Panthers Travel to Georgia Tech in Crucial ACC Series

The Pitt Panthers head down to Atlanta this weekend to take on Georgia Tech in a pivotal ACC series. With the Panthers up one game on the Yellow Jackets in the ACC standings, and a possible trip to the ACC Championships in Durham, NC on the line, a series win for this Pitt team would be huge.

Georgia Tech is on a hot streak of late, winning five games in a row, and six of their last eight. With wins against Miami, Gardener-Webb, Mercer, and Georgia State.

Pitt has won three of four but is most recently coming off of a loss to No. 12 West Virginia 10-0 in seven innings at West Virginia on Wednesday evening. The Mountaineers scored at least one run in each of the first four frames. Noah Martinez (2-3, 2 singles), Jack Anderson (1-1, 2 BB), and Sky Duff (1-4) all recorded hits for Pitt. The Panthers had runners in scoring position multiple times throughout the ballgame, but did not have the timely hitting to get runs on the board.

Graduate Student Sky Duff is one double away from becoming Pitt's new all-time career doubles leader. With a double in their series-opener against Cal, he tied John Shultz (2008-2011) for the most career doubles (53) in Pitt Baseball history.

TERRIFIC TRANSFER
A transfer from Central Connecticut State, Noah Martinez has made a massive impact for the Panthers this season. Martinez is leading the team in hits (50) and RBIs (42) and is sole second in on base percentage (.457), batting average (.314), and home runs (9). He has the most single-season walks (42) by a first year Panther in Pitt Baseball history.

HESS HASN'T MISSED A BEAT
After missing the first 12 games of the year with an injury, Kyle Hess has made an impact since his return to the lineup. Hess sports a team-best .325 batting average, ranks second in slugging percentage (.575) and fourth in hits (40). His four triples lead the team, and put him in a tie for first in all of the ACC.

WALK THIS WAY
Pitt has worked 260 walks on the season, they rank 15th in the country. Noah Martinez is third in all of the ACC and 15th in the country with his 42 walks. Jack Anderson is second on the team and 5th in the ACC with 41 walks, while CJ Funk and Sky Duff are right behind him, with 39 walks a piece, ranking them sixth in the ACC.

A PAIR OF JACKS
Jack Anderson has his name in the top five of several statistical categories for the Panthers this season. He leads the team in on base percentage (.467), is second on the team in hits (45), third in batting average (.304), fourth in RBI (30) , and ranks sixth in home runs (5) Anderson had a 37 game on base streak prior to the series finale against Wake Forest.

Jack Sokol has struck out at least five batters in six of his starts this season and has fanned at least nine in three of those games, including a season-high 10 in seven innings against Mount St. Mary's earlier this month. Sokol's 58 strikeouts this season are a team high and ranks him thirteenth in the ACC. He ranks ninth in the ACC in strikeouts looking with 19.