Offense leads baseball to strong week, series win against Wake Forest

Pitt's baseball team has had a rough go of things lately. Heading into this past week, the team had dropped seven straight games, scoring a total of only 14 runs.

Last week was a different story. The Panthers rebounded in a big way, winning three of their past four contests. Just as importantly was how they did it. Just as the anemic offense was a big problem during the losing streak, the bats came alive in each of those wins.

Pitt started by crushing Youngstown State 12-1. Boo Vazquez was the offensive star, going 3-5 in the game and hitting two home runs in his first multi-home run game. Vazquez' four RBI in the game pushed his career total to 102, ranking 20th all-time at the school.

The highlight of the week, though, came over the weekend. The Panthers won only their second ACC series of the season besting Wake Forest in two out of three games. Pitt sandwiched a 12-4 loss with an 8-3 win on Friday and an 8-4 victory on Sunday. On Friday, seven different Panthers collected hits to back up T.J. Zeuch's complete game effort on the mound. Vazquez was back at it on Sunday with another home run and three RBI and teammate Frank Maldonado added three RBI as well.

Overall, the 20 runs Pitt scored this weekend was the most in a three-game series all year.

Wake Forest isn't ranked, but at 22-16 and 9-9 in the ACC, they are a solid team. The last time the Panthers won a series was against North Carolina about a month ago. Hopefully they can build off of this series and string a few more wins together.

Next up for the team is a game against Kent State on Tuesday.

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