University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt
Notre Dame
Pitt Baseball Loses Series Finale at Notre Dame
3/25/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 25, 2012
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – In another close game, a late Pitt rally came up short as the Panthers dropped the series finale at Notre Dame, 7-5 on Sunday at Frank Eck Stadium.
The Panthers’ three losses to the Fighting Irish in the first Big East series of the season for both teams came by a combined four runs. Even more, coach Joe Jordano’s squad played nearly flawless defense in all three games.
“That was a very difficult series,” Jordano said. “We out-hit them in two of the three games and had some situations in terms of hard hits that didn’t go our way. I’ve really never experienced anything like that before. We played errorless baseball this weekend, which was awesome. We did a lot of good things against a very good team, but unfortunately we came up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.”
Trailing 7-3 after eight innings, Pitt made a serious threat at a comeback. The first two batters – Sam Parente and Evan Oswald – reached base on a hit-by-pitch and a walk, respectively, and both would go on to score on a two-out single by Rick Devereaux.
Needing one out to end the game, Notre Dame turned to closer Dan Slania for the third time in three games and the hard-throwing righty came through with his third save of the series.
Matt Wotherspoon took the loss for the Panthers, but showed resilience by shaking off a tough start. After allowing four runs in the first two innings, he responded by retiring 13 straight hitters and didn’t allow a hit in five straight innings.
Pitt had nine hits in the game, but left eight runners on base, while Notre Dame had just five hits and left four on base. Of the 10 Fighting Irish baserunners to reach scoring position, seven scored.
“Our challenge now is to be able to learn from those things as a young team, make the necessary adjustments and move on to our next opponent. I said it day one and I’m saying it again today, it’s a work in progress,” Jordano said. “We’re playing some quality baseball, but we’re just not winning right now. We’re going to have to continue to work as hard as we can to figure it out and keep competing. I was very pleased with how our team competed this weekend. They played hard all weekend long. “
For the series, Pitt out-hit Notre Dame 26-22 and made zero errors to the Fighting Irish’s four. Prior to this week, the Panthers were 6-1 when out-hitting their opponents, but have since dropped to 6-4.
Devereaux’s two RBIs give him a Big East-leading 30 on the season. He has taken advantage of his opportunities, batting .489 with runners in scoring position.
Freshman Elvin Soto also had two hits and drove in two runs for the Panthers, giving him 21 RBIs on the season. Anthony Defabio, Casey Roche, Boo Vazquez, Parente, Oswald and Derik Wilson all had one hit.
Pitt will host Kent State in a non-conference game on Wednesday before hitting the road again for a weekend series at Big East foe Cincinnati.
