Baseball Prevails in 13-11 Offensive Shootout Against Pittsburgh
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) baseball team won a back-and-forth battle, 13-11, against the Pittsburgh (Pitt) Panthers on Sunday afternoon at UNCG Baseball Stadium.
With the win, the Spartans, now 5-5 on the season, snapped a four-game skid after dropping two games to Virginia Tech last weekend before falling twice in the series against Pitt. The ballgame witnessed scoring in 10 different half innings, with UNCG scoring in five of its eight turns to hit while Pitt also scored in five of its nine chances.
Pitt got into the score column first when it loaded the bases with no outs for AJ Nessler to chop a single through the left side, which made it 1-0. Jayden Melendez then lofted a single into center that scored a pair and made it 3-0 Panthers. The Spartans posted one run in the bottom of the first with Luke Holland scoring on a wild pitch. After one inning, Pitt led UNCG 3-1.
The Panthers made it 4-1 in the fourth when Jackson Cooke walked, moved over to third on a hit by Logan Duffy and then scored on a single chopped through the right side by Luke Cantwell. After Danny Thompson Jr. entered in relief of starting arm Grant Aycock, Pitt extended its lead to 5-1 with a run scoring from third on a 4-6-3 double play.
UNCG piled on six runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 7-5 lead. It started with Luke Jenkins reaching third after Pitt’s center fielder dropped a fly ball in right-center. After four consecutive free passes, with two hit batters and a pair of walks that scored two runs, Jose Perez scored on a wild pitch to cut it to 5-4. Branton Jernigan had the big hit that gave the Spartans their first lead, 7-5, when he launched a three-run home run over the wall in right.
After Pitt cut UNCG’s lead to one, 7-6, in the top of the fifth, another two runs came in for the Spartans after another dropped ball in the outfield allowed a pair to score, making it 9-6.
Jacob Dilley tacked on another run to make it 10-6 Spartans in the sixth when he hit a sacrifice fly to left-center to score Trey Truitt from third.
Pitt then piled on four runs in the eighth to tie it, 10-10. It started out with Lorenzo Carrier hitting a three-run home run left of the batter’s eye out in center. Ryan Zuckerman then lined a one-hop double off the wall in right to score Nessler from first to tie it.
The Spartans took back the lead in the bottom of the eighth by scoring three times. The rally started with Truitt walking and Jernigan hitting a single before they both went on to score via wild pitches. Later in the inning, Perez singled to left, allowing Tyler Steele, who entered the game to pinch run, to score from second.
In the top of the ninth, Pitt mounted a rally and scored one run on a ground out, but Rob Ready, who entered the game in the eighth, got the third out to secure the 13-11 victory for UNCG.
NOTES:
The Spartans set season-highs for runs (13) and hits (11).
Jernigan led UNCG with three hits, three RBI and two runs.
Truitt, Jernigan, Jenkins and Perez all had two-hit days.
Aycock, Thompson Jr. and Dear combined for nine strikeouts.
The Spartans had the edge in walks, 7-6.
Both teams left eight runners aboard.
PITCHING RECORDS:
Rob Ready: W, 1-1
Andrew Gaines: L, 0-1
RECORDS:
UNCG: 5-5, 0-0 SoCon
Pitt: 7-3, 0-0 ACC
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The Spartans will face a fourth consecutive ACC opponent when they host NC State on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m at UNCG Baseball Stadium.
After that, they will welcome in Elon on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. before hosting Radford from March 7-9 in Greensboro.
Courtesy of Connor Wachtel
Strategic Communications Coordinator
UNC Greensboro