Baseball: Panthers sweep West Virginia

The Pitt baseball team clinched a Big East tournament berth with a three-game sweep of West… The Pitt baseball team clinched a Big East tournament berth with a three-game sweep of West Virginia this weekend.

The Panthers (31-19, 15-9 Big East), honored 11 seniors before the final game Sunday and went on to a 10-6 victory over the reeling Mountaineers (27-23, 13-11 Big East), who have lost seven of their last 10 games. The Panthers sit at third place in the Big East Conference, behind Connecticut (37-14-1, 20-4 Big East), who clinched the regular season championship, and St. John’s (30-17, 16-7 Big East).

The sweep began on Friday afternoon when junior pitcher Matt Iannazzo (6-3) threw his fourth complete game of the season in the Panther’s 12-1 win.

Iannazzo was named the Big East Pitcher of the Week for his performance.

“I would take our team against any other team in the country if we play the way we played against West Virginia this weekend,” he said following the series with West Virginia.

Iannazzo allowed only one unearned run on six hits — all singles — walked two and struck out a season-high eight batters.

He was quick to credit his teammates for the win.

“We put up 12 runs, which made me relax a lot,” Iannazzo said. “Everyone played really well this weekend, in that game especially.”

As the first starter in the pitching rotation, Iannazzo sees a lot of teams for the first time throughout the season. Corey Baker, a senior pitcher for the Panthers, understands how important Iannazzo’s successful game was for setting the tone for the remainder of the series..

“He kept them off balance,” Barker said. “You never know what you’re going to get because we hadn’t seen these guys play yet this year.”

While Iannazzo, a junior, will continue setting up series for the Panthers next year, other Pitt players finished off their home careers on Sunday.

Baker, who led the Panthers to a 6-2 win on Saturday, had a bittersweet experience over the weekend.

For senior Phil Konieczny, the feeling was the same.

“Our seniors, there are 11 of us, and eight of us have been together for four years.” Konieczny said. “It’s sad to see us all moving on.”

Still, going out with a series sweep over conference rival West Virginia is about as good as it gets.

“It’s a great way to go out — kind of a storybook ending to our entire year,” Konieczny said.

With the regular season coming to a close, the Panthers will try to improve their seeding for the Big East tournament. Pitt will finish the season with a three-game series against South Florida this week, while St. John’s, currently two games ahead of the Panthers, finishes the year with a three-game series against Villanova.  The Big East tournament begins on May 24.

The winner of the Big East tournament receives an automatic NCAA Tournament bid, while the selection committee fills the remainder of the 64-team field with automatic bids.

“Everybody kind of took some time today to recharge,” Konieczny said. “Our goal has always been winning the Big East, and even though we’ve done some great things, this is our chance to make some noise.”

The sweep of West Virginia snapped a four-game losing streak for the Panthers, sending them into the post-season with three consecutive wins.

“The biggest thing is winning this series to get momentum going into the tournament,” Baker said. “You never want to go into that tournament feeling down or like you have to turn things around. You really want to get on a roll.”

Konieczny, who is in his fourth and final season with Pitt, has seen enough to know that this team is ready to excel.

“This year more than any other year, we have a lot of pitching depth,” Konieczny said. “In a tournament setting, they’re going to be playing a lot of games in a short amount of time. We have a ton of guys who have started this year, and all pitched really well. So I think things are starting to click.”