Pitro Homers in Loss to St. Francis

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance College hosted the University of St. Francis for a single non-conference contest on Saturday and fell by a 7-3 margin. The Cougars homered on the first pitch of the afternoon and never trailed in the game.

USF added another run in the top of the first, before tacking on two more in the second to take the quick, 4-0, lead. Another score in the top of the fifth pushed the spread to 5-0 and sent St. Francis on its way to the victory.

Defiance put together a rally in the bottom of the fifth, as Braden Brugler reached with two outs and Kirk Jesse and Tim Pitro followed with back-to-back doubles.

The two-run frame cut the lead to 5-2, but USF added two more in the seventh on its third home run of the day and Pitro's solo blast over the left-center field fence in the bottom of the ninth finished the scoring in the 7-3 loss.

Pitro led the offense with his 2-3 performance at the plate, while connecting on two extra-base hits and drawing a pair of walks. Casey Kahsen also had two hits to extend his hitting streak to six-straight games and Keith Wade went 2-3.

Brad Timofeev (1-5) took the loss after allowing six earned runs in 6.1 innings on the mound, before Brett Belew and Nick Picciano held USF scoreless over the final 2.2 innings of work.

Defiance (4-18) will play another non-conference opponent on Wednesday, when it travels to Earlham with the first pitch set for 5:00 pm.