Pitt
13-14, 3-11
Georgia Tech
18-11, 4-7
Melendez, Panthers Walk Off Yellow Jackets and Even Series
4/6/2024 7:34:00 PM | Baseball
PITTSBURGH – Jayden Melendez lined a walk-off double to right field and topped Georgia Tech 3-2 to even the series on Saturday afternoon. Jack Sokol provided a quality start on the mound for the Panthers, allowing just one earned run over 5.1 innings.
Jayden Melendez's first career walk off was a line drive ground-rule double to right field to tie a pivotal ACC series. Freshman Ryan Zuckerman tied a single-game career-high for hits today, going 3-3 with three singles and a walk. Luke Cantwell drew a season-high four walks this afternoon and hit his fifth home run of the season. C.J. Funk collected his 10th multi-hit game of the year going 2-4 with a run scored. Keeton Burroughs made his first career start in left field and drove in his first career RBI on a fielder's choice in the bottom of the second.
Pitt's starter, Jack Sokol, gave them exactly what they needed in what was one of his best starts this year. Sokol went 5.1 innings and allowed just one earned run on five hits while only walking two batters. Ethan Firoved surrendered just one hit in his 1.2 scoreless innings in relief today while Phil Fox collected his fifth consecutive scoreless outing and his third win of the year.
Georgia Tech got an unearned in the top half of the first inning and got on the board first for the second consecutive game this weekend.
The Panthers led off the bottom of the second inning with three-straight singles of all different varieties, loading the bases with nobody out. C.J. Funk led off the inning with an infield single to third, Dom Popa followed with an opposite-field single to left and Ryan Zuckerman laid down a perfectly placed bunt single to third. Keeton Burroughs drove in Funk on an RBI fielder's choice and tied the game at one after two.
Luke Cantwell led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo shot to right that gave Pitt their first lead of the series. For Cantwell, it was his fifth home run of the season.
Jack Sokol settled in after surrendering a run in the top of the first and threw four straight scoreless innings to get the Panthers into the sixth inning.
The Yellow Jackets got one back in the top half of the sixth and knotted the game two runs apiece.
The Panthers would threaten multiple times in the later innings but would be unable to capitalize in any of those situations.
Phil Fox entered out of the bullpen and into a jam with two runners on and no one out. After both runners stole a base on Fox's first pitch, Georgia Tech had runners at second and third with no one out. Fox would strikeout the next two batters and get the third to pop up to Melendez behind the dish to escape the jam and keep the game tied.
Luke Cantwell led off the bottom of the ninth inning with his fourth walk of the day to start the Panthers' rally. Freshman Austyn Winkleblech pinch-ran for Cantwell at first and swiped second on the first pitch to Jayden Melendez. With Winkleblech now in scoring postion, Melendez lined a walk off ground-rule double that one-hopped the right field fence and clinched a must-needed win for the Panthers.
Tomorrow's rubber match will begin at 2 PM and will be aired on the ACC Network.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Fox, Phil (3-1)
L: Ben King (1-1)
Batting:
RBI: Matthew Ellis 1 ; Carson Kerce 1
SH: Payton Green 1 ; Parker Brosius 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Trey Yunger 1 ; Matthew Ellis 1
SB: Cam Jones 2 ; Payton Green 1
Batting:
2B: Melendez, Jayden 1
HR: Cantwell, Luke 1
RBI: Cantwell, Luke 1 ; Melendez, Jayden 1 ; Burroughs, Keeton 1
SH: Popa, Dom 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Cantwell, Luke 1 ; Winkleblech, Austyn 1 ; Funk, C.J. 1
SB: Winkleblech, Austyn 1
CS: Zuckerman, Ryan 1
