Panthers Face Setback to No. 11 Florida State

Saturday, March 19

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3:00 PM

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Panthers Face Setback to No. 11 Florida State

3/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

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March 19, 2016

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PITTSBURGH – Snow flurries didn’t keep the University of Pittsburgh baseball team from action Saturday afternoon as the Panthers fell to No. 11 Florida State 9-2 at Charles L. Cost Field.

"I thought Charles (Leblanc) did a really good job at the plate," said head coach Joe Jordano. "I really liked Aaron (Sandefur) first four innings, I thought he was doing a great job keeping Florida State off-balance. He pitched himself into a little bit of trouble and that was the big inning." 

Pitt put the first run of the game on the board in the third. After Jacob Wright singled and stole second to put himself in scoring position, Charles LeBlanc slapped an RBI single to right field.

The Florida State offense got going in the fifth inning, totaling five runs on four hits. A double, walk, and bunt single loaded the bases for the Seminoles, and a hit batter pushed across the first run of the frame. With the bases still loaded, three-hitter Cal Raleigh hit a three-RBI, bases clearing triple. Raleigh would then make the score 5-1, coming home on a sacrifice fly before relief pitcher Garrett Wrambel got the Panthers out of the inning.

Pitt would respond in the bottom half of the inning. Again, Wright set the table for the Panthers, walking to lead off the inning. A Florida State throwing error would then allow Wright to come around to score his second run of the afternoon, bringing the score to 5-2.

The Seminoles would add a run in each of the next two innings to extend their lead to 7-2. A pair of walks and a Pitt throwing error plated another run for FSU in the sixth. In the seventh, hits by Quincy Nieporte and Ben DeLuzio added another one for the visitors.

Another pair of runs in the eight gave the Seminoles the 9-2 advantage, a lead they would retain for the remainder of the outing.

The series finale will take place tomorrow at Cost Field with a noon start time, moved back from the original 1 p.m. first pitch due to weather concerns.

Aaron Sandefur was awarded the loss as the starter tossed 4.0 innings, giving up four hits and five earned runs, walking four and striking out four. Wrambel pitched 3.0 innings of work, giving up one earned run off of three hits, walking two and striking out two.

LeBlanc led the Panthers, going 2-of-4 with one run batted in. Wright scored the lone Pitt runs of the game, going 1-of-3 on the afternoon.  

"On the back end, I thought Yaya (Chentouf) pitched really well for us," Jordano added. "As I challenge the freshmen, and we have a lot of them that we've been brining in and out of ball games, this is a great experience for them. We can't teach that, they have to be out there and living. It's building, we're doing some good things. We're going to have some bumps, but moving forward we're hopefully figuring this out and hopefully will have a positive game tomorrow." 

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Notes: With the loss the Panthers fall to 0-24 in the all-time series with the Seminoles … Alex Kowalczyk extended his reached-base streak to 22 games … Nick Yarnall snapped his 14-game reached-base streak … the Panthers fall to 77-44 in games played at Charles L. Cost Field … Pitt allowed 10 or more runs for the second consecutive game … Pitt falls to 0-2 at home and 1-4 in games against teams ranked in the top 25 … the Panthers are now 7-5 in day games and 1-2 in games played on turf … Pitt falls to 3-3 when wearing blue jerseys … the Panthers are now 3-6 against right handed starting pitchers … the Panthers fall to 1-6 when trailing after six and 0-7 when trailing after eight … the Panthers drop to 5-2 when scoring first and 3-7 when allowing six or more runs … the Panthers fall to 0-5 when being out-hit by an opponent and 4-5 when committing two or more errors … Pitt falls to 2-7 in games played in March and 2-4 in Saturday contests … Pitt is also 2-5 following a loss on the season.