With the sun shining and the smell of dirt and leather looming in the air, it truly felt… With the sun shining and the smell of dirt and leather looming in the air, it truly felt like the beginning of a new baseball season as the Pitt baseball team headed south to Coastal Carolina in Conway, S.C., last weekend for the IMICHotels.com Inn-Vitational tournament.

Despite the warmer-than-Pittsburgh weather, the Panthers’ performance was anything but bright when they faced off against Coastal Carolina, Virginia Tech and Old Dominion. Pitt dropped all three games over the weekend, none of which were close beyond the third or fourth inning.

Any number of reasons can be cited as to why the Panthers had such trouble, including the difficult level of opposition they were up against. Coastal Carolina went on to win the tournament, narrowly edging Virginia Tech to consummate an undefeated run that earned them the No. 30 rank in the National Collegiate Baseball polls.

Overall, the weekend served as a harsh beginning for the season for Pitt, bringing forth several flaws in the Panthers that will hurt even more when they begin Big East play March 16 against South Florida.

Before that, though, Pitt will travel to Nashville this weekend for the Music City Classic where it will face off against Vanderbilt, Belmont and Lipscomb.

Pitt 5, Coastal Carolina University 12

It was clear from the start that this was Pitt’s first game of the season.

Giving up 10 runs in the first two innings of the game, Pitt dug itself into an early hole.

The first two of those 10 runs came from a walk by starting pitcher Rob Brant and a wild pitch that Panther’s catcher Morgan Kielty couldn’t keep under control.

But Coastal Carolina certainly earned most of the other 10 runs with a barrage of shots to the gaps. The Chanticleers ended up with a total of 17 hits in the game, 12 of which were against Brant in the first four innings. Pitt only gathered eight total hits in the game, playing a large role in the loss.

After Dan Williams scored Chris Warner on a double to the right center gap in the third, both clubs stayed reasonably quiet until the game seemed to sway in Pitt’s favor in the eighth when it scored four unearned runs.

In the ninth, CCU closer Austin Hinkle shut down the Pitt offense, not allowing any kind of continuance of the previous inning’s rally as he forced only two pop-ups and a fly-out to end the game.

Pitt 3, Virginia Tech 7

With a tough loss hanging over their heads from last Friday, the Panthers started their second game much more aggressively on Saturday against Virginia Tech.

The Panthers rushed from the dugout to take a three-run lead in the first three innings, thanks to strong hitting and a good defensive effort from Pitt starting pitcher Paul Nardozzi.

Despite the solo home run from Pitt senior Seth Button in the third, the Panthers failed to continue their three-inning run streak as they went silent in the fourth, allowing the Hokies to rally to a tie game.

VT took advantage of the sudden swing of momentum in the fifth to pull ahead with a two-RBI double from Jose Cueto, making the score 5-3. The Hokies then controlled the game as they scored another two runs in the seventh and eighth while holding Pitt scoreless for the remainder of the game.

Virginia Tech out-hit the Panthers 14 to six.

Pitt 5, Old Dominion 10

Finally, Pitt managed to rack up more hits than its opponent, but that didn’t seem to help much.

The Monarchs struck first on Sunday with an early run in the first, holding the lead up to the fourth when they really began dictating the game.

Pitt starting pitcher Nate Reed walked three batters in the inning, good for ODU’s second run. In an attempt to catch a deep fly ball, Pitt’s centerfielder Sean Conley had the ball skim off his glove as he ran to the wall on what would become a two-RBI double for the Monarchs, contributing to a four-run inning before Kyle Landis relieved Reed and got the third out.

Pitt then struck back with a leadoff home run from Button, giving him his second home run of the weekend. Pitt picked up on the momentum when Gary Bucuren doubled to centerfield scoring Kielty. The Panthers seemed to be charging toward a rally until Bucuren was picked off on a controversial call at second, killing Pitt’s momentum.

In the seventh, after two scoreless innings, ODU raised its lead by two on another deep drive, barely out of Conley’s reach.

Pitt responded with a run in the bottom of the seventh from a double by Button, who went 2-for-5 on the day.

After giving up three more runs to the Monarchs in the eighth – two of which were from an in-the-park home run that resulted from a hard ground ball down the middle that found its way under Conley’s glove and to the center field fence – Pitt seemed to be rallying back, loading the bases and scoring twice. But much like in their first game, the Panthers were unable to pick their momentum back up in the ninth.