Baseball: Pitt Takes Two
April 10, 2004 07:19 PM | General
By Tim Goodenow for MSNsportsNET.com
April 10, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The West Virginia University baseball team could not capitalize on opportunities in both games, dropping its doubleheader to Pitt, 2-0 and 7-2, on Saturday afternoon at Hawley Field.
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| West Virginia dropped a doubleheader to Pitt Saturday at Hawley Field. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The Pitt Panthers led 1-0 in game one in the fifth on a sacrifice fly to right field by Ben Copeland. An inning later, Pitt made it 2-0 as Mike Scanzano knocked in Jim Negrych who reached on a double to open the sixth.
West Virginia, which tallied just five hits for the game, rallied with two outs in the sixth inning. Sophomore Stan Posluszny reached base on a Panther error. Junior Grant Psomas followed with a base hit up the middle sending Posluszny to third. Sophomore Kyle Matuszek represented the go ahead run before striking out to end the Mountaineer threat.
Pitt’s Nick Evangelista kept WVU off balance and recorded 10 strikeouts while improving to 3-0 on the season.
Chris Amedro (0-3) took the loss despite going the distance, surrendering seven hits, two runs (one earned) and seven strikeouts.
In game two, the Mountaineers went scoreless in the first seven innings to trail 4-0. Pitt totaled two runs in both the second and seventh innings.
Panthers Tom Cashman, Peter Parise and Negrych collected two hits apiece. Negrych, the second basemen, doubled down the left field line off starter Wes Osbourn (1-1) to push the lead to 3-0.
The Mountaineers threatened in the eighth scoring two runs. Freshman Justin Richards doubled and then scored on a Pitt error for WVU’s first run of the game.
Sophomore Casey Bowling, who reached on the error, then moved to second base as senior Jake Serfass drew a walk. Junior Lee Fritz lined a 1-1 pitch up the middle to load the bases. A sacrifice fly to deep center field by Posluszny scored Bowling, making it 4-2. Psomas grounded out to end the inning.
Pitt tacked on three more runs in the ninth inning. Panther P.J. Heiser (3-0) tossed 7.1 innings of work in striking out seven.
Fritz and Richards each collected a pair of hits in game two going two for four. Freshman Osbourn took the loss as Levi Maxwell and Ryan Lipscomb both work an inning in relief.
The Mountaineers fall to 9-20 overall and 1-9 in the BIG EAST on the season while Pitt goes to 19-8 overall and 7-3 in the conference.
WVU returns to Hawley Field on Tuesday, April 13, when it takes on Mid-American Conference member Ohio in single-game action beginning at 7:05 p.m.
