No. 16 Pitt Returns to ACC Play with Boston College at Home

PITTSBURGH – No. 16 Pitt baseball (20-12, 14-10 ACC) plays its first ACC game in three weeks against Boston College with a three-game series this weekend. Due to anticipated inclement weather, Friday's game has been moved to 3 p.m. with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. The series finale will starts 45 minutes after the conclusion of the first game Saturday.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Each game is available to be streamed on WatchESPN/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 (3-4, 3.14 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) | RHP Emmet Sheehan (5-3, 3.90 ERA, 1.18 WHIP)
SATURDAY G1: RHP Matt Gilbertson (5-3, 3.53 ERA, 1.16 WHIP) | RHP Mason Pelio (3-6, 6.09 ERA, 1.74 WHIP)
SATURDAY G2: RHP Billy Corcoran (0-0, 3.00 ERA, 1.17 WHIP) | TBA

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

With the top 12 teams regardless of division earning slots into the ACC Tournament, Pitt's magic number for officially locking in a postseason appearance with the conference tourney 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.

TOP RPI MATCHUP

The series features a pair of top-100 RPI ranked teams with Pitt (26th) and Boston College (93rd).
Pitt has the 23rd-toughest strength of schedule so far this season and own 12 wins against quadrant one teams (one against No. 9 Notre Dame, two against No. 19 Indiana State, No. 43 Virginia, No. 45 North Carolina and No. 50 Georgia Tech and a sweep of No. 20 Miami).
All but three games have come against quadrant one and two teams.
The ACC also ranks third in the conference RPI rankings as all 14 teams are in the top-90 with 12 in the top-60.
The NCAA released its first RPI rankings of the season Feb. 25, and the Panthers were slotted second (.6487) behind just Arkansas.

LAST TIME OUT-LOSS AT WVU

Pitt played its first game in over two weeks and fell 8-2 at West Virginia as the two teams split the 2021 Backyard Brawl Series.
WVU scored in its first trip to the plate with a two-out RBI-tripl, got another run in the next inning with an RBI-groundout.
The Mountaineers doubled their lead in the fourth inning and pushed the game out of reach with a three-run homer in the bottom of the inning.
The Panthers scored on a David Yanni RBI-double in the sixth inning and wild pitch that Ron Washington, Jr. raced home on safely.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENT-BOSTON COLLEGE

The Eagles dropped their lone weekday game 3-2 at Massachusetts Tuesday and snapped a six-ACC series losing streak with two decisive home wins (13-0 and 11-6) against Miami last weekend.
Junior center fielder Sal Frelick is hitting a team-best .360 with 45 runs scored and 15 doubles.
Sophomore third baseman/designated hitter Luke Gold is second with a .342 average and leads in the power categories with a .651 slugging percentage, nine home runs and 42 RBI.

ALL-TIME SERIES

Pittsburgh leads the all-time series 28-25 and 6-3 in ACC play.
The Panthers have won all three series since joining the league in 2014.
Split into two different divisions in the ACC despite being two of the three-most northern schools in the league, the two teams will play for the first time since 2018.

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