PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – In the last 15 years, no ACC team did what Pitt did last weekend. The Panthers baseball team finished off a sweep of the Miami Hurricanes after earlier this season sweeping Florida State. George Bush was President the last time a team went unbeaten against Miami and FSU in the same season. That happened in 2006.
"It means a lot for our program," said Pitt head coach Mike Bell. "When you talk about the history of college baseball and those two programs. Just about everything in college baseball has run through those two programs. That's a pretty neat milestone for our program."
"It's huge," said Pitt third baseman Sky Duff. "It's huge. Those are two big series wins. Two big series sweeps. Honestly, it's something we expect. We work hard. We want to win those series.
The Panthers not only beat Miami, but outscored the legendary and 15th ranked Hurricanes 30-15. Coming into the series, Miami won 20 of the previous 24 meetings between the schools.
First baseman Bryce Hulett, who it a grand slam on Sunday, said it's big for the program and credits Bell, in his third year leading the Panthers, for bringing a sense that they can play with anyone.
"I think Coach Bell has enforced that mindset in us," Hulett said. "Just every day from the start, pushing us to be better, making us tougher. It's really helped."
"It shows a lot about the character of our players," Bell said of taking three from Miami. "They weren't satisfied after just winning one game or two games to win a series. You hear them not only talking about the opportunity to sweep."
"We talk about the opportunity every day to get better. I was really proud of the way they finished. They went out and got it."
This isn't a Panthers teams with a lot of highly ranked recruits. They don't have many players who spurned the MLB Draft to instead go to college, they have a lot of hard-nosed, all out players led by Seton LaSalle grad Nico Popa, sixth year Panther David Yanni (who has more time playing baseball in Pittsburgh than any Pirate but Gregory Polanco), Duff, Ron Washington, Junior, Matt Gilbertson and others.
"Some of our at bats aren't sexy," Bell said. "We fight and foul and grind and then we hit a home run. Some of our pitching performance aren't 94-97mph with wipeout stuff but there are zeros on the scoreboard."
"When you look at our team and the way that we've won some games this year and won some series. It hasn't always been the way your draw it up, but there's some gritty performances in there."
Due to COVID scheduling there are two extra ACC weekends this year and work to do. Panthers (17-10 overall, 12-9 ACC) are currently second in the ACC Coastal, two games behind Virginia Tech but there are three teams within one loss of the Panthers including North Carolina. The Tar Heels are in Pittsburgh for a doubleheader Saturday and single game Sunday.
"To see all of the hard work pay off out here is awesome," Duff said as the Panthers were picked dead last in the preseason ACC polls. "I'm proud of the direction the program is going."
