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After a historic season for the Pitt Baseball team, Coach Bell’s club sees themselves on the outside looking in. According to the selection committee, Pitt was just the second team out of the tournament.
With a resume featuring the fourth-most quality wins in the country and a higher RPI than other at-large bids, the major factor behind the decision came down to the slow finish once Pitt came back from a COVID-19 pause. “When you look at our body of work, that is the one thing you can hold against us,” Coach Bell said after the decision was announced.
The COVID pause came during the second half of the season and Pitt went 3-9 to the end of the year once they came back. “When you look around the country, when you look at other teams with a COVID pause, they struggled too. Ours, unfortunately, came at the end of the year.”
The 2021 season was far more than the disappointing finish, though. Going 18-12 against teams in the field, the Panthers had more highs than lows in a season Coach Bell hopes to just be the start of even better things to come.
“This is not the ultimate goal.” After showing huge improvements this year, many Panthers will hit the road this summer before returning to Oakland in the fall hoping to build on the momentum.