March 18, 2008

PITTSBURGH-The Pitt baseball team's mid-week game at Akron scheduled for March 19, has been cancelled. Both teams are coming off busy schedules in Florida and will open conference play this coming weekend.

The Panthers (6-8) will travel to Morgantown, W.Va. for a three-game series with Big East foe West Virginia. The Mountaineers (13-4) are coming off a five-game winning streak, taking four of four from Iona. Pitt heads into it series with West Virginia enjoying a 3-1 stand at the Papa John's Challenge in West Palm Beach, Fla. The Panthers captured victories in their first three games, before falling 8-6 to Cornell in their final contest while in Florida.

Left fielder Sean Conley (SR/Chippewa, Pa./Blackhawk) continues to be hot for the Panthers at the plate, after tallying homeruns in Pitt's last three-consecutive wins, including his first-career grand slam. Conley's four-run blast helped the Panthers to a 14-2 win over Penn on March 13.

Left-handed pitcher Brian Chrisman (RS SR/Pittsburgh, Pa./Marshall University) threw a career-game on March 16, earning his third win of the season in a 17-2 dismantling of New Jersey Tech. Chrisman pitched 8.0 shutout-innings, tallying a career-high 10 strikeouts while giving up no walks and allowing just three hits.

Conley, named Big East Player of the Week on March 3 by the conference, will square-off with the Mountaineers' senior shortstop Tyler Kuhn, who was named the conference Player of the Week on March 17. Kuhn is batting .381 with a team-high 21 RBI after recording 18 of those RBI this past week.

West Virginia holds a 67-55 advantage over Pitt in the teams' all-time series history. The last time the Panthers and Mountaineers squared off was in 2006 when Pitt dropped three-straight in Morgantown by scores of 8-4, 6-2 and 13-4.

Pitt's three-game series at West Virginia is set to start Thursday with a 5 p.m. matchup at Hawley Field, followed by 1 p.m. games on both Friday and Saturday.