Softball splits home double-header with Akron

Any student who cut class to go check out the Pitt softball team on Wednesday at Trees Field… Any student who cut class to go check out the Pitt softball team on Wednesday at Trees Field saw a double-header that would have made the act worthwhile.

The Panthers (14-19, 3-1 Big East) battled Akron in both games of the double-header, but only snuck away with a split.

In each game, Pitt was trailing entering the final innings. But, in each game, the Panthers rallied back. A formidable Pitt defense paired with two good starting performances by Laura Belardinelli and Meghan Bostick kept the games close until the final innings.

Tough circumstances leading up to the game led to Pitt not playing to its potential, according to Coach Michelle Phalen.

“We weren’t as sharp as we would’ve liked to be on Wednesday,” Phalen said. “We were coming off of a long road trip and didn’t practice on Tuesday.”

Freshman Alex Shoemaker wasn’t affected by the road trip and continued to come through in the clutch for the Panthers as she went 3-4 and recorded two RBIs in the double-header. Two of the three were extra-basehyphenateCS hits, including a triple.

“We feel we battled hard,” Phalen said after both games. “We have a decent team, not outstanding in any particular area, but [we] need to take advantage of other teams’ mistakes.”

Pitt travels to South Bend, Ind., on Saturday to take on Notre Dame in another double-header.

Pitt 3, Akron 2

The pitching of Laura Bernadelli kept Pitt in the game to make a late-inning push in the first of two games.

With four innings already in the books, the Panthers trailed by two and hadn’t managed to reach first base all day. Samantha Card finally saw a pitch she liked and gave it a ride to left for a double to break the streak of retired Panthers in the fifth.

After Card advanced to third on a groundout, senior Heather Connor sent her home on a single up the middle to narrow the deficit to one. Pitt only got one back in the inning, but the Akron pitcher was showing fatigue, and the Panthers were poised for another rally.

With Joey Scarf on second and one out in the sixth, senior Sheena Hellon was up to bat. She had been hitless in her previous six at bats, but rose to the occasion.

She belted a double deep to left to send Scarf home and tie the score. Hellon then proceeded to steal her 52nd base of her career, a Pitt softball record, to get in position to score on a sacrifice fly.

After the sac-fly opportunity was erased by a groundout, Shoemaker, Pitt’s leading slugger, slapped a double to center field to score Hellon as Pitt took the lead for good.

Belardinelli improved her season record to 4-5 as she allowed only six hits and fanned down seven batters in her complete game showing.

Pitt 3, Akron 4

Pitt was the first to get on the board in the fourth when Shoemaker belted her first career triple deep off of the left-field wall to send Hellon home.

Akron was able to even the score in the next half inning on an error by Pitt first basemen Samantha Card and added two more runs off a pair of singles by Krista Hansen and Lisa McLean in the seventh.

The Panthers were trailing by two entering the final half inning.

After Shoemaker led off the inning with her second hit of the day, Valerie Mihalik poked one down the left field line to put a runner on first and second with no outs.

Heather Connor then bunted for a single, catching Akron off guard, to load the bases. Akron went to the bullpen after the play in search of some support, but didn’t find it.

After the Zips got their first out of the inning, Phalen went to the bench and called upon freshman April Ghiroli to pinch hit. She brushed the jitters away quickly and hit a seeing-eye single that bounced in front of the second basemen and navigated its way into the outfield.

The poke sent home two Panthers to tie the score at three with only one out and two runners aboard.

Phalen then made two more strategic moves, putting in Belardinelli and re-entering Meghan Howard to pinch run. The pair then executed a double-steal to put runners on second and third.

After Joey Scarf walked, Hellon had a chance to put the game away, but couldn’t get the ball out of the infield, sending the game to extra innings.

Akron wasted no time in extras and loaded the bases quickly without recording any outs.

Pitcher Kaitlyn Schuster then got two consecutive outs, but walked the next batter and surrendered what would be the final run of the game.

With the loss Shuster falls to 1-3 on the season.