Savannah King won’t admit it, but her miserable outing in the first game of a doubleheader on Tuesday might have been a blessing.

Because King threw just 10 pitches but suffered the loss in her earlier start, the junior left-hander was able to take the mound again just more than two hours after pitching her way off it.

“I should have just been able to pitch the full first game, but [Alexa Larkin] came in and did a good job,” King said. “We didn’t win, but I knew the second game I had to come in and do it for my team.”

Backed by Maggie Sevilla’s fourth-inning home run that highlighted an offensive explosion, King bounced back in her second start of the day to hold down Robert Morris in a 9-1 win over five innings Tuesday evening, the second game of a doubleheader at Vartabedian Field.

“It was the approach, the mentality,” junior Carly Thea said of the complete effort. “I think we got a little more fight in us. We just came at it better than we did in the first game.”

King (7-11) tossed a complete game victory, scattering three hits, four walks and one earned run across five innings. She added four strikeouts in a determined effort that she amounted to a chance for redemption.

“I was kind of like, ‘You better prove yourself right now because you looked like crap in the first game,’” she said.

For the first two innings, though, the Colonials starters continued to outduel King. This time around it was senior left-hander Geena Badolato, who surrendered just one walk and struck out four through two frames.

The Panthers (12-15) fell behind in the top of the third when outfielder Kristen Gabelt cracked a double off the right-field wall, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and completed her trip around the bases after the next at-bat. Jordan Gurganus, Colonials first baseman, laced a grounder to Pitt freshman third baseman Katherine Kramer, who fielded the ball cleanly, but hesitated before gunning the ball to the catcher. Gabelt slid in safely ahead of Kathryn Duran’s tag at home, and the Colonials jumped to a 1-0 lead.

Although King had seemed to make the necessary adjustments after Game 1, the offense looked to be stuck in the doldrums. Pitt responded in the bottom half of the inning, though, exploding for five runs on three hits and capitalizing on two errors by Robert Morris (15-16).

Duran doubled to start the inning and was promptly substituted on the bases for sophomore infielder Morgan Choe. 

Sevilla said that double, paired with some motivational words, was just about all the Panthers needed to start picking up hits.

“We came out pretty slow, and we had about six bad at-bats,” she said. “So one of our captains pulled us aside and said, ‘Look, we need to make an adjustment — either move up [in the box], get hit [by a pitch] or find a way to get on base. That’s what Kathryn Duran did when she came up with a big double.”

After Ashlee Sills struck out swinging, sophomore outfielder Tori Nirschl reached on an error by Robert Morris third baseman Chelsea Siar.

Choe and Nirschl executed a double steal during the next at-bat, but would have advanced regardless after junior outfielder Jordan Fannin walked. The Colonials met on the mound to calm Badolato, knowing the stage was set for Sevilla, the reigning ACC Player of the Week.

Sevilla waited patiently outside the right batter’s box for the mound chat to adjourn. Badolato got ahead with two quick strikes on the Pitt second baseman, but Sevilla then slapped an RBI single to right field, forcing Fannin to duck out of the way and scoring Choe.

Thea followed with her own opposite-field RBI single, which scored Nirschl and gave Pitt its first lead of the day. Carissa Throckmorton then walked with the bases loaded, and Badolato (2-10) was relieved by Haileigh Stocks. 

Kramer then smoked a grounder to short that was misplayed and brought another run home.

The five runs proved enough for King, who bargained with her teammates for this result before the game.

“The second game I told my teammates I was ready to fight for them, and I just wanted another chance,” King said. “They fought for me and made their adjustments at-bat, and we mercied them in five.”

Pitt added another four runs in the fourth inning, two of which were scored on Sevilla’s line-drive home run, which clanged off the scoreboard in left-center field. The blast was Sevilla’s seventh of the season, which leads the team. 

Sevilla is now 10-for-20 (.500) with four home runs, 12 RBI and nine runs in her last six games, a span in which Pitt has won four games. Her hot streak might be just another example of a hidden blessing for a Pitt player.

It would be easy to look at the long period of frigid weather that prevented Pitt from playing games as a detractor, forcing the players from getting into any kind of routine. Sevilla, though, said that stretch actually benefitted her offense.

“The break really got me to focus on my swing and my mechanics,” she said. “I wasn’t hitting very well before I came into this past weekend, and I think just getting my mechanics right so that I can trust my hands.”