During a fall meeting last semester, Pitt softball coach Jenny Allard listed the team’s record for the last five years on the white board. She had both the conference record and the entire season’s record. Not a single one was a winning record.
She asked the team what they wanted to do. What do they want to rally around?
The idea of “flip Pitt” was born that day. There are signs with the slogan all over the softball office. But that’s not going to happen in a single season.
“We talk about that notion of kind of flipping Pitt from being a team that that last year wasn't in it at the last weekend to being in it and fighting for something,” Allard said. “The real goal is we want to make the [ACC] tournament, and we need to believe we can.”
It’d be the first time since 2018 — also the last time Pitt softball had a winning record.
And with just one weekend series left in the regular season, the Panthers’ final weekend of the season matters. The Panthers are currently in 11th with a 6-15 record. Only the top 10 teams in the league make the tournament, but Pitt has three more games and is within range of Louisville (6-12), Syracuse (7-13) and Notre Dame (8-13). Luckily, the Panthers are playing the worst team in the ACC — North Carolina State.
Allard can’t say what she expected of her first season with the team, but she knew what they needed to do to reach their goal.
“In order for us to make the tournament, in order for us this year to have success, they had to overachieve,” Allard said. “They had to outwork their experience. They had to outwork their talent coming in. They had to grow and they had to get better. We had to really train them and really teach them.”
Pitt had 11 returners and 11 newcomers, but all of them were fairly inexperienced.
The Panthers’ most used pitcher, Olivia Stefanoni, threw just 22⅔ innings at Akron last season; she’s at 95 innings with four games left in this regular season.
Infielder Ana Hernandez has only started in 20 games in her two years, splitting time between second base, third base and shortstop. But when Shelby Frazier went out with an injury, suddenly Hernandez was the starting shortstop.
You can continue down the list.
A handful of the returners bring experience. The team’s best hitter, Kat Rodriguez, has a .343 average in 48 games, 45 starts, all at second base as a redshirt junior. Kylie Griggs has played in 123 games during her career with the Panthers. But neither of them has been on a winning team.
“We had to learn what it takes to win,” Griggs said. “I feel like with every team, it takes a little something different. We're learning we can't take any game lightly and have to really push through and be gritty.”
It didn’t help that Pitt opened conference play against Virginia Tech and Florida State, which currently sit third and first in the ACC, respectively. But Allard took the time to refocus the squad. The end result wasn’t the goal.
“These games need to make us better,” Allard said. “We need to figure out how to fight, how to battle, how to stay the course, how to not get down on ourselves. It's going to test us, but that's going to set us up for the second half of the conference.”
They went 0-6 against the Hokies and Seminoles, largely due to the pitching, which made Allard realize she had to look at the game differently. In most sports, defense drives the offense. Allard encouraged her team to try to separate the two.
Sure, a good batting performance would help the confidence when it came to fielding and vice versa. But when one was going badly, the Panthers couldn’t let that dictate the other.
The pivotal point of the season came during the series at Boston College on April 5 and 7. Eagles pitcher Abby Dunning was known for her fast pitch and had yet to give up any home runs. That is until Amanda “Tuta” Ramirez came to bat in the fourth inning and hit a two-run home run. Griggs followed that up with her own homer, and Dunning was taken out of the game.
It gave the team some confidence, and that translated to Stefanoni, who ended up pitching a shutout.
“It's been crazy,” Stefanoni said. “I knew I had more to give to this game coming from last year and not throwing a lot. I always believed in myself, and having your coaches believe in you was huge. They really pushed me in a direction to be successful.”
Pitt won its first series of the conference season that weekend and with it had hope that they could make the ACC tournament. The Panthers went 1-2 against North Carolina, giving them their fourth win.
It was on the returning players’ minds that last season, seven wins would’ve gotten them into the tournament. The number changes year to year, but that number was in reach.
Before the Syracuse series, Allard reiterated the team’s goal to be in the mix for a tournament spot in the last weekend. Pitt had just two series left and wanted to win as many games as possible. They split the first two games against the Orange. The third game will probably forever be ingrained in the players’ memories.
Senior day at Vartabedian Field was always exciting. This one even more so because with one more win, Pitt would tie its conference wins from last season.
Griggs, the leadoff hitter, grounded out. Rodriguez hit a single, and the next four players made jaws drop.
Cami Compson homered to center field, bringing her and Rodriguez in for two runs. The home runs weren’t done. By the end of the first inning, Desirae Martinez, Rachael Fuerst and Hernandez all hit the ball out of the park. Pitt finished the game with a 7-5 win.
“We didn't go in there thinking we were going to hit a bunch of home runs,” Griggs said. “We just focused one at-bat at a time. It wasn't one person. It was like the whole team really came together instead of a little spark here and there.”
Unfortunately for the Panthers, their fate doesn’t just rest in their hands. A trio of wins against N.C. State would definitely help their ACC tournament chances, but Syracuse upset Virginia Tech, knocking Pitt out of 10th.
Stefanoni said they’re focused on controlling themselves. Are they hoping the teams ahead of them lose? Absolutely. No matter what happens next weekend, though, this season has still been a step in the right direction for the program.
“Seeing them respond to their success, when they are proud of themselves, that’s what it’s about for me,” Allard said. “It’s about their growth. For me, it's always about that.”
Abby Schnable: aschnable@post-gazette.com and @AbbySchnable on X
First Published: April 28, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
