Kent State’s baseball team (20-13, 8-4 Mid-American Conference) only managed six hits and one run over the course of two days, winning one game and losing the other this week.

Pitching was the name of the game in the first contest, and the bats could never get going in game two as Kent State hit an offensive slump.

Tuesday, April 14: Kent State 1, Pittsburgh 0

Kent State fought a tough defensive game against the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh Tuesday afternoon and was able to come out on top 1-0.

Sophomore starter Jared Skolnicki improved to 4-2 with an outstanding pitching performance, going 6.2 innings and not allowing a single run while striking out five batters.

The bullpen also did well with redshirt seniors Dan Kopcak and Josh Pierce pitching shutout baseball over the course of the last 2.1 innings.

The offense scored just one run on only two hits.

The lone run for the Flashes came in the seventh inning off sophomore Conner Simonetti’s solo blast. The home run was able to seal Skolnicki’s shutout and keep Kent State on a hot streak heading into their Wednesday matchup against Youngstown State.

Wednesday, April 15: Youngstown State 3, Kent State 0

Youngstown State snapped the hot streak the Flashes had coming into their Wednesday matchup by shutting them out 3-0.

Senior John Birkbeck took his first loss of the season (0-1) after Kent State allowed three runs to cross the plate in the seventh inning to break a scoreless tie. Two singles and a throwing error spelled doom for Kent State, and the team could never muster up enough to edge the strong pitching performance of Youngstown State.

The team will try to rebound from their performance when they come home to take on Ohio University for a three-game series starting Friday.