The last two weekends have been a reality check for the softball team. After starting out something like 27-6 and 6-3 in the ACC, they went 0-6 against FSU and ND, two of the four strongest teams in the conference, and most of the games were blowouts.They are going to be a middle of the pack ACC team, which, considering the lack of success of other Pitt Olympic sports teams, is decent. Even when I saw them go undefeated out in Santa Barbara, I thought their pitching was suspect. King is decent but not a top quality starter, and Harris is just plain bad. Harris only is a freshman, but softball pitchers almost always are either good as freshmen or never amount to much. Harris doesn't get a lot of movement on the ball and she throws every pitch with a different windup, thus telegraphing them. I played fast pitch softball for a championship team in the Army (USARMYPAC) and I have no doubt that I could take Harris deep...and I am 68 now. King basically is about the same pitcher she was when I saw her as a frosh. King graduates this year and they signed a pitcher from Massachusetts I think. I hope she is really good because if she isn't they are going to have to win a lot of 10-9 games.
Jordano continues to lose midweek games with alarming regularity. Most disheartening was losing to PSU, which came into the game 1-12 with a team ERA over 7, and losing this week to WVU 4-1.
Meanwhile, the tennis team still hasn't won an ACC match in two years, the woman's gymnastic team only qualified one gymnast for the NCAA regionals -- she had to join with the six WVU gymnasts for the rotations because you can't do a rotation with one gymnast, the men's soccer program continues to be an unmitigated disaster and the women's soccer program only looks decent in comparison to the men. The swim teams are decent but not conference powers and the volleyball team is pretty good but nopwhere near its level when it dominated the Big East.
I hope the new AD takes the approach Tom Jurich has taken at Louisville -- that all of their programs should contend for conference and national honors every year. Of course, it could be worse: We could be Boston College.
