Pitt
11-8, 1-6
Virginia
18-4, 4-3
Popa Extends Hitting Streak, Panthers Drop Game One to No. 14 Virginia
3/22/2024 4:30:00 PM | Baseball
PITTSBURGH – Pitt fell in game one to No. 14 Virginia 18-2 in seven innings on Friday afternoon.
Senior Dom Popa extended his ACC-best hitting streak to 18 games on his RBI triple in the bottom of the second. Luke Cantwell went 1-3 with an RBI double in the bottom of the first inning. C.J. Funk and Josh Spiegel also went 1-3 on the day.
Right-hander Ben Kovel threw a scoreless inning in relief, allowing no hits and one walk while striking out one batter.
Virginia got on the board with a two-run top of the first innings. The Cavaliers strung together three straight hits and a sacrifice fly to take an early two run lead.
The Panthers came right back in the bottom half of the inning and got one. Dom Popa drew and leadoff single and advanced to second on C.J. Funk single up the middle. Luke Cantwell lined an opposite field, RBI, double down the left field line that just landed in fair territory. Popa scored from second and Pitt had runners at second and third with nobody out. Jayden Melendez was struck with a 2-0 pitch and the bases were juiced with no one out. Cullen McKay then struck out the next three Panthers in order and ended the inning. Pitt trailed 2-1 after one.
The Cavaliers scored five runs on four this in the top of the second and led by six. Pitt got one of those back in the bottom half for the second straight inning.
In his first game back since March 12, short stop Jake Kendro worked walk in his first at-bat. He advanced to second on a passed ball and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Dom Popa was thinking extra bases when he lined his RBI triple into the right-center gap for Pitt's first three-bagger of the year. Virginia led 7-2 after two.
Virginia hit three home runs and scored 11 runs over the next five frames and won 18-2.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Cullen McKay (2-0)
L: Andrade, Ryan (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Griff O'Ferrall 2 ; Anthony Stephan 1 ; Harrison Didawick 1
3B: Jacob Ference 1
HR: Henry Ford 1 ; Harrison Didawick 1 ; Jacob Ference 2
RBI: Griff O'Ferrall 2 ; Anthony Stephan 1 ; Casey Saucke 2 ; Henry Ford 3 ; Harrison Didawick 5 ; Jacob Ference 3 ; Eric Becker 1
SF: Henry Ford 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Griff O'Ferrall 3 ; Anthony Stephan 3 ; Casey Saucke 2 ; Henry Ford 2 ; Harrison Didawick 1 ; Henry Godbout 1 ; Jacob Ference 3 ; Ethan Anderson 1 ; Eric Becker 2
SB: Eric Becker 1
PO: Casey Saucke 1
Batting:
2B: Cantwell, Luke 1
3B: Popa, Dom 1
RBI: Popa, Dom 1 ; Cantwell, Luke 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Popa, Dom 1 ; Kendro, Jake 1
HBP: Melendez, Jayden 2 ; Kendro, Jake 1
