Copeland breaks out of slump, drives Pitt to win

After leaving the visitors’ clubhouse and walking toward the visiting team dugout Wednesday… After leaving the visitors’ clubhouse and walking toward the visiting team dugout Wednesday afternoon inside the bowels of PNC Park, it still hadn’t hit Panther outfielder Ben Copeland where he was.

It was a different story once he reached the dugout.

“It is something when you walk up these steps and then you see the field and the bleachers, that is when it hits you,” Copeland, a Bradford, Pa., native, said of one of America’s great baseball stadiums. “You are like ‘wow, these guys get to do this every night,’ and that’s what you play the game for.”

Playing in the third annual “City Game” at PNC Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Copeland continued to break out of his recent slump with three hits, two triples and three runs scored as the Panthers beat the Duquesne Dukes, 9-2.

His first triple of the day put him solely atop the Panther record book for career triples with 12, and his second triple added on to the growing record. It is the first career batting record he owns to go along with his four single-season records for at-bats, runs scored, triples and stolen bases.

“He did an outstanding job,” head coach Joe Jordano said of the junior centerfielder. “He’s our go-to guy. He is the guy at the top of the lineup that, if he gets on, he has such great speed we can do some things with him on the base paths. He was in scoring position so many times and we did a good job of having him touch the plate. We were very pleased with his performance today.”

As the Big East conference schedule started, Copeland was one of the Panthers’ leading hitters, but once the calendar turned from March to April, Copeland went from hot to cold. Starting with the conference series against St. John’s the opening weekend of April, Copeland fell into a 4-for-26 slump over the next seven games. The Panthers lost five of those seven games and, as a team, they scored just four runs in three games in a sweep at the hands of St. John’s.

“I was hitting the ball, but I was hitting the ball right at people against St John’s,” Copeland said. “This past weekend at Connecticut, I tried to hit where people weren’t at, but I was swinging and missing. You just have to play the game, things are going to happen. I know I am good enough that if I just sit back and relax, things will come.”

On Tuesday, the Panthers hit the road for Akron and, despite blowing a 12-1 lead, the Panthers went on to win and, possibly most importantly, Copeland found his stroke. In the game against the Zips, he had two hits, one being a three-run home run, and he drove in a total of seven runs, a new career-high.

Against the Dukes, Copeland got things started right away in the top of the first. He tripled off Duquesne starter Bob Hartle to deep right-center field and scored the game’s first run when Justin Cicatello reached on an error.

Copeland started the Panther scoring machine again in the seventh with a leadoff double and eventually scored on a wild pitch. In the ninth, Copeland hit his second triple of the day, leading the Panthers to three runs in the inning and putting the game out of reach. Each time Copeland reached base, he scored, and the latter two times he reached, the Panthers scored three runs in those innings.

His triple in the first was the record-breaker, while his triple in the ninth almost left the stadium. Copeland slowly ran down the first base line as the ball hung in the air toward the right-field wall, eventually slamming high off the wall. Copeland then picked up his pace and finished safely at third base.

“I knew about [the record], but the second one I was hoping would get out of here. Actually, I thought I popped out, I knew I didn’t get enough of it,” Copeland jokingly said.

Copeland will have to continue his hot hitting if the Panthers want to make a late run to the Big East tournament. Whether the Panthers make it or not, Copeland is expected to be taken highly in the Major League draft this summer. Some publications have him ranked as a very high prospect, but Copeland leaves the projections to the professionals.

“I like to think top three rounds, but top three rounds is big time,” Copeland said of a rumor that he is projected in the top three rounds of the draft. “I don’t think negative, I think real. If I come out here and do what I do, then maybe I will go in the top three, but if I try to go in the top three, that’s going to affect my play.”