Panthers just one step away

That stunned silence you hear is coming from the Big East’s baseball teams.

A month and a… That stunned silence you hear is coming from the Big East’s baseball teams.

A month and a half ago, Pitt’s baseball team — the preseason consensus to finish the season in third place — couldn’t see the top of the standings with a pair of binoculars. After St. John’s swept the Panthers in a three-game series April 2-3, Pitt found itself flirting with the cellar, the owner of a 1-6 record in conference play.

Now, with only a series against Georgetown standing between the Panthers and the Big East playoffs, the team is on the verge of pulling off a huge turnaround. After winning two of three games against Notre Dame, the Panthers have improved their record to 12-10 in the conference, good enough for fourth place, a half-game ahead of Rutgers. Head coach Joe Jordano knew the mountain the team had to climb when they returned from the St. John’s series in Jamaica, NY.

“In this conference, with only having four teams [making the conference tournament], if you get off to a bad start, you’re in trouble,” he said. He told his players at that point to stop thinking about the big picture, and start taking things step-by-step.

“I said, ‘Just take it one pitch at a time,'” Jordano said. “Expect your pitch every time. In the field, expect that the next ball will come to you.”

The first chance his players had to apply this new advice came a week later at Connecticut. The Panthers won two of the three games in what was a very close series, a weekend in which a single run decided the outcome of two of the games.

After a pair of non-league games, Pitt squared off against Villanova. At this point, they sent a message to the league that they weren’t going away. Pitt took two games from the Wildcats en route to their second-straight series victory. The series was another close affair, and the Panthers’ attitudes in this series proved to the Big East that they weren’t finished just yet.

In each of the first two games, Pitt mounted big comebacks in the late stages of the game. Though they ended up losing game two in ten innings, the Panthers bounced back to win game three. They weren’t going to quit.

The next weekend, Pitt took on West Virginia in the baseball installment of the Backyard Brawl. Both teams had identical 5-8 league records, but the Panthers swept the Mountaineers. They didn’t just win all three games — the rejuvenated squad came from behind to win in the bottom half of the final inning in both game one and game three. The victories leveled the Panthers’ record at 8-8, making it their first .500 record of the season since they were 1-1. But they still weren’t done.

Pitt rolled into Boston College and took two of three from the red-hot Eagles, who were in second place. The Panthers established themselves early in this series, beating Boston College ace Mike Wlodarczyk, who had won his previous nine starts.

And then this past weekend, Pitt took two of three from Notre Dame. The Panthers have come all the way back into the playoff picture, and have established themselves as one of the Big East’s hottest teams. Jordano couldn’t be happier.

“When you start 1-6, then go 11-3 in the conference, it’s amazing,” he said. “It’s just fun to be in the hunt.”

A large reason that the Panthers find themselves in serious contention is junior centerfielder Ben Copeland. Copeland has led the offensive charge, notching 18 doubles, seven triples, and adding a .391 batting average to make the leadoff spot the most productive in the Pitt lineup. Jimmy Mayer’s return to the lineup after a wrist injury also sparked the Panther’s run, while Peter Parise’s move to the cleanup spot has made for some clutch hits.

On the mound, Billy Muldowney has continued to mow down opposing batters, striking out 9.22 per nine innings. But no team can ride just one good starting pitcher’s arm in a three-game series. That’s where the maturing of Robert Brant comes in.

Brant, now 5-2 on the year, has emerged as the reliable starter Pitt has needed to back up Muldowney. He has also shown a knack for strikeouts. In his latest outing, the victory in game two of the Notre Dame series, he fanned seven in six-plus innings of work.

So, while the team still needs to play well against Georgetown in their final series in order to make the playoffs, nobody can deny the impressiveness of the Panthers’ current run.