PITT BASEBALL DOWNS SACRED HEART 9-1

Sunday, March 11

Countryside Field/Clearwater, FL

10:00 AM

Pitt

Sacred Heart

PITT BASEBALL DOWNS SACRED HEART 9-1

3/12/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

March 12, 2007

Box Score

CLEARWATER, FLA. - The Pitt baseball team captured its sixth-straight win Sunday with a 9-1 victory over Sacred Heart in its final game of the Clearwater Invitational. The Panthers wrapped up their spring training going 6-2 to improve their overall record to 6-8, while the Pioneers fell to 4-7 on the season.

Pitt and Sacred Heart had met earlier in the tournament on March 4, where Pioneers' pitcher Chris Howard led his team to a 7-0 win over the Panthers. In Sunday's match-up, however, it was the Panthers' pitchers who shutdown the Pioneer offensive.

Starter Nate Reed (Reading, Pa./Oley Valley) and reliever Paul Nardozzi (Victor, N.Y./Victor) both gave strong performances for the Panthers. Reed went six innings, giving up five hits and one unearned run, while striking out five. Nardozzi finished things off for Pitt, throwing three hitless-innings, striking out five of the eleven batters he faced.

Sacred Heart got in the board first in the opening inning of play to take an early 1-0 lead. The score remained unchanged until the top of the fourth when Pitt tied the game at one. The Panthers went on to score nine unanswered runs for the 9-1 victory.

With one out in the top of the fourth, Morgan Kielty (Burlington, Ontario/Burlington Central) singled to left and was followed by a single from Seth Button (Elk Lake, Pa./Gloucester College). Button attempted to stretch the single into a double when Sacred Heart right fielder Pete Kandybowicz bobbled the ball as he was fielding it. The Pioneers used a quick 9-5-4 relay, however, to throw Button out at second, while Kielty advanced to third on the play. Peter Parise (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman) ripped a single of his own up the middle, scoring Kielty to tie the game at one.

Pitt added two runs in the top of the fifth and another in the sixth to move the score to 4-1. Button, Jordan Herr (Lancaster, Pa./Delaware) and Daniel Lopez (Queens, N.Y./Monsignor McClancy) tallied singles, while the Panther offense took advantage of three Sacred Heart errors to advance the score.

In the seventh, Pitt added three more to its lead for a 7-1 tally. Pinch hitter Dan Williams (Berwyn, Pa./Episcopal Academy) reached base on an error by the Pioneers' third baseman to lead-off the inning, while Sean Conley (Chippewa, Pa./Blackhawk) followed with a single. With two on and no outs, Gary Bucuren (Ambridge, Pa./Kentucky) was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Williams scored when Kielty hit a ground ball to second base, while Conley and Bucuren both advanced. Button followed with his third single of the day, scoring Conley and moving Bucuren to third. With runners at the corners, Parise knocked his third single of the game into center field to score Bucuren and increase the Panthers lead to 7-1.

Pitt added two more runs in the top of the eighth using a double by Williams and RBI-singles from Bucuren and Chris Warner (West Seneca, N.Y./University of South Carolina) for the final of 9-1. The Panthers tallied 15 hits, while holding the Pioneers to just five.

Pitt will open Big East conference play this weekend as it travels back to Florida to take on USF in a three-game, weekend series. Friday, March 16, and Saturday, March 17, the Panthers and Bulls will face off at 6 p.m. in Tampa, Fla. Sunday, March 18, the two teams will meet for a 12 p.m. contest.

Last season, Pitt won two of its three meetings with USF by scores 7-1 and 11-9, while dropping a 5-3 decision. The Bulls are 12-6 coming into this week and will face Miami (Ohio) Tuesday before seeing the Panthers this weekend.

NOTES: Seth Button and Peter Parise each tallied three hits, going 3-4 in the game, while combined for three RBIs. The Panthers notched a season-high 15 hits as a team.

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