Pitt drops 12-2 decision to North Carolina, bows out of ACC Tournament
Pitt’s baseball season ended Thursday in ACC Tournament pool play when the Panthers dropped a 12-2 decision to top-seeded North Carolina (42-12), the No. 7 team in the nation.
Combined with an 8-1 loss to Wake Forest on Wednesday, Pitt was outscored 20-3 in the tournament in Charlotte, N.C.
The game started badly for Pitt when North Carolina’s Anthony Donofrio, Casey Cook, Parks Harbor and Alberto Osuna — four of its first five batters — hit solo home runs. It was the first of two home runs for Cook.
Ryan Zuckerman was 2 for 4, and Dom Popa recorded a double for No. 12 seed Pitt (26-29).
In the fourth inning, Jackson Van De Brake scored on a single by Donofrio, but Pitt rallied into a 5-2 deficit when C.J. Funk led off the bottom of the fourth with a homer and Ryan Zuckerman tripled to center field and scored two pitches later on a double by Tyler Bischke.
Cook hit a two-run homer before Harber scored on a groundout by Osuna in the top of the sixth. A single by Van De Brake drove in Alex Madera, who singled to lead off the inning and stole second, to cap the scoring in the ninth
Jerry DiPaola is a TribLive reporter covering Pitt athletics since 2011. A Pittsburgh native, he joined the Trib in 1993, first as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department and later as the Pittsburgh Steelers reporter from 1994-2004. He can be reached at jdipaola@triblive.com.
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