Thursday, May 17
Pittsburgh, Pa.
6 PM
Pitt
27-23, 11-17-0
6
vs
16
Clemson
41-13, 20-8-0
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9
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Clemson
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16
18
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Pittsburgh
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2
Panthers Fall to No. 7 Clemson in Opener
5/17/2018 10:11:00 PM | Baseball
Pitt Clinches ACC Tournament Berth
PITTSBURGH – The University of Pittsburgh baseball team dropped the series opener to No. 7 Clemson Thursday night at Charles L. Cost Field, falling to the powerhouse Tigers, 16-6.
"We didn't like the outcome," said head coach Joe Jordano. "We got back into the game and we had some hard hit balls with runners in scoring position. If we find some green there, then it's a different outcome. All the credit goes to Clemson, they did an absolutely terrific job at the plate and took advantage of a lot of our pitches that we left up in the zone and that's what they are supposed to do."
Pitt (27-23, 11-17 ACC) got on the board first, scoring a run on an interesting play at home plate. After Frank Maldonado and David Yanni walked, Ron Washington Jr. hit a single that would bring home Maldonado. Maldonado slid to avoid the catcher's tag, missing the base in the initial attempt before diving back under to put the Panthers up 1-0.
Clemson (41-13, 20-8 ACC) struck for six in the third, adding one in the fourth to go up 7-1.
The Panthers got one back in the fifth on a set of back-to-back doubles from Connor Perry and Maldonado.
Clemson added two more in the sixth, but Pitt answered right back, scoring four runs to make it 9-6, cutting the Tigers lead to three. Liam Sabino led off the inning with a solo homer, his team-leading 16th home run of the season, to begin the Panthers offensive push. Washington Jr. singled up the middle in the next at bat, and Caleb Parry would be walked to put runners on first and second for Chris Cappas, who singled up the middle to score Washington Jr. After Cappas's single, Perry walked to load the bases with two outs. Maldonado smacked a double to right center, allowing both Perry and Cappas to score.
A two-run homer in the seventh increased the Tigers lead to five, while a run in the eighth and four more in the ninth would push Clemson to a 16-6 victory.
Matt Pidich (5-2) earned the loss, giving up five runs on five hits while striking out three over 2.1 innings. RJ Freure, Chase Smith, Peyton Reesman, Kevin Henriksen and TJ Pagan all saw work out of the bullpen, while William Kirwan closed out the game for the Panthers.
Offensively, Maldonado went 2-4 with three RBI while Washington Jr. went 2-5 with one RBI as the Panthers tallied 10 hits in the campaign.
The Panthers and Tigers return to action tomorrow for game two with first pitch set for 3 p.m. Dan Hammer is set to take the mound for the Panthers.
With Virginia Tech's loss to North Carolina this afternoon, the Panthers clinched a berth in the 2018 ACC Tournament, their first since joining the ACC in 2014.
"I think that we are a work in progress," said Jordano. "We are happy to compete in the tournament but conversely we are trying to put a clean baseball game together and put a couple of good games together to get some momentum heading into the tournament. For the most part these last couple of weekends I thought we played really well, but we came up a little short today."
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"We didn't like the outcome," said head coach Joe Jordano. "We got back into the game and we had some hard hit balls with runners in scoring position. If we find some green there, then it's a different outcome. All the credit goes to Clemson, they did an absolutely terrific job at the plate and took advantage of a lot of our pitches that we left up in the zone and that's what they are supposed to do."
Pitt (27-23, 11-17 ACC) got on the board first, scoring a run on an interesting play at home plate. After Frank Maldonado and David Yanni walked, Ron Washington Jr. hit a single that would bring home Maldonado. Maldonado slid to avoid the catcher's tag, missing the base in the initial attempt before diving back under to put the Panthers up 1-0.
Clemson (41-13, 20-8 ACC) struck for six in the third, adding one in the fourth to go up 7-1.
The Panthers got one back in the fifth on a set of back-to-back doubles from Connor Perry and Maldonado.
Clemson added two more in the sixth, but Pitt answered right back, scoring four runs to make it 9-6, cutting the Tigers lead to three. Liam Sabino led off the inning with a solo homer, his team-leading 16th home run of the season, to begin the Panthers offensive push. Washington Jr. singled up the middle in the next at bat, and Caleb Parry would be walked to put runners on first and second for Chris Cappas, who singled up the middle to score Washington Jr. After Cappas's single, Perry walked to load the bases with two outs. Maldonado smacked a double to right center, allowing both Perry and Cappas to score.
A two-run homer in the seventh increased the Tigers lead to five, while a run in the eighth and four more in the ninth would push Clemson to a 16-6 victory.
Matt Pidich (5-2) earned the loss, giving up five runs on five hits while striking out three over 2.1 innings. RJ Freure, Chase Smith, Peyton Reesman, Kevin Henriksen and TJ Pagan all saw work out of the bullpen, while William Kirwan closed out the game for the Panthers.
Offensively, Maldonado went 2-4 with three RBI while Washington Jr. went 2-5 with one RBI as the Panthers tallied 10 hits in the campaign.
The Panthers and Tigers return to action tomorrow for game two with first pitch set for 3 p.m. Dan Hammer is set to take the mound for the Panthers.
With Virginia Tech's loss to North Carolina this afternoon, the Panthers clinched a berth in the 2018 ACC Tournament, their first since joining the ACC in 2014.
"I think that we are a work in progress," said Jordano. "We are happy to compete in the tournament but conversely we are trying to put a clean baseball game together and put a couple of good games together to get some momentum heading into the tournament. For the most part these last couple of weekends I thought we played really well, but we came up a little short today."
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Spencer Strider (5-1)
L: Pidich, Matt (5-2)
Batting:
2B: Kyle Wilkie 1 ; Seth Beer 1 ; Chris Williams 1 ; Patrick Cromwell 1
HR: Logan Davidson 2 ; Seth Beer 1 ; Patrick Cromwell 2 ; Sam Hall 1
RBI: Logan Davidson 3 ; Kyle Wilkie 1 ; Seth Beer 4 ; Chris Williams 2 ; Patrick Cromwell 4 ; Sam Hall 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Logan Davidson 4 ; Kyle Wilkie 2 ; Seth Beer 3 ; Chris Williams 2 ; Patrick Cromwell 2 ; Sam Hall 1 ; Jordan Greene 2
PO: Robert Jolly 1
Batting:
2B: Maldonado, Frank 2 ; Perry, Connor 1
HR: Sabino, Liam 1
RBI: Maldonado, Frank 3 ; Sabino, Liam 1 ; Washington, Jr., Ron 1 ; Cappas, Chris 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Maldonado, Frank 1 ; Sabino, Liam 1 ; Washington, Jr., Ron 1 ; Parry, Caleb 1 ; Cappas, Chris 1 ; Perry, Connor 1
SB: Washington, Jr., Ron 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
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3
RBI
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4
R
1
H
2
RBI
3
AB
5
R
1
H
1
RBI
1
AB
5
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
LHP/OF
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RHP
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INF
/ Baseball
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