Former Kansas University baseball pitcher Tom Gorzelanny made his major-league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday, starting and picking up the loss against the Houston Astros.
Gorzelanny allowed five earned runs on seven hits in 41â3 innings, facing off against veteran southpaw Andy Pettitte. He struck out two, walked two and gave up a home run to Morgan Ensberg.
A hard-throwing left-hander, Gorzelanny pitched one season at KU as a freshman in 2002, the last year of the Bobby Randall era. He was ruled academically ineligible just before the 2003 season, and transferred to Triton Junior College in Illinois, close to his home in suburban Chicago. He was drafted by the Pirates in the second round of the 2003 amateur draft.
He was 3-7 with a 5.90 ERA at KU, but significantly improved his velocity after that season, hitting as high as 94 mph just before being drafted.
Houston beat Pittsburgh, 7-4.