Brant blanks WVU in game two

Pitt head baseball coach Joe Jordano recruited Robert Brant with the expectation that he would… Pitt head baseball coach Joe Jordano recruited Robert Brant with the expectation that he would become a solid starting pitcher for the Panthers.

Midway through the season, Brant found himself on track to do just that, but after his 11-0 shutout of West Virginia in game two on Saturday, he exceeded the first-year expectations of many around him.

“We knew he was going to be pretty good,” Jordano said after the game.

The freshman helped Pitt sweep the doubleheader from the Mountaineers by pitching all nine innings, allowing just six hits and not surrendering a single run. He struck out 12 batters and walked just one in the process.

Helping their starting pitcher out, the Panther offense exploded for 15 hits and 11 runs, including three from Big East Player of the Week David Cline.

But the offense couldn’t overshadow the effort from Brant on the mound, which led him to join Cline in Big East honors by being named Pitcher of the Week.

“The first words out of my mouth to the team were that, with all due respect to the rest of the pitching staff, in a must-win situation, that was the best pitched game we’ve had all year,” Jordano said. “Flat out.”

Pitt scored two runs in the first inning, providing Brant with a lead to work with, and scored at least one run in each inning from the third to the seventh.

In the third, the Panthers drew four walks off of West Virginia starting pitcher Wes Osbourn before second baseman Jim Negrych eventually scored on a wild pitch while Dan Ford was up at the plate.

Jimmy Mayer singled in Cline in the fourth while the offense erupted for four runs in the fifth, giving Pitt an 8-0 lead.

Cline and Dan Williams each brought in a run with a single and double respectively, and Ben Copeland brought in the other two on a single to right field that scored both Cline and Williams.

“That is our best lineup we have going out there,” Jordano said. “We haven’t had them all out there all season, but now we do, and if we make any run, it will be with that group of guys.”

Pitt added one more run in the sixth as well as two more in the seventh, but they weren’t all needed for Brant and the Panther defense.

In the Mountaineer half of the seventh inning, Brant sat down two more by way of a strikeout before getting help from Mayer at shortstop in the eighth.

First, Mayer ran down a ball in the hole between third and second bases and made the throw across the diamond to retire the batter. He then found himself, diving up the middle, making a stop and flipping the ball to Negrych at second base, who bare-handed a catch to complete the force play and end the inning.

“Those were amazing,” Jordano said of the plays.

Brant then recorded two more strikeouts in the ninth inning, including a called third strike on Doug Nelms, who homered in game one, to end the game and complete the doubleheader sweep for the Panthers.

“Rob has certainly evolved and earned that start today,” Jordano said of his freshman pitcher. “This is a new season for us and now it’s time. We know what we have to do that’s out in front of us and we need to go out and get it done.”