Pitt Hosts No. 5 Louisville for ACC Weekend Series

PITTSBURGH – Pitt baseball resumes ACC play with a three-game weekend series against No. 5 Louisville with games Friday and Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.

GAME PROMOTIONS

Saturday is "Bark at the Park" where all dogs are welcome to attend with giveaways including free bandanas and free collapsible dog bowls to everyone who brings along a furry friend.
Sunday, Pitt baseball trading card packs will be given out and Little Leaguers get $1 admission as well as a concessions deal.

HOW TO FOLLOW

Each game will be live streamed on ACCNX.
Fans can follow along with live stats and updates through Twitter. Follow @Pitt_BASE for the latest news and updates about the team.

STARTING PITCHERS

FRIDAY: RHP Matt Gilbertson (3-2, 2.88 ERA, 1.34 WHIP) | RHP Tate Kuehner (4-0, 2.76 ERA, 1.15 WHIP)
SATURDAY: RHP Logan Evans (3-1, 4.09 ERA, 1.15 WHIP) | RHP Jared Poland (1-1, 2.08 ERA, 1.15 WHIP)
SUNDAY: RHP Billy Corcoran (2-2, 4.50 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) | RHP Riley Phillips (3-0, 1.97 ERA, 1.06 WHIP)

BACKYARD BRAWL WIN

A brand-new game added a day before play, Pitt defeated rival West Virginia 9-6 at home in the first of three scheduled games for the Backyard Brawl.
The Panthers scored three unanswered runs to secure the victory.
Sky Duff knocked in the game-winning run in the fourth inning, singling through the right side with two outs to bring home Jeffrey Wehler.
Tatem Levins blasted his team-leading ninth homer of the season, a two-run shot to right field in the ninth inning.
Brock Franks completed a six-run frame in the first inning with a three-run homer to right field, as all six runs came with two outs.
Brady Devereux picked up the win in relief, allowing no runs, two hits and one walk with two strikeouts.
Baron Stuart recorded his second-straight save and third of the season, retiring all four batters faced to end the game with two strikeouts.
Quin Konuszewski, Dylan Lester, C.J. McKennitt, Stuart and Devereux combined to only allow four batters reach base on two walks and two hits over 5.1 innings of scoreless relief.
Levins reached base in all five trips to the plate with his homer, two walks and two hit-by-pitches.
Bryce Hulett reached four times, going 2-3 with two RBI and two walks.

HOME RUN HITTING SQUAD

The story of the Pitt offense so far this season has been its home run hitting ability.
With 41 in 23 games, the Panthers rank in the nation 14th in homers and 12th per game (1.78).
Tatem Levins has been the leader of that power-hitting squad, blasting nine to place 37th in the nation.
Brock Franks is 75th in the nation in homers with seven while Ron Washington, Jr. also ranks in the top-100 in the nation in homers per game (.33) at 60th.
All nine of the batters in the current starting lineup have hit at least one with Kyle Hess, Brock Franks and Washington, Jr. all registering six and Jack Anderson and Bryce Hulett each having five.
CJ Funk hit his first collegiate homer at Virginia Tech (Saturday, March 19).

BREAKOUT SEASON FOR HULETT

Bryce Hulett has enjoyed a tremendous start to the season as the Panthers' top hitter.
Known for his tremendous glove at first base since he started his career in Pittsburgh in 2020, Hulett has excelled at the plate so far this spring.
He has the team-lead for OPS (1.189), batting average (.397), hits (31), and on-base percentage (.510) along with 11 extra-base hits, a .679 slugging percentage and 17 walks to just nine strikeouts.
In the nation he ranks 45th in on-base percentage (.510), 66th in batting average and 98th in slugging percentage (.679) and is in the ACC sixth in batting average, seventh in on-base percentage and ninth in OPS.
His power has seen an uptick with five homers, five doubles and a triple in 78 at-bats (eight, three and zero in 154 last season), and he's drawn more walks and cut down drastically on strikeouts (averaging one per 8.7 at-bats), compared to last year (55 in 157, average of one every 2.85 at-bats).

ACC PLAYER OF THE WEEK (MARCH 7)

Tatem Levins was named ACC Player of the Week March 7 for in his performance at the All-American Classic.
Levins homered in all three games and posted nine RBI and a 1.231 slugging percentage.
He opened the tournament in Fayetteville, N.C. with a 2-4 performance at the plate with a solo homer and double against Army.
He had a two-run homer in the 6-5 comeback win over Ohio State.
In the 11-5 victory over Campbell, he saved his best performance for last with a grand slam and two other hits, six RBI and two runs.
He was also named one of Collegiate Baseball's Players of the Week.
For the season, Levins has been an effective power hitter, ranking 25th in the nation with nine homers that included a five-game home run streak (Lipscomb, Feb. 27-at High Point, March 9) and a two-homer performance the 21-5 win over Bucknell.
In the five-game stretch with a homer he registered a .545 batting average (12-22), 12 hits, 12 RBI, 28 total bases, a 1.273 slugging percentage and .545 on-base percentage.
In the nation he ranks 27th in homers per game (.39) and 71st in slugging percentage (.702) and is tied for sixth in homers in the ACC.
Overall this season, he has boasted a 1.138 OPS, a team-leading 25 RBI and 12 extra-base hits.

HOMETOWN HERO

Pittsburgh native and Mars High School graduate Jack Anderson is in his first season at his hometown school.
The primary DH for the Panthers played his first two seasons of college ball at Northwestern and spent last year at State College of Florida, where teammate Bryce Hulett played at from 2018-19.
One of the prominent power bats in the lineup, Anderson has come on as of late with four homers in the last eight games and an active six-game hitting streak.
One of five starters with an OPS above 1.000, Anderson is third at 1.082 with five homers and three doubles as part of his 20 hits with a .339 batting average and 16 RBI.

FRANKS THE HOME RUN HITTER

Brock Franks has also seen a power surge at the plate.
Only hitting one homer in his first 47 games as a Panther, Franks has hit seven in the last 18 games, including his first multi-home run game of his collegiate career.
In a six-game stretch (Lipscomb, Feb. 26-High Point, March 9), he registered 25 total bases, a 1.087 slugging percentage and 11 RBI.
Franks has highest ratio of extra-base hits to hits in the starting batting lineup at 71.4% (10 out of 14).

THE DUFFMAN

Sky Duff had a breakout campaign in 2021, his third year in Pittsburgh, and earned spots on the All-ACC Third-Team and ABCA/Rawlings All-East Region Second Team.
Serving as the leadoff batter for most of the season, Duff still has an active 44-game reached base streak started last year and currently ranks 64th in the nation in walks (20) along with teammate CJ Funk.
This season he leads the team in walks and has a .450 on-base percentage, 26 hits and 11 RBI.
He recorded a nation-best nine walks and three hits on opening weekend.
Known for his ability to draw walks in his entire career, he ranks fifth in program history with 103.
Former teammate David Yanni (148, 2016-21), John Schultz (142, 2008-11), Jacob Wright (116, 2015-17), and Jim Negrych (107, 2004-06) all could be passed by Duff this or next season.
In the nation he ranked last year 14th in doubles per game (.43), 47th in doubles (18), 67th in hits per game (1.43), 83rd in batting average (.366) and 91st in on-base percentage (.461).
He was in the ACC fifth in batting average and fourth in on-base percentage and doubles.
The junior showed an improvement with his power, racking up a team-high 18 doubles.
He also hit two homers last year after recording his first career homer the previous season.

GILL ON THE HILL

Matt Gilbertson was the Panthers' "Saturday" pitcher all of last season and is the No. 1 pitcher this year.
Gilbertson has posted a team-best 2.88 ERA along with a 1.34 WHIP, 3-2 record, 36 strikeouts to 10 walks and a .269 opposing batting average.
This season he ranks in the ACC tied for first in strikeouts looking (15), seventh in innings pitched (34.1) and 10th in strikeouts.
He earned his first win this season with no earned runs allowed and four strikeouts in five innings pitched against Bradley (Feb. 25).
He recorded his first ACC victory at Virginia Tech (March 18), going six innings with two runs, six hits, one walk and seven strikeouts.
He notched another ACC win with seven shutout innings with just five hits and no walks allowed with nine strikeouts.
In 23 career starts at Pitt, Gilbertson has accumulated 128 strikeouts to just 36 walks and gone at least five innings in all but two games.
With starts in the second game of each weekend series in 2021, Gilbertson posted a 6-4 record with a 1.29 WHIP, 4.45 ERA, 72 strikeouts to 20 walks and a .269 opposing batting average.
In the ACC, he ranked tied seventh in innings pitched (85.0) and ninth in wins (six), both team-highs.

SCOUTING LOUISVILLE

Ranked in every major poll and are as high as No. 5 by Collegiate Baseball.
With a 20-5 record, the Cardinals have won four-straight, all on the road, with a 16-6 win against Western Kentucky Tuesday and a three-game sweep over Boston College (6-1, 10-6 and 15-1) and are undefeated in ACC play thanks to another sweep of then-No. 1 Notre Dame (16-11, 8-1 and 7-5).
Has one of the best offenses in the nation, ranking second in triples (15), fifth in scoring (10.2 runs per game), slugging percentage (.558) and on-base percentage (.440), seventh in walks (150), eighth in batting average (.325) and ninth in stolen bases (56).
Senior outfielder Ben Metzinger has been the top-hitter with a 1.208 OPS, 10 homers, 35 RBI, 26 walks and eight steals.

ALL-TIME SERIES

Louisville has the advantage 21-8.
The Panthers do have the edge in games in Pittsburgh at 7-5.
Former Big East foes, the two teams haven't played each other since the 2018 ACC Tournament due to the COVID pandemic and playing in different divisions in the ACC.

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Pitt Hosts No. 5 Louisville for ACC Weekend Series

Players Mentioned

Jack Anderson

Billy Corcoran

Brady Devereux

Sky Duff

Logan Evans

Brock Franks

C.J. Funk

Matt Gilbertson

Kyle Hess

Bryce Hulett

Quin Konuszewski

Dylan Lester

Tatem Levins

C.J. McKennitt

Baron Stuart

Jeffrey Wehler

David Yanni

Pitt Hosts No. 5 Louisville for ACC Weekend Series

Players Mentioned

Jack Anderson

Billy Corcoran

Brady Devereux

Sky Duff

Logan Evans

Brock Franks

C.J. Funk

Matt Gilbertson

Kyle Hess

Bryce Hulett

Quin Konuszewski

Dylan Lester

Tatem Levins

C.J. McKennitt

Baron Stuart

Jeffrey Wehler

David Yanni

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