USF Hosts Pittsburgh

The Bulls face Pittsburgh in the final series of the regular season with the fate of the season riding on every game.

The Bulls, 23-28 (11-13) play the final regular season games starting tonight and what could be the last games of the season. USF has had a rough season and will probably end the year with a losing record, the first time in 30 years the Bulls have had consecutive losing seasons. Yet, despite the woeful season, the Bulls have a heart beat left and an outside shot of keeping the season alive and reaching the Big East tournament, but the Pitt Panthers, the final opponent of the regular season, stand in their way.

Pitt enters the game with a 31-19 record (15-9) and an 8-9 record on the road (hurrah, they aren't so powerful on the road, at least according to the record). [keep reading]

The Panthers have a powerful lineup which is bad news for the USF pitching staff. The Panthers are led by Kevan Smith who is hitting a ridiculous .397 on the season with 7 home runs and 51 RBI. David Chester is another power threat, hitting .331 on the year with 12 home runs and 53 RBI. Travis Whitmore is hitting .317 with 3 home runs and 38 RBI. Josh Schultz is hitting .361 with 4 home runs and 23 RBI. As a team, Pitt is hitting .321, a crazy number and another bad sign for the USF pitching staff. For comparison, USF is hitting .253 as a team and Todd Brazeal leads the Bulls with 35 RBI on the year, so Pitt is definitely the better hitting team here.

Pitt has a solid pitching staff as well. Matt Iannazzo is 6-3 on the season with a .258 ERA and holds opponents to a batting average of just .234 (good luck to our offense). Matt Wotherspoon is 5-1 on the year as well with an ERA of 3.54 and holds opponents to a .232 batting average. For USF, Randy Fontanez, after leaving his last start with illness, will have to shine on Thursday night. He is 5-5 on the season holding opponents to a batting average of just .235 (ERA of 2.73). Kevin Quackenbush has 12 saves on the season will be a key member as the Bulls try to win this series.

First pitch is scheduled for 7 PM. Friday's game is scheduled for 7 PM and the final game of the regular season is Saturday at 1 PM.

This is it folks, the Bulls have to sweep the series to have a chance to book a ticket to Clearwater, they also need Seton Hall to lose some games as well. USF holds the tie breaker over the Pirates, but Louisville and Notre Dame hold weight in the fate of USF, but the Bulls can't focus on that right now. They simply need to go out there and win their games and worry about the tournament or the long offseason afterwards.