Pitt home for weekend set with hot-hitting Louisville

Now seems like a good time for the Pitt baseball team to come home, considering it played its… Now seems like a good time for the Pitt baseball team to come home, considering it played its first 18 games – the last five of which were all losses – on the road.

Starting today, the Panthers (6-12, 0-3 Big East) welcome Louisville to Trees Field for their first home series of the season.

“It certainly cannot hurt,” Pitt coach Joseph Jordano said. “We look forward to playing at home.”

Tuesday was the first time the Panthers practiced at Trees, Jordano said, and before then, the team practiced indoors.

And while the Panthers might be looking forward to playing at home, they have a tough task ahead of them in the Cardinals (13-7, 2-1 Big East).

“Louisville is an outstanding team and is very well-coached,” Jordano said. “This will be a great challenge for us, but we will be prepared.”

Louisville features one of the Big East’s top offenses, and combining that with Pitt’s recent inconsistent starting pitching could make this a repeat of last weekend when the Panthers were swept by West Virginia.

Even after the sweep, the Panthers will trot out the same rotation against Louisville as they did last weekend. On Friday, sophomore Nate Reed will try to bounce back after giving up 13 runs in three innings. Saturday, Rob Brant takes the mound still looking for his first win of the season and, in the finale on Sunday, Brian Chrisman will try to avenge his last outing, when he gave up eight runs in two innings.

“All three of our starting pitchers performed way under expectation [last weekend],” Jordano said. “Those three guys are very solid pitchers, and they know they have to kick it up a notch.”

Two of the Cardinals that figure to give the starting pitchers trouble are second baseman Justin McClanahan and third baseman Chris Dominguez, who was named to the Big East Honor Roll last week.

With .429 and .385 batting averages, they are third and fifth in the Big East, respectively. Dominguez leads the conference with seven home runs, and McClanahan isn’t far behind with four.

Louisville is third in the conference in both batting average and runs scored. If the Cardinals offense performs like it has so far, the Pitt relief pitchers might see a second straight weekend of early appearances.

But even with good pitching, the Panthers will need to bring their top offensive game to hang with the Cardinals. During its five-game losing streak, Pitt has been outscored by 28 runs.

The Panthers’ leading offensive player has been left fielder Sean Conley, who is second in the conference with six home runs and is fifth in the conference with 26 RBIs.

In its past two games, Pitt has been held to one run each contest, and shortstop Danny Lopez was responsible for the run in each game.

He hit a solo homer in the last game against West Virginia on Saturday, and on Wednesday against Ohio State, he drove in Jordan Herr in the first inning.

Herr, who is sixth in the Big East with a .380 batting average, was moved into the lead-off role for the first time all year last game in an effort to jumpstart the Panthers’ offense. The change moved Conley, who had been batting leadoff, down to second in the order and Lopez down to third.

Although they were responsible Pitt’s only run, the three Panthers went a combined 2 for 11 with both hits coming from Lopez.