Late inning errors were costly for the Georgia Tech Basball team as they squandered a lead in the final two innings to fall to the Pittsburgh Panthers 11-9 in Atlanta.
There were some highlights early in the game, mostly coming out of the hand of left-handed starter Brant Hurter, who went six innings with 11 k’s on 96 pitches. His slider was masterful and carved the Pitt left-handers for most of the night.
For the offense, Tres Gonzalez was a hot 3-4 with two doubles and 2 RBI. Kevin Parada also continued his hot streak at the plate with a 3-5 night and an RBI. He’s now hitting over .500 on the season. The Jackets would draw blood first with Stephen Reed and Jake Deleo combining with a double and a hard single to give the early lead. A two-out double from Gonzalez added to the lead in the fourth making it 2-0.
Through six innings Tech had driven the score to 5-0 but Pitt would close the gap with threee runs to cut the Jackets lead to 5-3 in the top of the seventh. In the bottom part of the inning, Jake DeLeo would double home another run and Tres Gonzalez would bring home a second run with a sac-fly to give the Jackets what appeared to be a comfortable 7-3 lead. Pitt would get one run back in the eighth but the Jackets would add their own at the bottom of the inning to make it an 8-4 game going into the 9th.
That’s whare it started goign downhill for the Jackets, as Pitt would score seven runs in the top of the ninth inning, an implosion out of the bullpen to flip the game on its head and take an 11-8 lead into the bottom of the ninth. Tech would once again try to fight back in the bottom of the ninth inning but would fall short, falling 11-9. The loss drops them to 8-4 on the season including 5-2 in conference play.
Friday night’s loss by the Jackets is unacceptable and a hard one to swallow, there’s no way around that. After picking up two big ACC series wins to start the season against North carolina State and Louisville, the Jackets had a great chance to continue their hot start in ACC play. While the loss doesn’t stop that hot start completely, they’ll now have to win both on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon against a good and underrated Pittsburgh team. The Jackets and Panthers will be back in action for game two on Saturday night at 6 p.m. on the ACC Network.