Zips leave Pitt in the dark

A rain delay of nearly two hours was not enough of a break to get the Panther bats going, as… A rain delay of nearly two hours was not enough of a break to get the Panther bats going, as Pitt dropped a non-conference baseball road game to Kent State (22-14), 9-4, in a shortened game Wednesday afternoon.

Trailing 8-2 after just three innings, the Panthers (19-15 overall, 5-8 Big East) scored two runs following the delay, but it wasn’t enough, as the game was called in the seventh-inning stretch because of darkness after the Panthers failed to score in the top of the seventh inning.

“It was kind of a bizarre game,” Panther head coach Joe Jordano said. “We started off scoring a couple of runs and left the bases loaded in the first inning. They swung the bats extremely well, and we knew they were capable of doing that. The conditions were questionable after the rain stopped, but we decided to play but we only got two innings in because of darkness.”

The Panthers started the scoring right away in the top of the first when Ben Copeland doubled and scored on Jim Negrych’s RBI single through the middle. Peter Parise followed with a walk before freshman Sean Conley singled, scoring Negrych to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead. Dan Ford walked to load the bases with just one out, but Jeff Stevens struck out and Dan Williams flied out, ending the threat.

The Golden Flashes answered in their half of the first with a run when Drew Saylor doubled home Joe Tucker. The Flashes got two more runs in the second before breaking the game open in the third.

Leading 3-2, the Flashes put up five runs in the third inning, chasing Panther starter Andrew Kuss (3-2). After getting Saylor to lead off the inning with an out, the Flashes put together three straight singles, forcing Jordano to go to his bullpen. Reliever Mike Bassage didn’t fare much better, as he walked a batter, gave up a bunt single and then allowed the big blow on a three-run double by Tucker.

Kuss, a senior who was once in the mix for the weekend starters role, allowed eight hits and five earned runs while walking one and striking out one.

“Andrew was a real solid guy for us last year and he stared the season fairly solid, but he has been giving up too many hits and too many base runners,” Jordano said. “We are still trying to shake out our pitching staff to see who we are going to go with the rest of the season, but I was hoping he would have had a better outing.”

After the delay, the Panthers got two more runs on the board in sixth. Conley led off the inning with a double and then scored on a double by Stevens. After Stevens got to third on a Dan Williams’ single, David Cline drove him in with a fielder’s choice.

The Panthers got two hits from Conley and RBI’s from Negrych, Conley, Stevens and Cline. The RBI was Negrych’s 40th of the season, which puts him in second place in the Big East conference.

The Panthers did get a boost in the field from shortstop Jimmy Mayer, who returned from injury and played in the field for the first time since late March. He went 1-for-4 with two defensive assists in the field. Mayer’s health forced Jordano to juggle his lineup again, something that the coach has become accustomed to this season.

“We did switch it around again,” Jordano said of his lineup. “It is just one of those things where we have to continue to put the hot players in the lineup as much as we can and just hope that in this particular game they stay hot. It’s going to have to be whoever is hot and that is indicative of how young we are.”

With final exams looming throughout the next week, the Panthers have the weekend off before returning to Trees Field to take on Akron Wednesday night at 7 p.m.