March 23, 2001

Box Score

PITTSBURGH-Pittsburgh's baseball team could not overcome a strong Notre Dame pitching staff as it dropped both ends of the doubleheader to the Irish Friday afternoon at Trees Field, losing by identical scores of 3-0 in each contest.

In the opener, Notre Dame jumped on the board early with the help of free passes. After Panther starting pitcher Joe Engel (S. Williamsport, Pa./Gulf Coast C.C.) issued two costly walks to Steve Stanley and Paul O'Toole, Alec Porzel flew out to right field, allowing Stanley to score. Stanley stole both second and third base prior to the sacrifice fly.

The Irish struck again the third inning, plating two runs off of two more walks. Following consecutive passes to Steve Sollmann and Stanley to open the inning, O'Toole doubled to right center field and added two RBIs on the hit.

Even though Engel surrendered only four hits on the day while throwing a complete game, Pittsburgh's bats were held in check by Notre Dame's Danny Tamayo, who struck out 10 Panthers and allowed just four hits en route to the victory. Engel (2-2) finished with four strikeouts and four walks.

In the nightcap, junior Tony Railing (Dallas, Texas/F.M. Marcus) proved to be the only offense Pittsburgh could manage off of all-American Aaron Heilman. Railing tallied the only two hits for the Panthers in game two as Heilman pitched a complete-game two hitter, striking out eight batters.

Pittsburgh fell behind 1-0 in the second inning as Ken Meyer singled home Kris Billmaier. The Irish added two insurance runs in the ninth as Porzel doubled to deep left center field, which scored O'Toole and Sollmann.

Senior Scott Schultz (Pittsburgh, Pa./Carrick) suffered the loss for Pittsburgh, working four innings and striking out two batters before leaving with an arm injury. Sophomore T.J. Gornati (Kersey, Pa./St. Mary's) came on in relief, pitching the final five innings and giving up just three hits and two runs.

Pittsburgh (9-7, 2-3 Big East) is back in action on Sunday, March 25, as it hosts Seton Hall at Trees Field. The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader with the first pitch slated for noon.