Pitt
8-7, 1-3-0
Florida State
14-4, 4-0-0
Pitt Falls to No. 11 Florida State 17-4
3/18/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Box Score |
Photo Gallery 
PITTSBURGH – The University of Pittsburgh baseball team faced a setback in its home opener Friday evening, falling to No. 11 Florida State by a score of 17-4 under the lights at Charles L. Cost Field.
"Once again we got ourselves behind early and clawed our way back into it only to let the game get away in the last four innings," said head coach Joe Jordano. "Florida State did a phenomonal job of taking advantage of our miscues and free passes to let 12 runs touch the plate. This game was very similar to last Friday at Carolina where midway through the game and you're very competitive and you make a couple of mistakes and then you're down by a bunch of runs."
Florida State jumped on the Panthers early, pushing four runs across in the top of the first. After issuing a walk and hitting a batter, the Seminoles strung together three hits to get out to an early 4-0 lead.
Pitt pushed across its first run of the evening in the third inning. Designated hitter Ron Sherman led off the inning, ripping a triple to left field. Two batters later, Sherman scored on a Jacob Wright sacrifice fly to left field.
The Seminoles capitalized on a Pitt error in the top of the fourth and used a pair of sacrifice flies to push two more runs across and extend their lead to 6-1. In the bottom half of the inning, singles by Alex Kowalczyk and David Yanni set the stage for a three-run shot by Aaron Schnurbusch. The homer by Schnurbusch was the senior’s fifth of the season and marks the second consecutive game in which he went yard.
It was a one-two-three inning for Falk in the fifth as the starter retired the side with a groundout, fly out and swinging strikeout. The Panthers left two men stranded in the fifth, as Nick Yarnall walked and Kowalczyk took a pitch to the body.
Florida State extended its lead in the sixth, plating four runs off of three hits and an error. It was another big inning for the Seminoles in the seventh as they added five more. The scoring came to an end in the ninth as Florida State scored a pair with a double down the leftfield line from John Sansone to secure the 17-4 victory for the nation’s 11th-ranked team.
With the loss, the Panthers fall to 8-7-0 on the season and 1-3-0 in the ACC.
Falk earned the loss, falling to 2-1 on the season. He went 5.2 innings, allowing five hits, eight runs, five earned runs and three walks, while striking out five. Relief pitcher Jextin Pugh was the only Pitt pitcher to blank the Seminoles, going a single inning and surrendering just one hit with a strikeout.
Schnurbusch continued his power streak, recording his second consecutive home run game. The senior brought around three of Pitt’s four runs, going 1-of-4 on the evening. Wright recorded the Panthers’ only other run batted in, going 0-of-2 but drawing a pair of walks.
"When you're playing a great opponent like Florida State, you simply can't give them that many opportunities, we have to regroup and have a very short memory and come back tomorrow," added the skipper.
The Panthers will return to the field tomorrow for game two of the series with a 3 p.m. scheduled first pitch. The series finale will take place on Sunday at 1 p.m.
For tickets visit www.pittsburghpanthers.com/buytickets or call 800-643-7488.
#H2P
For all things Pitt baseball, follow the team on Twitter and Instagram. Fans can also follow skipper Joe Jordano on Twitter.
Notes: The loss is the 23rd straight to Florida State as the Seminoles now hold a 23-0 all-time series advantage … Aaron Schnurbusch has now hit home runs in back-to-back contests, with five on the season and eight in his career with Pitt … Charles LeBlanc snapped a 21-game reach based streak, which dated back to the 2015 season … Alex Kowalczyk extended his reached-base streak to 21 games, dating back to the 2015 campaign … Nick Yarnall extended his reached-base streak to 14 … Aaron Schnurbusch has now posted four multiple RBI games on the season, including three three-RBI outings … the Panthers fall to 77-43 in games played at Charles L. Cost Field … the Panthers allowed 17 runs, the most since giving up 15 to then 13th-ranked Florida State on April 17, 2015 … Pitt falls to 0-1 at home on the season and 1-3 against teams ranked in the top 25 … Pitt is now 1-3 in night contests and 1-1 in games played on turf … the Panthers fall to 1-2 when wearing white … Pitt is now 3-5 when facing righty starting pitchers … the Panthers fall to 4-5 when trailing after six and 0-6 when trailing after eight … Pitt drops to 3-6 when allowing six or more runs and 0-4 when being out-hit by the opponent … the Panthers fall to 7-2 when recording at least one home run and 4-4 when committing two or more errors … The Panthers fall to 2-6 in the month of March and 2-3 on Fridays.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Kinney, Matthew (1-0)
L: Falk, Josh (2-1)
S: Voyles, Ed (1)
Batting:
2B: Walls, Taylor 1 ; Sansone, John 1 ; Lueck, Jackson 1 ; DeLuzio, Ben 1
RBI: Sansone, John 5 ; Busby, Dylan 1 ; Nieporte, Quincy 1 ; Miller, Darren 1 ; DeLuzio, Ben 2 ; Henderson, Matt 1
SF: DeLuzio, Ben 1 ; Henderson, Matt 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Walls, Taylor 4 ; Sansone, John 1 ; Busby, Dylan 2 ; West, Gage 1 ; Nieporte, Quincy 2 ; Miller, Darren 2 ; DeLuzio, Ben 2 ; Graganella, Nick 1 ; Henderson, Matt 2
SB: Busby, Dylan 2 ; Miller, Darren 1
HBP: Sansone, John 1
Batting:
3B: Sherman, Ronnie 1
HR: Schnurbusch, Aaron 1
RBI: Wright, Jacob 1 ; Schnurbusch, Aaron 3
SF: Wright, Jacob 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kowalczyk, Alex 1 ; Yanni, David 1 ; Schnurbusch, Aaron 1 ; Sherman, Ronnie 1
SB: Wright, Jacob 1 ; Yarnall, Nick 1
HBP: Johnson, Matt 1 ; Kowalczyk, Alex 1 ; Maldonado, Frank 1
