Don’t look now, but Pitt baseball is making a run

A Pitt head coach recorded his 500th career win last weekend. It was maybe the quietest… A Pitt head coach recorded his 500th career win last weekend. It was maybe the quietest milestone I’ve known about in any sport, and I was even there to witness it.

I would also bet that most people have no clue know who I’m talking about. Even as you’re reading this you are questioning.

“500 wins,” you say. “There’s no way. I would have known about this.”

But you don’t, because it’s not the basketball coach that you can see on court during a game aired on ESPN, and it’s not that new guy you saw rounding up The Panther Pitt last week at the Pete either.

No, this guy, as a premier coach in his sport, somehow possesses a low profile, and he and his team are known only to those fans that venture to the upper campus and witness their games at Trees Field.

Do you know who I’m referring to yet? Even with the hint of Trees Field?

Fine, I’ll just tell you. The answer is Pitt baseball head coach Joe Jordano.

An 8-3 win against Villanova on Sunday provided Jordano with his 217th victory at the helm of the Panthers in only seven and a half seasons.

Add that to the 283 wins he already accumulated while coaching Division II Mercyhurst — a number that has Jordano ranked sixth all-time among NCAA Division II’s winningest coaches — and you have 500 for his career.

“500 wins is a combination of a great staff, a lot of great players and people who work hard every day,” Jordano said shortly after recording the victory.

It’s no surprise that hard work is what led Jordano to where he is today.

In 1998, Jordano took over a Pitt team that finished 19-26 the year before — a complete difference in programs when considering the 40-8 record Mercyhurst posted that same year under his tutelage.

Therefore, a rebuilding process was definitely needed. An even harder job, I think, to pull off than in basketball or football because of the region.

Swaying the minds of top-tier baseball players to attend Pitt and play baseball in the Northeast, instead of traveling out west or down south where it’s warm year-round is, indeed, nearly impossible.

But Jordano pulled it off.

In his first seven seasons as head coach, he and his staff have managed to surpass the 30-win plateau four times, including 38 wins last season, which fell just one win shy of tying the Pitt record for most wins in a season.

Also, he and his “great players” swept the Big East awards last season: his players won Big East Player of the Year (P.J. Hiser), Big East Co-Pitcher of the Year (Nick Evangelista), and Big East Rookie of the Year (Jim Negrych), and Jordano himself took home the award of Big East Coach of the Year.

His track record continues to grow, with current players such as Ben Copeland and Billy Muldowney making names for themselves at Pitt while former Panthers like Brad Rea and Brant Colamarino enjoy success in the minor leagues.

This season, however, Jordano is in the mix of a slight rebuilding phase again; he has stated over and over that most of the time his team features 7-8 freshman and sophomores on the field.

Despite the youth movement, they keep winning. A recent surge has put them back into Big East tournament race with a 5-8 conference record. It’s just another job well done by Jordano and his staff, but one goal escapes their resume: a Big East title.

“Our ultimate goal is to win a Big East championship, and we aren’t going to rest until that happens,” Jordano said.

At the pace he is going now, I’d say that Jordano’s day as a Big East champion is coming soon. I just hope you are all there to see him achieve it.

Alan Smodic is a senior staff writer for The Pitt News.