April 14, 2013
PITTSBURGH – University of Pittsburgh 1B Eric Hess broke up a scoreless game in the bottom of the fifth inning with a two-out, three-run home run and the Panthers never looked back en route to a 12-3 victory over No. 16 University of Notre Dame Sunday at Charles L. Cost Field. The Fighting Irish lost their fifth straight game, dropped to 19-14 overall and 4-8 in the BIG EAST, while Pittsburgh improved to 24-9 and 6-3.
Rhys Aldenhoven improved to 6-0 on the season with 7.0 shutout innings. He limited Notre Dame to five base hits. Aldenhoven did issue five free passes, but benefitted from a trio of double-play grounds that ended the fourth, fifth and sixth inning.
Notre Dame had scoring chances in the first, third and fourth, but stranded two base runners in each inning. The Irish ultimately grounded into four double plays on the day and almost a fifth, but Notre Dame sophomore PH Phil Mosey just beat out a potential twin killing in the seventh.
Sophomore RHP Matt Ternowchek kept the game, 0-0, before running into trouble in the fifth. He issued a one-out walk, on a close 3-2 offering, to Dylan Wolsonovic. After Evan Oswald struck out, Ternowchek again issued a walk following another close full-count pitch to Stephen Vranka. Hess made him and the Irish pay with a deep drive to right field. Irish RF Zak Kutsulis jumped at the base of the wall and got the tip of his glove on the baseball, but wasn’t quite able to bring it back into the ball park.
Hess’ three-run blast took the life out of Notre Dame and the Panthers tacked on five runs in the sixth and four more in the eighth to secure the series sweep.
Kutsulis and sophomore Conor Biggio reach registered multi-hit games. Kutsulis went 2-for-3, while Biggio went 2-for-2 coming off the Irish bench.
Ternowchek dropped to 4-2 on the year. He was charged with three earned runs on four hits in 5.0 innings of work. Ternowchek struck out two and walked three.
Hess went 1-for-4 with a run scored and four RBI. Vranka, Casey Roche and Boo Vazquez all collected two hits. Roche scored a run and hit a two-run home run. Vranka scored two runs and drove in two.
Notre Dame will be back in action at 4:05 p.m. ET Tuesday at Michigan.
— ND —