Pitt won the first game 6-4 as Sarah Dawson pitched a complete game. Won the second 8-4, as Kayla Harris pitches a complete game.
Interesting strategy by Duke in Game 2: With 1 Out and none on in Game 2, they intentionally walked leadoff hitter Georgia Zeremenko. Don’t think I ever saw that before. It didn’t work, as McKayla Taylor got HBP, and after an out by Olivia Grey, Alex Solak hit a 3 run homer.
Pitt is now 8-2 in the ACC. I am hoping for a rainout tomorrow. Neither Dawson nor Harris was very effective today. Neither of Duke’s two starters was either. However, in the 3rd inning they might have found their new ace. She came on to get an out to end the inning and then blew Pitt away in the 4th and 5th. The only Pitt batter to make contact was Taylor, who was safe on an E by the SS. Other than that, 7 batters, 7 Ks. She threw really, really hard. There was no C.F. camera like they had at VT, so I couldn’t see exactly what she throws, but whatever it was, she threw it hard.
Duke put another RP in for the 6th. Down 8-4, I assume they wanted to save her arm for tomorrow.
Kayla Harris went all 7 innings. I think she had 4 Ks, two of them looking. She had two swinging Ks in the 6th inning, and those were the only two swings and misses by Duke in the whole game. Her changeup wasn’t working and that is usually the pitch she gets swings and misses on.
Pitt’s defense continues to be an issue. Two more errors in the 4th inning of Game 2 gave Duke a run. The second error was a flat out drop of a perfect throw at 1B. That made me cringe. It should never happen. Also, I assume Brittany Knight is injured as I would have thought she would have pitched in the midweek game against Ohio and in one or both games today in relief if she was healthy. Rahrbach was once again awful against Ohio U.
I don’t know how many more midweek games Pitt has besides the upcoming one with PSU, but they can’t keep losing them. That probably cost the baseball team an NCAA bid a couple of years ago, and it could cost the softball team this year. They are 8-2 in the ACC, but only 11-10 out of conference.
Saw some stats on the P from Illinois Aprile signed for the incoming class. She averaged almost 2 Ks an inning and had a 1.30 ERA. She also walked 3.5 batters per game, and made Ist Team All-State as an OF, not a pitcher. She hit .568. Of course, she still has her senior season to play. Losing 4 starters, I expected a bigger class than 3 plus a walk-on. But, maybe she plans on bringing in a transfer or two.
Interesting strategy by Duke in Game 2: With 1 Out and none on in Game 2, they intentionally walked leadoff hitter Georgia Zeremenko. Don’t think I ever saw that before. It didn’t work, as McKayla Taylor got HBP, and after an out by Olivia Grey, Alex Solak hit a 3 run homer.
Pitt is now 8-2 in the ACC. I am hoping for a rainout tomorrow. Neither Dawson nor Harris was very effective today. Neither of Duke’s two starters was either. However, in the 3rd inning they might have found their new ace. She came on to get an out to end the inning and then blew Pitt away in the 4th and 5th. The only Pitt batter to make contact was Taylor, who was safe on an E by the SS. Other than that, 7 batters, 7 Ks. She threw really, really hard. There was no C.F. camera like they had at VT, so I couldn’t see exactly what she throws, but whatever it was, she threw it hard.
Duke put another RP in for the 6th. Down 8-4, I assume they wanted to save her arm for tomorrow.
Kayla Harris went all 7 innings. I think she had 4 Ks, two of them looking. She had two swinging Ks in the 6th inning, and those were the only two swings and misses by Duke in the whole game. Her changeup wasn’t working and that is usually the pitch she gets swings and misses on.
Pitt’s defense continues to be an issue. Two more errors in the 4th inning of Game 2 gave Duke a run. The second error was a flat out drop of a perfect throw at 1B. That made me cringe. It should never happen. Also, I assume Brittany Knight is injured as I would have thought she would have pitched in the midweek game against Ohio and in one or both games today in relief if she was healthy. Rahrbach was once again awful against Ohio U.
I don’t know how many more midweek games Pitt has besides the upcoming one with PSU, but they can’t keep losing them. That probably cost the baseball team an NCAA bid a couple of years ago, and it could cost the softball team this year. They are 8-2 in the ACC, but only 11-10 out of conference.
Saw some stats on the P from Illinois Aprile signed for the incoming class. She averaged almost 2 Ks an inning and had a 1.30 ERA. She also walked 3.5 batters per game, and made Ist Team All-State as an OF, not a pitcher. She hit .568. Of course, she still has her senior season to play. Losing 4 starters, I expected a bigger class than 3 plus a walk-on. But, maybe she plans on bringing in a transfer or two.
