Pitt Baseball lost to No. 5 Virginia, 18-0, on Saturday, April 16.
When it rains, it pours. Even in a game delayed 75 minutes to escape inclement weather, the mantra held true as errors and baserunners piled up. The Cavaliers’ potent offense wasted no time in capitalizing: 31 baserunners reached.
The Panthers, on the other hand, committed as many errors—four—as they did hits.
Pitt’s entire starting outfield didn’t play due to injury—lacking Kyle Hess, Ron Washington Jr. and CJ Funk put the Panthers’ lineup at a significant handicap.
The Cavaliers took a 2-0 lead after three batters, stringing together a pair of doubles and a single.
Panthers starter Logan Evans rebounded to throw a scoreless second, but a fielding error and balk in the third helped Virginia double their lead.
Evans gave up two doubles and a walk in the fifth before head coach Mike Bell subbed in C.J. McKennett to replace him.
McKennett elicited a groundout from the first batter he faced, but the next seven batters reached base—across two pitching changes—as the Cavaliers opened an 11-0 lead before a double play mercifully ended the inning.
A fielding error allowed another run to score in the sixth, the first unearned one on the day.
UVA scored three runs in both the seventh and eighth innings, on the way to an 18-0 final.
The loss moves Pitt to 20-13 on the season, and 8-8 in the ACC. Billy Corcoran will take the mound for the rubber match, slated to begin at 2pm on Sunday, April 17.
This as awful. Bad baseball from the start. It was some really bad pitching, fielding and hitting. Wash it off Panthers and win the series tomorrow.
H2P.