University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt
Seton Hall
Panthers Take Game One from Seton Hall, 5-2
5/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 7, 2010
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — The University of Pittsburgh baseball team won for the eighth time in the last nine Big East games played, taking game one against Seton Hall by a 5-2 margin here today at Owen T. Carroll Field in South Orange, N.J.
“It was a real solid win for us,” said head coach Joe Jordano. “I thought Corey [Baker] gave us an opportunity to win and J.R. [Leonardi] came in and did an outstanding job. We came up with some big hits and it was an all-around solid team effort. Seton Hall is a very solid team and tomorrow will be very competitive.”
Corey Baker (10-2) picked up his 10th win of the season, taking sole possession of second place on Pitt’s single-season wins list. Baker went seven innings, giving up eight hits and just two runs while striking out five Pirate (16-25-1, 5-14 Big East) batters on the day.
The Panthers (33-11, 14-4 Big East) were led by Joe Leonard at the plate. Leonard was a perfect 4-for-4 on the day with one RBI while scoring a run as well.
Seton Hall took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Frank Esposito scored on a Guiseppe Papaccio sacrifice fly to left-center field. Baker bounced back was able to close out the inning with consecutive fly outs and striking out A.J. Rusbarsky.
The Panthers knotted the game at 1-1 in the top of the fourth on a Cory Brownsten infield single, scoring Travis Whitemore from third. Whitmore singled to right to start the inning before stealing second and advancing to third on an errant throw by SHU catcher Esposito. Phil Konieczny singled to give Pitt runners at first and second before DiRocco was able to get Ronald Sucre to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
Leonard’s single through the left side scored Zach Duggan from second to give Pitt the 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth. John Schultz made it 3-1 after scoring on a David Chester sacrifice fly to left before Kevan Smith’s one-out single to right-center scored Leonard and put the Panthers ahead 4-1.
Sucre made it 5-2 in favor of Pitt in the top of the sixth, hitting his first career home run over the wall in left field.
A two-out RBI base hit by Papaccio scored Michael Rogers from second, cutting the Panther lead to 5-2, but Baker struck out Will Walsh to end the threat and get out of the sixth.
J.R. Leonardi took over in the bottom of the eighth for Baker, making short work by going three-up, three-down.
Papaccio led the Seton Hall ninth off with double down the left-field line, putting the Pirates in scoring position early. After a Walsh groundout to short, Leonardi walked pinch-hitter Chase Gray, putting Pirates on first and second with one out. Michael Betz struck out looking for the second out of the inning while Bobby Abreu grounded out to a diving Leonard at third to end the game.
The Panthers and Pirates will conclude their series tomorrow with a doubleheader here at Owen T. Carroll Field. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 1 p.m. with game two following approximately one half hour after the completion of game one.
