Pitt scored six unearned runs in the third inning and went on to spoil the Youngstown State baseball team's home opener by beating the Penguins 9-1 on Wednesday afternoon at Eastwood Field.

The Panthers scored eight of their nine runs in the game after there were two outs, and seven of the runs were unearned. Pitt's nine runs came on seven hits, and the Panthers were aided by five Penguin errors.

Youngstown State nearly matched Pitt in the hits column with six, and those six hits came from six different Penguins. Seth Lucero doubled for YSU's first extra-base hit in the ninth inning, and Braeden O'Shaughnessy, Padraig O'Shaughnessy, Steven D'Eusanio, Dylan Swarmer and Trey Law each singled.

Pitt's seven hits came from seven different batters as 13 different players in the game had one hit.

YSU starter Nick Perez allowed seven runs total, just one of which was earned, on five hits and a walk over three innings of work. Four of the runs came on home runs, and six of them came after Perez hurt his own cause with a two-out error in the third. Brandon Mikos allowed an unearned run over three innings of relief, and Brandon Matthews, Andrew Russell, Will Shaffer and AJ Clegg combined to allow one run over the final three frames.

Pitt took a 1-0 lead with a two-out, solo home run by Sky Duff in the top of the first, and the Penguins knotted the score with a run in the bottom of the second. YSU drew three walks in the inning and scored the tying run without recording a hit. Andre Good walked to lead off the inning, advanced to second on an error and moved over to third on a wild pitch. Following a walk to Swarmer, Good raced home to score on ball four to Law.

YSU stranded two runners in the second, just as it did in the first, and Pitt capitalized on a two-out error in the top of the third to blow the game open with a six-run inning. After the first two batters were retired, Duff hit a hard shot up the middle that Perez stopped but struggled to get a handle on and threw low on a rushed delivery to first base. Two batters later, Bryce Hulett hit a two-run single to break the tie, and Tommy Tavarez provided the big blow three batters later with a three-run homer to left.

Pitt added another unearned run in the fourth to increase its lead to 8-1, and that's what the score remained until Cameron Barto's RBI double with two outs in the top of the eighth put the Panthers ahead 9-1.

Pitt starter Tyler Kennedy allowed a run and walked four batters in just 1.1 innings, and Brady Devereux had the longest appearance on the Panthers' staff with 2.2 innings of relief. Four Pitt relievers followed, and the bullpen combined to allow six hits over 7.2 scoreless innings.

Youngstown State will host Northern Kentucky this weekend for a three-game Horizon League series at Eastwood Field. The series opener against the Norse will be on Friday at 5 p.m.