Baseball: Panthers’ abundance of errors leads to loss against Akron

Pitt baseball couldn’t overcome committing the most errors it has all season in its game Tuesday night against Akron.

Seven Panther miscues gave non-conference opponent Akron repeated momentum, runners on base and runs scored over the course of the game, resulting in a 7-5 loss for Pitt at Charles L. Cost Field.

“Defensively, that was unacceptable for us,” redshirt sophomore infielder Dylan Wolsonovich said. “Seven errors, that’s really unacceptable for any team.”

The previous high for errors the team had made in a single contest this season was six against Fordham in a 9-2 loss Feb. 23. Head coach Joe Jordano was terse after his team’s shoddy performance. 

“There’s not really anything positive I have coming out of today’s ball game,” Jordano said.  “Quite frankly, we did nothing well.”

The loss was the team’s third consecutive defeat against a non-conference opponent in the last week, but Jordano wouldn’t attribute his team’s varying form against conference and non-conference foes to a lack of recognition of the latter. 

“We’ve always had the same midweek opponents,” he said. “When we don’t do the things we’re supposed to do and go out and play baseball the way we’re supposed to play baseball, you’re going to get beat. I don’t care who you’re playing, whether its midweek or on the weekends, and we proved that again today.   

Wolsonovich collected three hits in six at-bats, but also contributed to the fielding maladies with an error of his own. 

“We lacked a lot of focus and overall intensity for the game today,” Wolsonovich said. 

After an uneventful first inning on both sides, second baseman Matt Johnson made the first of Pitt’s seven errors when his throw to first base carried first baseman Eric Hess off the bag and allowed the leadoff batter to reach first base safely. Later, center fielder Stephen Vranka mishandled a hit that skipped past a diving Johnson up the middle, allowing game’s first run to score from second. A couple batters later, Johnson again couldn’t reach a ground ball to his left, and it trickled into right field. 

The two runs made the difference in the game, highlighting Pitt’s early steps behind the Zips (15-14, 6-3 Mid-American Conference). 

Pitt (16-16, 8-7 ACC) responded in its half of the inning when freshman catcher Caleb Parry, playing in place of usual starter Manny Pazos, hit an RBI double down the left field line. Vranka, a senior, followed and drove in two runs with a double a little to the right of where Parry had directed his in left field.

The Zips evened the score in the third when Kris Simonton, who reached base and took second behind an errant pickoff throw from starting pitcher T.J. Zeuch bounced off the dugout railing. Simonton scored when the next batter, Billy Simon, reached base on a passed ball that rolled to the backstop. 

Pitt was able to respond an inning later when Vranka got on base after smashing a double off the wall in left center field and eventually crossed the plate because of a wild Akron pickoff attempt. 

The lead didn’t last, though, as the Zips tied the score again after a runner reached base on an error by Hess, who failed to receive a throw at first, and then scored on a Devan Ahart RBI single to center. 

Jordano didn’t have an answer for how the two meetings between the teams could differ as much as they did. 

“I can assure you this, as a coaching staff and as a team, we prepared completely the same, but obviously our concentration and focus today was lacking,” he said. “Akron took advantage of our multiple mistakes. When you have six hits and score seven runs [as Akron did], you might as well gift wrap it for ‘em.”

The offense stopped on both sides for three innings until Akron found its rhythm again in the top of the eighth, scoring three runs off reliever Adam Dian, who had come in at the beginning of the inning in place of Zeuch, who gave up four runs — just one earned. Dian could only manage to retire the first opponent he faced and loaded the bases. 

When asked what the difference was between this time out against Akon and the first — an 11-8 Pitt victory March 19 — Vranka said it wasn’t anything extraordinary. 

“We just didn’t execute defensively,” he said. 

Redshirt senior Jon Danielczyk replaced Dian and fared better, getting the last two outs and allowing one hit but no runs.

Pitt closed the deficit by one when Hess knocked in Vranka on an RBI single off Matt LaRocca, the fourth and final pitcher to take the mound. But the Panthers mustered no more, giving Masashi Sakamoto the victory and Dian the loss.

Wolsonovich couldn’t explain what has ailed him and his teammates recently in these weekday games. 

“It seems like we’re taking one step forward [and] two steps back every time we come out,” he said. “We’re a better team than we’re playing in these midweeks.”