No. 16 Pitt Resumes Play with Backyard Brawl

PITTSBURGH – No. 16 Pitt baseball (20-11, 14-10 ACC) plays its first game in over two weeks Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at rival West Virginia (15-21, 6-12 Big 12). The Panthers look for the Backyard Brawl sweep, having beaten the Mountaineers 5-1 on April 6 in Pittsburgh.

HOW TO FOLLOW

The game is available to be streamed on WatchESPN/ESPN+ (subscription is required).
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

RHP Stephen Hansen (1-1, 6.16 ERA, 1.74 WHIP)| RHP Carlson Reed (1-4, 8.64 ERA, 1.80 WHIP)

IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT FOR THE COASTAL

With three weekends left in the regular season, the Panthers lead the Coastal Division of the ACC at 14-10 (.583).
The race to win the division is tight as Georgia Tech (15-12, .556), Virginia Tech (16-14, .533) and Miami (15-14, .517) can jump to first with just one weekend of play.
The standings and seeding for the ACC Tournament are determined solely by winning percentage.
Head-to-head play will be the first tiebreaker, but that will only happen if other ACC teams have games cancelled as Pitt's series at Louisville two weeks ago was never played.
Having played every Coastal opponent already, Pitt won series against Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina and Virginia while dropping them to Virginia Tech and Duke.
The program has only won one conference regular season championship, the Big East title in 1994 at 15-5.

SO CLOSE TO CLINCHING A SPOT IN CHARLOTTE

Pitt's magic number for officially locking in a postseason appearance with the ACC Tournament is one.
The Panthers need to just win one of nine remaining ACC games, have an ACC game cancelled or its upcoming opponent this weekend Boston College lose one more time in its six remaining league games.
The Panthers have only appeared in one ACC Tournament since joining the league for the 2014 season.
In 2018, the team earned the last seed (No. 12) and knocked off No. 8 Georgia Tech 2-1 and top-seeded North Carolina 5-4 to reach the semifinals of the tourney.
This year's tournament will be held in Charlotte at Truist Field for the first time May 25-30, and the traditional format remains the same with four pools of three teams and the winners of each advancing to the single-elimination semifinals.
Currently Pitt is slotted as the No. 3 seed and would have Georgia Tech (No. 6) and North Carolina (No. 10).

TOP-25 RANKINGS

Currently Pitt is ranked as high as 16th by Baseball America, 17th by DIBaseball.com, USA Today Coaches and Collegiate Baseball and 21st by the NCBWA.
Pitt recorded its highest-ever ranking in program history on March 22, garnering the No. 14 slot in the Baseball America Poll, and reached that mark again on April 26 in the same poll.
The Panthers were ranked in the top-20 all five major polls on March date: DIBaseball.com (No. 15), Collegiate Baseball (No. 18), USA TODAY Sports Coaches' Poll (No. 18) and National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association (No. 20).
Last week, the Panthers were ranked in the top-20 by all five polls again.
Pitt debuted in the top-25 nationally on March 15 for the first time since May 13, 2013 with selections in the polls by DIBaseball.com (No. 18) and Baseball America (No. 19). The rankings are the first since joining the ACC for the 2014 season.
The last team to be ranked at all, the 2013 Panthers' squad was ranked as high as 16th by Collegiate Baseball on May 13, 2013.

LAST TIME OUT-SERIES WIN OVER NORTH CAROLINA

Pitt took two of three games against the Tar Heels with a doubleheader sweep (6-2 and 3-2) Saturday, April 17 that extended its winning-streak (seven) games and program record ACC series victories (five) and overall ACC wins.
Both Pitt starting pitchers picked up wins. Mitch Myers went six innings in game one with two runs, six hits, two walks and three strikeouts for the win, and Matt Gilbertson threw seven innings with two runs, six hits, no walks and eight strikeouts to claim the victory.
Nico Popa hit a two-run homer in the first inning of game one and never trailed.
All five runs of game two came in the third inning. Kyle Hess hit an RBI- double to left field that was followed by a two-run double from David Yanni.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT-WEST VIRGINIA

Ranked in the top-25 in the first two weeks of the season, the Mountaineers have gone 3-9 since their loss to Pitt that includes two series losses to top-10 teams (then-No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 5 TCU).
West Virginia has gone 3-2 in midweek games with wins against Morehead State (7-1 and 4-2) and Marshall (9-3) and losses to the Thundering Herd (1-7) and Pitt.
Senior first baseman/outfielder Hudson Byorick leads the team in OPS (.832) with 11 extra-base hits, and sophomore catcher/infielder Matt McCormick has a team-best eight doubles and six homers.
The pitching staff ranks 16th in the nation in strikeouts per nine innings (10.7).

ALL-TIME SERIES

The most played opponent in program history, West Virginia leads 85-74 with a six-game winning streak.
The Mountaineers have 24-16 advantage at home with three-straight wins.
Pitt looks for its first sweep in the Backyard Brawl since winning a three-game Big East series in 2011 at home.

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