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Pitch type TV Show network Fox genre Sports

It’s the end of the game for Pitch: Fox has canceled the baseball drama after one season, EW has learned.

The series, which followed a young female pitcher (Kylie Bunbury) who defied the odds when she became the first woman to play in the major leagues, struggled to find an audience in the fall, averaging 4.7 million total viewers and 1.4 in the 18-49 demographic.

“I’m sorry to tell you that Pitch will not be getting a second season,” executive producer Kevin Falls confirmed on Twitter.

Co-creator Dan Fogelman also tweeted: “I was informed today that Pitch won’t be getting a 2nd season on Fox. Obviously we’re all crushed — thank you to our amazing fans and thank you to our incredible cast & crew. Loved every minute. No way around it: we took a bad hop grounder to the face today. All that said: this team put something original and high quality on TV and should be very proud of it — I certainly am of them.”

Despite rough ratings, Fox Chairman and CEO Gary Newman sounded somewhat hopeful about the show’s future at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in January. “We would’ve loved to see a bigger audience,” Newman said. “There was a lot of delayed viewing. We had a loyal core. … I don’t think the performance level enabled us to make an early decision about it, but as we get to May, we’re certainly going to consider it.”

Pitch was initially slated to launch in the spring of 2017, but when ABC moved Scandal to a midseason premiere to accommodate Kerry Washington’s pregnancy, Fox saw an opportunity and a time slot to grab viewers looking for a female-led show. But that meant Pitch landed in a crowded fall season that also featured a much-watch World Series.

“We liked the idea of taking on shows in the fall; we certainly liked the idea of trying to get that Scandal audience that wasn’t there because of Kerry’s pregnancy maternity leave,” Falls previously told EW. “That was something that we were willing to take our chances on. And maybe, maybe it would have helped that you start to get your head around a baseball show when spring training is starting. I don’t know. How do you explain that the numbers to start weren’t great and we were in the middle of pennant races when we launched? And I agree, once you get deeper into winter, your head’s not going to be in the baseball spirit, but it’s a still a good show.”

Pitch, which also starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Ali Larter, hailed from Fogelman, Falls, and Rick Singer.