Pitt baseball team fades down the stretch

Earlier this month, Pitt's baseball team still found themselves in contention for the NCAA Tournament. Now, that seems like a distant memory. The Panthers produced some good wins this season, but have fallen apart down the stretch and with the regular season finale today, find themselves in the midst of a long skid.

At one point this year, the Panthers probably weren't all that far from the Top 25. Several players were producing offensively and shortstop Charles Leblanc has been having a monster season. But dating back to May 11 with a game against Penn State, Pitt's baseball team has dropped seven consecutive games. Included has been a sweep by Miami, a pair of losses to Duke, and individual game losses to rivals Penn State and West Virginia. Frustrating, too, is the close nature of several of those contests.

Two of the games have been extra-inning losses as the Panthers fell to Miami in 11 innings and Duke in 10. Three defeats have been by only a single run and a fourth was a two-run loss. Pitt has fallen just short and as a result, has dipped below .500 with a 25-26 mark on the year.

The season looked somewhat promising earlier this season when Pitt found themselves with some quality wins and, as a result, a solid RPI. But the end of the year has been a brutal stretch for the team and ultimately, they weren't able to keep up.

The team concludes the regular season today against Duke at 11:00 a.m.

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