Baseball wins five of eight during spring break

The Panther baseball team enjoyed a successful spring break trip to Boca Raton, Fla., where… The Panther baseball team enjoyed a successful spring break trip to Boca Raton, Fla., where they won five of eight games and lost a close, hard-fought battle to nationally ranked Miami. The Panthers (7-5) got off to a fast start, winning their first three games before finishing the trip with two wins in their last five games.

“It was disappointing,” head coach Joe Jordano said. “I thought that the two games we lost to Temple, we gave them two games. We didn’t play well defensively. If we would have just played clean baseball, we would have won both games, but that’s baseball.”

Pitt 9, LaSalle 7 (11 Innings)

It took extra innings for the Panthers to win their first game of the trip. Trailing 7-6 in the ninth, the Panthers played small ball to get the tying run. Mike Zambriczki was hit by a pitch and advanced to third on a bunt and fielder’s choice before scoring on Sean Conley’s pinch-hit single to force extra innings.

In the top of the 11th, Conley walked and stole second and third before scoring on Peter Parise’s RBI single. Second baseman Jim Negrych singled, sending Parise to third. A wild pitch then allowed Parise to score the insurance run for the Panthers. Sean Butler (1-1) picked up the win for the Panthers, striking out six of the 12 batters he faced.

Pitt 11, Wagner 2

Pitt had no problem disposing of Wagner on Sunday, scoring runs in the first, third, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings as six Panthers had two or more hits, led by Conley and Ben Copeland with three each.

Tied at two in the third, Negrych hit a solo home run to give the Panthers the lead before they tacked on two more in the sixth. In the eighth, Copeland and Jimmy Mayer combined for three RBI’s with doubles of their own to put away the Seahawks.

Paul Nardozzi was brilliant in picking up his first win of the season, going eight strong innings and allowing only seven hits while striking out 12 hitters.

Pitt 9, LaSalle 5

The Panthers used six runs in the bottom half of the fifth inning to pull away from the Explorers for the second time on the trip. With the Panthers leading 3-1, Billy Muldowney singled with the bases loaded for the first run. Parise followed with a one-run single before Zambriczki doubled to score two more. Dan Williams then drove in a run with a sacrifice fly before Copeland doubled home Conley to give the Panthers an eight-run lead.

Don Rhoten (1-0) picked up the win for the Panthers, going six plus and allowing just three earned runs on eight hits.

LaSalle was led by Phil Marino and John Vincent, who each scored two runs to help the Explorers’ comeback attempt.

Miami 3, Pitt 0

The No. 6-ranked Hurricanes ended the Panthers’ four-game winning streak behind a strong pitching performance from Ricky Orta. Allowing just two hits over six innings, Orta kept the Panthers off the board and out of the win column. The Panthers managed just four hits and never really threatened to score.

Copeland, Mayer, Parise and Mike Megale each had hits for the Panthers while Billy Muldowney suffered the loss on the mound. Muldowney allowed just two earned runs in seven innings while striking out ten batters.

“Billy is doing a great job,” Jordano said. “We call the pitches, and that’s easy in theory, but Billy has to go out and execute.”

Danny Valencia doubled home two runs in the first inning for the only runs the Hurricanes would need.

“We played Miami extremely tough. It was great baseball game. We had our opportunities, but Miami is a World Series team this year in my opinion,” Jordano said. “The potential is there, if we play tighter baseball.”

Temple 2, Pitt 1

The Panthers could only muster the lone run in suffering a tough loss to the Owls in the first of three games between the two. Jim Negrych got the scoring started with a sacrifice fly that scored Copeland, but the Owls scored two runs in the sixth behind a Devon Swope single, and later Swope scored on a wild pitch. The Panthers continued their defensive struggles, committing four errors in the game.

Andrew Kuss (1-1) was the tough-luck loser for the Panthers, going five-plus innings and striking out six.

Pitt 13, Temple 6

The Panthers took the second game of the series, pulling away with three runs in the sixth inning. After Dan Ford singled, Dave Cline pinch ran for Muldowney, who had also singled. The two then scored on a Conley base hit before Parise knocked in Conley with his own RBI single. In the eighth, the Panthers put on five more big runs behind RBI singles from Conley and Cline to put the Owls away.

Paul Nardozzi (2-1) pitched five and two-thirds innings to get the win for the Panthers.

Temple 5, Pitt 3

The Owls won the final game of the series thanks to timely hitting and solid pitching. The Panthers scored two runs in the first and added a third run in the fifth on a Conley sacrifice fly. The Owls, however, came storming back with three runs in the seventh behind the two RBI singles from Justin Cooper to put the Panthers away.

Robert Brant suffered the loss in relief of Muldowney, who was strong yet again in his start. The Panthers committed five more errors as a team.

“We haven’t had practice time outside. We haven’t been able to get on a field and actually practice and get repetitions,” Jordano said. “There is an expectation that we have, that we make routine plays. It wasn’t like we were making mistakes on great plays, they were routine plays.”

Pitt 4, Lafayette 2

The Panthers finished the trip with a victory over the Leopards behind a complete game from starting pitcher Don Rhoten (2-0). Rhoten gave up eight hits and just one earned run while striking out nine, picking up his second win of the year.

Trailing 2-0 in the seventh, the Panthers picked up three runs off of two Leopard errors, with Edgard Sucre driving in a run off a sacrifice fly. The Panthers got the final insurance run in the eighth inning when Parise scampered home off a wild pitch.

Jimmy Mayer and Dan Williams each had two hits for the Panthers. Pitt is back in action on Saturday in a doubleheader against Canisius at Trees Field with the first pitch set for noon.