Bulls Come Up Short in Game 1 at Notre Dame

Baseball USF

Bulls Come Up Short in Game 1 at Notre Dame

Notre Dame 8, USF 0
May 13, 2011 | Frank Eck Stadium | South Bend, In.
Attendance: 363| Time: 2:02
Game Box | 2011 Season Stats | 2011 BIG EAST Season
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
 R
 H
 E
USF (22-26, 11-11)
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
 7
 1
Notre Dame (19-24, 10-11)
 2
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
 0
 6
 X
 8
 7
 1
Pitching
IP
H
R
ER
SO
BB
W - Dupra(3-5)
7.0
6
0
0
9
4
L - Fontanez (5-5)
2.0
2
2
2
0
0
S - Fitzgerald (3) 2.0
1
0
0
1
0
Hitting
AB
R
H
RBI
Misc.
USF - Jonathan Koscso
3
0
2
0
1 BB 
UND- Eric Jagielo
4
2
2
4
2 R HR
Up Next For the Bulls:
Game 49: at Notre Dame | May 14 | 2:05 p.m. | South Bend, Ind.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - It was a game full of missed opportunities as the University of South Florida baseball team(22-26, 11-11) was dealt an 8-0 loss  by the hands of Notre Dame on Friday night at Frank Eck Stadium on the campus of Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish took a 2-0 with one swing of the bat in the first. After a leadoff single by Frank Desico and a sacrifice bunt. Eric Jagielo sent a Randy Fontanez offering over the wall in right for a two run homer. The homer was just the fourth allowed by Fontanez and his first allowed against a BIG EAST opponent.

But that would be all of the scoring for the first 7.5 innings of play by either team.

Following a four pitch 1, 2, 3 second inning, Fontanez left the game with illness after just 2.0 innings of work and 18 pitches. He retired the final five batters he faced and reliever Zach Pietrzyk would take over from there.

Pietrzyk was outstanding in relief retiring the first 15 straight batters he faced on his way to setting a pair of career highs. Pietrzyk worked a career-high 5.1 innings, striking out a career-high five but deserved a much better fate as he would not factor in on the decision despite his solid outing.

The Bulls had a number of opportunities putting a runner on in every inning but the ninth. In all the Bulls left nine runners on base.  At one point in the game, the Bulls were out hitting the Irish, 7-2.

Still down 2-0 in the eighth, a pitching contest turned into a one-sided affair.

Pietrzyk's outing would turn sour in the bottom of the eighth as he surrendered a lead single, the first hit off him of the night, to start the Notre Dame eighth and it would eventually turn into a six-run inning for the Irish, capped off by a two-run homer by ND clean-up hitter Trey Mancini off USF reliever Andrew Loynaz.

Offensively, senior Jonathan Koscso led the way for the Bulls at the plate with a pair of knocks, with one being a double to lead d off the game. He was the only Bull to tally more than one hit.

Fontanez would suffer the loss to fall to 5-5 on the season while his counter-part, Notre Dame's Brian Dupra(3-5) tossed seven scoreless innings striking out nine en route to just his third win of the season despite his impressive 2.37 earned run average. Sean Fitzgerald worked a pair of scoreless innings to pick up the save.

Having lost four straight in BIG EAST play the Bulls have fallen back to .500 in league play at 11-11.

The Bulls will look to get on track when they square off again against the Irish tomorrow afternoon at 2:05 p.m. at Frank Eck Stadium.

Game Notes
The start of the game was delayed 32 minutes due to rain in the South Bend area... USF is 11-8 against the Irish but just 3-4 in South Bend... It marks the first time the Bulls have been shutout in consecutive games since 2007... The start for Fontanez was the 54th of his career, tying him for fifth with Pat Ryan (1994-97)... The start was shortest of Fontanez's career... Five strike outs set a career surpassing his previous high of four set in 2009... Zach Pietrzyk set a new career high with 5.1 innings pitched surpassing his previous high of 4.1 set during his freshman year, a start vs. Bethune-Cookman on 4/30/08... Koscso has hit tallied multiple hits in five of his last eight.

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Players Mentioned

Randy Fontanez

#7 Randy Fontanez

RHP
6' 1"
Senior
Jonathan Koscso

#10 Jonathan Koscso

3B
5' 11"
Senior
Andrew Loynaz

#26 Andrew Loynaz

RHP
6' 1"
Junior
Zach Pietrzyk

#34 Zach Pietrzyk

RHP
6' 1"
Senior

Players Mentioned

Randy Fontanez

#7 Randy Fontanez

6' 1"
Senior
RHP
Jonathan Koscso

#10 Jonathan Koscso

5' 11"
Senior
3B
Andrew Loynaz

#26 Andrew Loynaz

6' 1"
Junior
RHP
Zach Pietrzyk

#34 Zach Pietrzyk

6' 1"
Senior
RHP