

Although the Pitt baseball team didn’t perform well offensively in its last regular-season… Although the Pitt baseball team didn’t perform well offensively in its last regular-season series against Seton Hall this past weekend, senior Peter Parise went eight for 13 in three games en route to recording his 250th hit of his career, tying a Pitt baseball record for most career hits.

But Parise appeared to be the only Panther that was sharp.

The Panthers (27-25, 15-11 Big East) didn’t close out the 2007 regular season against Seton Hall withthe momentum that it was looking for entering this week’s Big East Tournament, committing nine errors that would cause them to drop two of the three games against the Pirates in the final series of the year at Trees Field.

While the Panthers were able to come from behind and win in extra innings in the first game on Thursday, they were torched for a combined 17 runs in the games on Friday and Saturday.

Head coach Joe Jordano was upset with the team following its performance, but recognized that Seton Hall played a very strong three games. Still, he was optimistic about the tournament the Panthers began playing last night.

“I was very disappointed with our performance this weekend,” Jordano said in a release following Saturday’s contest. “We were lucky to get a win on Thursday.”

“Seton Hall did a great job against us. I give them all the credit that they deserve. They’re a solid team and a solid opponent. I really think this weekend exemplifies the parity of the Big East, anyone can beat anyone on any given day. With that said, we’re excited for the tournament.”

The Panthers earned the No. 4 seed in this week’s double-elimination Big East Tournament held at KeySpan Park in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Panthers played fifth-seeded South Florida last night in their first-round matchup. Pitt dropped two of three against the Bulls in their series earlier this season.

Pitt 5, Seton Hall 4

Down 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, senior first basemen Seth Button stepped to the plate as the tying run with two aboard.

Seton Hall had all-Big East closer Dan Mcdonald in, but after walking the previous two runners, he started to show signs of frustration at the mound.

After his first pitch missed for a ball, he left a fastball over the plate and Button crushed it over the centerfield wall to even the score. It was his team-leading eighth home run of the season, and the momentum shift that Pitt would need going into extras to sneak away with a victory.

Pitt failed to capitalize with runners on first and second in the 10th, but had another opportunity in the 11th when Parise singled to left and reached second on an error by the first basemen in a run-down.

Dan Williams then ripped a two-out, 1-1 pitch deep to center to bring Parise home and win the game.

Kyle Landis came up huge for the Panthers in extras, allowing no base runners in 1 2/3 innings of work, and was rewarded with the win. It improved Landis to 4-4 on the season, and his two strikeouts added to the staff’s impressive 16 strikeouts in the game.

Seton Hall 9, Pitt 1

Pitt dug itself into too deep a ditch early in the second game of the series on Friday.

The Pirates recorded three runs in the first and capped off a four run second with a two-run blast by catcher Chris Affinito.

Despite the three-for-four hitting performances of Williams and Parise, Pitt could only muster up one run in the bottom of the second off of a sacrifice-fly by redshirt freshman Jordan Herr.

Seton Hall added two more in the third off of a sac fly and a single to put an end to its clobbering of Pitt starter Rob Brant. Only five of the runs were earned during Brant’s start however, as the shaky Pitt defense had three errors in the first three innings.

Dan Mecklinger pitched a gem for Seton Hall, surrendering only nine hits and recording 10 strikeouts. Jordano commented on Mecklinger’s performance after the game in a release to pittsburghpanthers.com

“Mecklinger had a great game,” Jordano said in the release. “This was his day. I expected Rob [Brant] to have a better game, but he didn’t have it today.”

Seton Hall 8, Pitt 3

A late-inning loss put a damper on the otherwise cheerful festivities honoring the graduating seniors in the final home game of the season for Pitt on Saturday.

Panther starter Nate Reed was throwing some of his best stuff for the first five innings and held the Pirates scoreless until the sixth when they got a two out rally going.

After two Pirates reached on a walk and a hit, an error by third baseman Williams allowed the two base runners to reach home and even the score.

Seton Hall’s bats didn’t cool off between innings, and back to back extra-base hits by the Pirates topped off a three-run seventh inning. Another error by Williams in the eighth led to three more runs.

Pitt got one back in the eighth off of an RBI single by Williams, but it would be the only offense it could generate against the Seton Hall bullpen.

Despite the otherwise disappointing final five innings for the Panthers, there were cheers in the crowd for Parise when he tied Bryan Spamer’s career hit record of 250 in the fifth.