Panthers: Painful end to 2018 ‘fuels our fire’
Pitt’s softball team was one out last year from making just its second NCAA tournament appearance in program history.
The Panthers led Florida State, 4-1, in the bottom of the seventh inning of the ACC tournament’s championship game. They gave up a run but got the second out, then Anna Shelnutt took the next pitch over the left field fence for a three-run walk-off home run to give the Seminoles a 5-4 win.
The next day, Pitt learned that its 16-6 conference record — the best in program history — was not enough for an at-large NCAA tournament berth. The Panthers could only watch as Florida State went on to win the national championship.
“Obviously, not making the tournament hurt a little bit, and the ACC championship also hurt a little bit,” said senior infielder Olivia Gray. “But I think it’s good. It fuels our fire. It’s burning inside of us to get back there and to prove some people wrong.”
The Panthers, who were picked to finish fourth in the ACC preseason coaches’ poll, start their 2019 season Friday in South Carolina with a doubleheader against Purdue and College of Charleston.
Jodi Hermanek wasn’t in the dugout against Florida State, but the first-year coach wants to make sure that never happens again.
“The mindset’s all about playing the big ones, sometimes. And to me, every single game’s a big one,” Hermanek said. “It doesn’t matter if it comes against No. 1 or No. 250. Every game’s important.”
Hermanek replaced Holly Aprile, who left for Louisville after 10 years at Pitt. The Panthers hired Hermanek from Ohio University, where she led the Bobcats to last year’s Mid-American Conference championship.
“It’s tough,” Hermanek said of building a program and then leaving. “But at the same time, it’s got a lot of value. … You know that the place that you just left is in good standing, and you made it better leaving than you had it when you got there.”
Gray, a preseason AllACC selection and first-team All-ACC last year, leads the Panthers.
“I couldn’t get there without my teammates and my team’s success last year,” she said. “It’s not my honor, by any means. It’s the University of Pittsburgh softball team’s honor.”
“Every team needs an Olivia Gray,” Hermanek added. “Poster child for this program, you love to have her.”
Gray provided big moments for the Panthers last year, including a go-ahead single in a 1-0, extra-inning win at Florida State in the regular season, snapping the Seminoles’ 36-game conference winning streak. Gray also scored the winning run against Louisville to clinch the team’s first ACC Coastal Division championship.
Hermanek says the team’s aim this year is to win 40 games — something that has never been done in program history. Pitt’s only tournament appearance came in 2015.
The move from Ohio to the ACC will be an adjustment for Hermanek, even if the reigning national champions aren’t on this year’s schedule.
“At the end of the day, similarities are, kids that want to go on the field and win and kids that want to work hard for it.”
Hermanek has tournament experience, though none of her players do. Gray thinks that experience will be important this year, but Hermanek downplayed it.
“I’m just a hard-working coach trying to get some hard-working athletes to perform their very best,” she said.