Pitt wins two crucial conference games

In-state rivals and Big East conference foes met this weekend when the Pitt baseball team… In-state rivals and Big East conference foes met this weekend when the Pitt baseball team hosted the Villanova Wildcats for an intense three-game series.

After a Pitt (19-14 overall, 5-8 Big East) victory in game one, tempers flared between players in game two, resulting in an extra-innings win for Villanova (21-10-1, 7-6).

Pitt, however, answered back to win game three, recording head coach Joe Jordano’s 500th career win.

“I am very happy,” Jordano said of the milestone. “We knew this series was going to be a dog fight, and it turned out that way.”

Pitt 6, Villanova 4

Game one of the series featured a matchup of each team’s top starting pitchers. Pitt’s Billy Muldowney outlasted Villanova’s Nick Allen in front of a crowd full of scouts for a 6-4 victory.

Muldowney pitched all seven innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, while striking out nine Wildcats and walking two.

Highlighting the offense for the Panthers was junior Ben Copeland, who led the team with three hits to go along with two runs scored and two RBIs.

“He’s been an unbelievable player,” Jordano said of Copeland. “His demeanor is tremendous, and he just plays the game so effortlessly. It’s a real joy to watch him go out there and compete every day.”

The clincher came for Pitt in the bottom of the fifth inning when the offense posted three runs to take the 6-4 lead.

Copeland led off the inning by drilling a home run over the center field wall and Sean Conley doubled in two more runs after Jim Negrych and Peter Parise reached base on a single and hit batsman, respectively.

Villanova 9, Pitt 8

Pitt catcher Jeff Stevens did all he could to win game two for the Panthers, but even with his efforts, Pitt fell just short, losing 9-8 in extra-innings.

Stevens, who had already hit two home runs in the game, stood at the plate in the ninth with down one run and hit what easily would have been a home run out of most fields, but it traveled just foul down the left field line for a strike.

Stevens eventually drew a walk, and his pinch runner, David Cline, scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly. The Panthers, however, left the bases loaded in the ninth, giving up an opportunity to win the game and lost in the 10th when Angelo Petracca’s single plated Kris Molloy.

“I was disappointed the second game with the lack of execution,” Jordano said. “It’s just unacceptable this deep in the season, and I felt our mental focus just wasn’t there.”

Shaun Butler suffered the loss for Pitt out of relief, while Villanova’s Mike Grodecki recorded his first win of the year for the Wildcats.

Pitt 8, Villanova 3

After picking up a victory on Wednesday at PNC Park, freshman pitcher Robert Brant pitched five and two-third innings of scoreless relief for another win Sunday — the 500th career win of Jordano’s career.

“He’s doing a great job,” Jordano said of Brant. “He’s throwing strikes and throwing three pitches for strikes, actually, which adds to it.”

Pitt trailed most of the game until the seventh inning, when Copeland led off with a double, his second of the game, and scored on a wild pitch.

Two errors in the inning on balls hit by Dan Ford and Michael Megale led to three more runs for the Panthers, putting them ahead of Villanova 6-3.

“They threw an excellent pitcher at us today, and he had us off balance for the most part,” Jordano said. “But we took advantage of a couple of mistakes, and that made the difference.”

Parise added two more insurance runs in the eighth inning with a double that scored Negrych and Conley for Pitt’s final runs.

“We needed to play with some immediacy, and it was the first time that I’ve told my team we were in a must-win situation,” Jordano said. “It was intense. The whole weekend was very intense.”

The Panthers will resume play Wednesday when they travel to Kent State for a game scheduled for 3 p.m. Pitt beat Kent State earlier this season, 12-2, on March 30 at Trees Field.