University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Friday, February 26
Tallahassee, FL
6 PM
Pitt
at
Florida State
Pitt To Open ACC Play at No. 9 Florida State
2/25/2021 6:00:00 PM | Baseball
PITTSBURGH – Pitt baseball (3-1) opens ACC play this weekend at No. 9 Florida State (2-1), beginning Friday at 6 p.m. followed by Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. The series concludes a seven-game road trip in Florida for the Panthers to begin the 2021 season.
HOW TO FOLLOW
STARTING PITCHERS
BELL RETURNS TO TALLAHASSEE
LAST TIME IN TALLAHASSEE
LAST TIME OUT-AT JACKSONVILLE
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT-NO. 9 FLORIDA STATE
ALL-TIME SERIES
50-GAME SLATE
UP NEXT
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HOW TO FOLLOW
- Saturday's game marks the Panthers' season debut on the ACC Network, and the other two games can be streamed on ACCNX.
- Fans can also follow along with live stats updates through Twitter. Follow @Pitt_BASE for the latest news and updates about the team.
STARTING PITCHERS
- Friday: RHP Mitch Myers (0-1, 5.40 ERA, 1.90 WHIP) | LHP Parker Messick (0-1, 19.29 ERA, 2.14 WHIP)
- Saturday: RHP Matt Gilbertson (1-0, 1.80 ERA, 0.80 WHIP) | RHP Carson Montgomery (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 1.25 WHIP)
- Sunday: TBA | RHP Conor Grady (1-0, 3.38 ERA, 0.94 WHIP)
BELL RETURNS TO TALLAHASSEE
- Pitt's visit to Florida State marks the second time that first year head coach Mike Bell has made the trip back to his alma mater and previous coaching staff.
- A left-handed pitcher and first baseman for the Seminoles, Bell reached the College World Series as a player in both 1994 and 1995. He posted a two-year record of 14-4 with a 3.00 ERA, was twice named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll and earned a bachelor's degree in physical education at Florida State in 1996.
- Bell had an impressive career as the associate head coach at his alma mater, spending seven seasons with the Seminoles at the height of their success, before accepting the Pitt job in July.
LAST TIME IN TALLAHASSEE
- Bell's first trip back to FSU provided a memorable experience in his career, as Pitt won 10-0 in the series opener.
- Derek West went a career-high 7.0 innings, allowing just five hits and one walk with nine strikeouts.
- Pitt collected 10 runs off 10 hits, drawing eight walks in the process.
- Nico Popa went 3-5 with four RBI and three runs scored, Bryce O'Farrell also had three hits and two RBI and Kyle Hess went 2-5 with two RBI.
LAST TIME OUT-AT JACKSONVILLE
- Pitt led from wire-to-wire in a 7-2 win at Jacksonville Tuesday night.
- The Panthers used five relief pitchers, as Dylan Lester made his first collegiate start and threw two scoreless innings.
- Jordan McCrum and Stephen Hansen had their second-straight scoreless relief appearance, as McCrum tossed 2.1 innings with three strikeouts and only one batter reaching on a walk while Hansen struck out one in the final inning.
- Nico Popa hit his first homer of the season and finished a triple shy of the cycle with two RBI, two runs and a walk.
- Pitt finished with 14 hits and eight walks.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT-NO. 9 FLORIDA STATE
- Florida State won its season-opening series against North Florida at home, dropping the opener 7-4 but rebounding for 14-4 and 8-4 wins in a Sunday doubleheader.
- Ranked as high as No. 9 by Baseball America in this week's national polls, FSU was picked third in the Atlantic Division in the ACC Preseason Coaches' Poll with a first-place vote.
- All three weekend starters rank among the Top 150 nationally, according to D1Baseball.com.
- Redshirt-sophomore outfielder Robby Martin was named to the Golden Spikes Award Watch List. Martin has hit over .300 in both seasons at Florida State and led the team with a .324 average in 2020.
ALL-TIME SERIES
- Florida State leads the series 26-2.
- Both Panthers' wins have come in ACC series as the two teams have played three against each other since Pitt joined the league.
50-GAME SLATE
- This season the Panthers will play a 50-game schedule.
- Pitt plays 12 ACC weekend series instead of the traditional 10 and a total of 27 games at Charles L. Cost Field.
- The ACC-opening series against Florida State is the first-ever conference game played in February for Pitt. The previous earliest league game in program history was March 7, 2015 at No. 1 Virginia, where the Panthers won 1-0 in the first game of a doubleheader.
- Pitt is scheduled to play more than half of its games (26) this season against opponents that have been ranked in the top-20 by at least one of the major preseason polls: No. 2 Louisville, No. 5 Virginia, No. 6 Miami, No. 9 Florida State, No. 11 NC State, No. 15 Georgia Tech, No. 16 Duke and No. 17 Wake Forest.
UP NEXT
- Pitt goes back on the road for a three-game series against Duke, beginning Friday at 4 p.m.
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