A recap of the summer that was for Panther Sports

May 4-10

Pitt’s baseball team sweeps rival West Virginia in a crucial three-game home… May 4-10

Pitt’s baseball team sweeps rival West Virginia in a crucial three-game home stand, putting the Panthers in serious contention to return to the four-team Big East tournament after a dreadful 1-6 start in conference play. Its counterpart, Pitt’s softball team, sweeps a pair of two-game series from Big East foes, Boston College and Syracuse, to also make some serious noise in the Big East playoff picture.

May 11-17

Joy and despair come on the same weekend for the baseball and softball team respectively, as baseball takes another step toward the postseason and softball’s season ends. Villanova sweeps the Panthers in softball to move up and take the final spot in the conference tournament one day before the baseball team wins the rubber match of a three-game set with second-place Boston College. Outside of the diamond, the women’s track and field squad captures the Big East outdoor title to complement its indoor crown from the winter.

May 18-24

Women’s track continues its stellar season with a win at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships, qualifying five members for NCAAs along the way. Baseball takes two of three from Notre Dame, despite a 21-1 loss in the series finale, a sign of things to come for Joe Jordano’s squad.

May 25-31

Baseball completes its miraculous turnaround with a regular season-ending series sweep of Georgetown to clinch the fourth seed in the Big East Tournament. The Panthers draw St. John’s, the regular season champs and sole nationally ranked team in the conference, in the opening round of the Big East tournament. Elsewhere, former standout lineman Mark May, the only Pitt football player to ever win the Outland Trophy, is inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

June 1-7

Notre Dame gets the best of Pitt baseball twice at the double-elimination Big East tournament, including an 11-4 win in the championship game. After upsetting top seed St. John’s, 4-1, in the opening round, the Panthers needed to stave off Boston College in a Saturday night elimination game. Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the 12th inning, second baseman Jim Negrych blasted a two-run walk-off home run to center field to propel the Panthers into the championship game the next day. Notre Dame pounced on the Panthers early in the final and never looked back, cruising to an undefeated showing in the conference tournament. Also, former Pitt cornerback Hank Poteat tells his story of how he got his Super Bowl ring as a member of the New England Patriots.

June 8-14

Four Pitt baseball players, Robert Brant, Ben Copeland, Billy Muldowney and Jim Negrych, earn All-Big East honors. Numerical Nonsense, a weekly compilation of statistical oddities in the wide world of sports, makes its debut in The Pitt News.

June 15-21

Pitcher Robert Brant is named a freshman All-American after his incredible close to the 2005 baseball season.

June 22-28

Ben Copeland, also named an All-American, is selected in the fourth round of the 2005 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft by the San Francisco Giants. Another new section, “Where Are They Now? Catching up with former Pitt athletes,” debuts with the story of Yogi Roth, former football wide receiver. Brian Weaver weighs in with his view on the 2005 Senior Games, which were held June 3-18 in the city of Pittsburgh.

June 29-July 5

Chris Taft, who forwent his final two years of basketball eligibility at Pitt to enter the NBA draft, falls from potential lottery pick to the second round when the Golden State Warriors select him at No. 42 overall. The power forward’s stock plummeted for a plethora of reasons on his way to a disappointing draft night. Jim Negrych joins the list of Panther baseball players awarded with his own All-American honors.

July 6-12

Two years after announcing an expansion of the Big East, the conference makes it official, adding Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida as new members to begin play for the 2005-2006 season. The additions make the Big East the largest I-A conference in the country, with 16 members.

July 13

Pitt’s non-conference football schedule gets a much-needed boost when future games against the likes of Miami, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Iowa and North Carolina State are announced. The basketball team’s schedule for the 2005-2006 season, on the other hand, is also released, but is met with somewhat less excitement. The Panthers play 13 of 15 potential conference opponents, but don’t get Villanova at all and face perennial rivals Connecticut, Notre Dame and Syracuse only one time each.