Pitt Baseball: Panthers' bats mostly silent in losing season

Yesterday, I touched on some of the struggles the baseball team is having as the Panthers have dropped seven straight games. While the pitching, as I pointed out, has taken a step back, the team's offense remains a huge issue.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not sure which is worse ... the 56 runs the team has given up in their last seven contests or the 14 they've scored. But while the pitching has strung together some decent starts over the course of the year, the hitting has largely been nonexistent.

In four of those aforementioned seven games, they had only a single run each time out. As of Monday, the Panthers' .244 batting was 259th in the nation, near the bottom of D-I baseball. The team also ranks 203rd in hits, and 194th in runs. In 17 of the team's 30 games, they've managed three or fewer runs

There have been a few bright spots on offense. Frank Maldonado and Jordan Frabasilio have given the team some power with 11 combined home runs, and both rank around the Top 100 nationally in that category. Charles Leblanc leads the team with 17 RBI and is batting nearly .300. But overall, the team has found scoring runs to be difficult.

Still, it's not been nearly enough. Five of the team's eight regular position players are hitting no better than .241 and none of the starters have an on base percentage of .400 or are batting even .300. Pitt is not only failing to drive runs in, but they're not even getting enough on base.

Saying the team will need to score more runs to be competitive is an understatement.

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