Pitt coach Mike Bell seeks to prove climate doesn’t matter in college baseball
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Mike Bell has heard the annual commentary on college baseball teams in the north — you know, they can’t win because of the climate — and he’ll argue the point if you care to engage him.
“Some guys like to use it as a crutch,” he said.
But Pitt’s baseball coach has no time for excuses — his season opens in four days — and he said developing good players is possible north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
“There are great players up here in the north. There are great programs in the north,” he said.
Indeed, Notre Dame (No. 5), Louisville (No. 14) and UConn (No. 16) finished the 2022 season ranked in the USA Today coaches poll. At last check, no palm trees grow on those campuses.
And Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena, who slashed .305/.369/.442 in three seasons at Maine, placed his name last year among those of Willie Stargell, Buffalo native Orel Hershiser and only six others who have been MVP of both league championship series and the World Series.
“We’re taking BP right now,” Bell said one cold January day this year. “It’s amazing what you can do with technology. It’s amazing what you can do when you plan and prepare ahead of time.”
Bell challenges his players to work on the hidden aspects of baseball that often win close games.
“Quality at-bats, moving runners over, first-pitch strikes for pitchers. Overall strike percentages,” Bell said. “We challenge ourselves early on in making sure that we’re very clean in the little things that we can control that are going to go hand-in-hand with the scoreboard.
“There are some things we don’t get a chance to do on a daily basis, but we do what we can inside (Pitt’s on-campus facility), compete every day, strive to get better little by little.
“You pick something you can do in the game of baseball, and you can do it inside. It’s not just our cage, bubble across the street. We had cuts and relays right out of the gate today.”
All that said, Pitt opens its season with a three-game series, starting Friday against Pena’s Maine Black Bears in Sarasota, Fla. Then, it’s four games against Harvard in Port Charlotte, Fla., on Feb. 24-26. The home opener is Feb. 28 against Bucknell at Pitt’s Charles L. Cost Field.
Pitt returns to Deland, Fla., for five games March 3-7 against Mount St. Mary’s, Stetson and USF. The Panthers work their way north, stopping in Tallahassee, Fla., on March 10 to open their ACC schedule with a three-game series against Florida State.
That’s 16 baseball games before the end of the college basketball season.
After winning two games last season in the ACC Tournament and advancing to the semifinals, Pitt returns 15 players, with 23 new faces in the dugout.
Junior outfielder C.J. Funk brings back the highest batting average from last season (.298) and a career slash line of .284/.462/.486. Third baseman Sky Duff, a graduate student, hit .306 and .366 in 2020 and 2021.
Also back are junior Brady Devereux, who has averaged nearly a strikeout an inning in 53 relief appearances, and Jonathan Bautista, who threw four scoreless innings in an ACC Tournament victory against Georgia Tech.
Gone are:
• Tatem Levins, Ron Washington Jr., Bryce Hulett and Brock Franks, who accounted for 49 of Pitt’s 79 home runs last season.
• Matt Gilbertson, Billy Corcoran (Arizona Diamondbacks) and Baron Stuart (New York Yankees), three of Pitt’s busiest four pitchers last season in terms of innings.
“It’s always the next man up. It’s always a new team,” Bell said. “Getting our guys to jell together early on as we go to Florida will be a key component (in the team’s early success), as well as staying healthy.
“There are going to be some piggy-backing — picking each other up — and allowing for more success in smaller chunks, which is going to allow you to depend on more guys and develop more guys. Maybe be at your strongest part at the end of the year.
“We like what we see. They just haven’t done it on the main stage or the conference level.”
In the past two seasons, Pitt faded in the final games before the ACC Tournament, losing the last seven in 2021 and eight of nine in 2022.
“We’ve been right there the past two years,” Duff said. “That’s tough at the end of the season when you see how much work you put into everything. Coming that close and not making the (NCAA Tournament) definitely brings the fire back.”
Duff preaches to teammates to embrace the long grind and focus on the present.
“It can be hard, but that’s what makes the difference in good teams and great teams.”