Wednesday, April 19
Pittsburgh, Pa.
6 PM
Pitt
16-19
4
vs
9
West Virginia
26-11
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Pittsburgh
2
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
11
1
West Virginia
0
0
5
3
0
1
0
0
X
9
12
2
Pitt Falls to West Virginia at PNC Park
4/19/2023 10:28:00 PM | Baseball
PITTSBURGH - Pitt (16-19, 7-9 ACC) fell to West Virginia (26-11, 5-4 Big12) at PNC Park Wednesday evening in their first of three scheduled meetings with the Mountaineers this season. In a game that was all Panthers early on, the Mountaineers fought back to overcome a four-run deficit, scoring nine unanswered runs to top the Panthers in 2023's first installment of the Backyard Brawl.
Pitt started the scoring early, Sky Duff as he has all year, led off the first inning with a single up the middle. Two batters later, Noah Martinez brought Duff home with a RBI single down the right field line. The Panthers had runners on first and second after Kyle Hess reached base for the 17th straight game on a hit by pitch. Justin Acal then stepped in and delivered a singled to left field, scoring Martinez, and giving the Panthers an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
The Panthers added some insurance two innings later as Martinez recorded his second straight hit of the game with a leadoff double into the right-center gap. An error by West Virginia's second baseman on a groundball by Hess plated Martinez and put Pitt up 3-0. A Caleb Sturtevant infield single scored Hess to extend the Panthers lead to 4-0 heading to the bottom of the third inning. Sturtevant has now recorded a hit in five of his last six games.
West Virginia's offense exploded in the home half of the third to take the lead. A bunt single with runners on first and second loaded the bases with no outs and the Mountaineers were able to tie the game, 4-4, with three straight singles by Landon Wallace, Dayne Leonard, and Braden Barry. The Mountaineers then took their first lead of the game, 5-4. as they earned a bases loaded walk to plate a runner. Pitt forced a flyout to center to end the scoring in the third as West Virginia took the 5-4 lead into the fourth.
The Mountaineers tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, one on a passed ball after a double steal, one on a single to left field and the other on a sacrifice fly to center. They added another insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a home run ball by Cam McNeely that landed in the centerfield bullpen.
Pitt would get runners on in the latter innings but didn't capitalize as they fell to West Virginia by the score of 9-4.
NEXT UP
Pitt will host No. 2 Wake Forest (32-5, 14-3 ACC) this weekend at Charles L. Cost Field. The series opener is set for Friday April 21, at 6 p.m., starting pitchers are currently TBD.
Pitt started the scoring early, Sky Duff as he has all year, led off the first inning with a single up the middle. Two batters later, Noah Martinez brought Duff home with a RBI single down the right field line. The Panthers had runners on first and second after Kyle Hess reached base for the 17th straight game on a hit by pitch. Justin Acal then stepped in and delivered a singled to left field, scoring Martinez, and giving the Panthers an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
The Panthers added some insurance two innings later as Martinez recorded his second straight hit of the game with a leadoff double into the right-center gap. An error by West Virginia's second baseman on a groundball by Hess plated Martinez and put Pitt up 3-0. A Caleb Sturtevant infield single scored Hess to extend the Panthers lead to 4-0 heading to the bottom of the third inning. Sturtevant has now recorded a hit in five of his last six games.
West Virginia's offense exploded in the home half of the third to take the lead. A bunt single with runners on first and second loaded the bases with no outs and the Mountaineers were able to tie the game, 4-4, with three straight singles by Landon Wallace, Dayne Leonard, and Braden Barry. The Mountaineers then took their first lead of the game, 5-4. as they earned a bases loaded walk to plate a runner. Pitt forced a flyout to center to end the scoring in the third as West Virginia took the 5-4 lead into the fourth.
The Mountaineers tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, one on a passed ball after a double steal, one on a single to left field and the other on a sacrifice fly to center. They added another insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a home run ball by Cam McNeely that landed in the centerfield bullpen.
Pitt would get runners on in the latter innings but didn't capitalize as they fell to West Virginia by the score of 9-4.
NEXT UP
Pitt will host No. 2 Wake Forest (32-5, 14-3 ACC) this weekend at Charles L. Cost Field. The series opener is set for Friday April 21, at 6 p.m., starting pitchers are currently TBD.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Van Kempen (2-0)
L: Fernandez, Matthew (1-3)
Batting:
2B: Anderson, Jack 1 ; Martinez, Noah 2 ; Funk, C.J. 2
RBI: Martinez, Noah 1 ; Acal, Justin 1 ; Sturtevant, Caleb 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Duff, Sky 1 ; Martinez, Noah 2 ; Hess, Kyle 1
HBP: Hess, Kyle 1
Batting:
HR: McNeely, C. 1
RBI: Wallace, L. 1 ; Leonard, D. 2 ; McNeely, C. 2 ; Barry, B. 2 ; Sauve, L. 1
SF: Barry, B. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Tucker, T. 2 ; Wallace, L. 2 ; Leonard, D. 1 ; McNeely, C. 2 ; Sauve, L. 1 ; White, S. 1
SB: Tucker, T. 2 ; Wallace, L. 1 ; Garcia, E. 1
CS: Tucker, T. 1
HBP: McNeely, C. 1 ; Hussey, G. 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
2
H
2
RBI
1
AB
5
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
/ Baseball
INF
/ Baseball
OF
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