BRADFORD, Pa. – The Pitt-Bradford baseball team suffered a tough loss to Houghton College by the final score of 11-9.
Pitt-Bradford (0-6) was led by junior Bobby Sorokas (Plains/Coughlin) who went 3-4 on the day with two runs scored.
The Panthers jumped out to an early lead in the first inning after a single by Sorokas to lead off the game and an RBI fielder's choice by senior Connor Borowski (Bradford/Bradford) scored Sorokas. Borowski also came around to score in the inning on an Ethan Showers (Hughesville/Hughesville) RBI giving the Panthers an early 2-0 lead.
Houghton (8-6) would answer and take the lead from the Panthers after putting up four hits in the inning that led to three runs to take the lead 3-2 after the first.
Senior Kody Johnston (Homerville, GA/ Clinch County) would give the Panthers the lead in the third on a line drive single to right field that brought home Sorokas. The Highlanderes, however, answered back with a run of their own to reclaim the lead at 4-3 heading into the fourth.
Pitt-Bradford had the bats working early as they went on to post two runs in each of the next two innings with an RBI double from freshman Caleb Bennett (Kersey/St. Marys) in the fourth,who came around to score on a wild pitch.
Fresshman Jean Turber (Northumberland/Shikellemy) added an RBI in the fifth. Showers came home later in the inning by way of a wild pitch to give the Panthers a 7-4 lead after the fifth inning.
The Panthers went on to dig themselves a hole in the sixth, courtesy of six-straight Houghton players reaching base without a ball put into play.
The runners came by way of five walks in the inning and one hit-by-pitch as the Panther pitching staff could not find the strike zone in the sixth. The Panthers surrendered five runs on one hit with no errors in the inning as they trailed Houghton 9-7 after the sixth.
The Panthers got one back in the eighth inning after Sorokas singled to get on and was able to come home after a few wild pitches that cut the lead to 9-8 going into the bottom of the eighth.
Houghton was able to tack on two insurance runs after an RBI double and a fielder's choice brought home two Highlanders.
The one bad inning went on to cost the Panthers the game as they couldn't come back in the ninth after only scoring one run.
"We are just not pitching well at all early in the season, period," said Pitt-Bradford coach Bret Butler. "It's almost impossible to win a game with ten free passes via walks or hit batters. Regardless, we will get this turned around and we will find the arms that will put us in positions to win games. The positive news is that we played a better game offensively. If we stick together and stay positive as a unit, we will have a chance to turn this around."
The Panthers will next travel to Collegeville to take on Ursinus College on March 22 at 12:30 p.m.
