From March 10 to March 16 the Pitt-Bradford Baseball team will travel to Fort Myers, Florida to play in the 34th annual Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic. The Panthers will have the task of playing eight games in the six days that they will be spending in the Sunshine State.
Pitt-Bradford will start the trip with a doubleheader on Sunday against Wisconsin Lutheran. On Monday they will face off against Baruch in an early morning showdown. After a day off to recover on Wednesday, the Panthers will play Babson Thursday morning. Friday they will have another doubleheader against Haverford. To wrap up the trip, the Panthers will play two games on Saturday, the first being against Franklin & Marshall in the morning, and immediately after that play Skidmore to finish off their stay in Florida.
“These guys are battling,” said Pitt Bradford’s head coach Zach Foster. “We have worked hard preparing for the season and this event. We want to throw them out there and see what they can do against these schools. Last year we lost out on the chance to play four games due to a school that originally was supposed to be there closing down. Having more games this time around will help us see what our guys are made of. The warm weather will be nice and with no school on the players’ minds, we can put one hundred percent of our focus on baseball.”
Starting off their 2024 campaign with a 3-4 start, Foster sees this upcoming trip as a great opportunity to test his pitching staff. The Panthers have struck out 49 batters, which is the fourth most in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. Leading the way for their pitching rotation is Shawn Mannering who leads the AMCC with 20 strikeouts.
“I am excited to see what our young pitching staff can do against these schools,” said Foster Not just our young guys, but I can’t wait to see our upperclassmen who have been here before go out and compete as well. We are going to throw a bunch of different lineups out there to see how they battle it out.”
The Panthers will look to senior outfielder Andrew Bokulich to provide a spark in the offense. In 2023, Bokulich was selected first team All AMCC batting .343 and drove in 15 RBIs. So far this season, Bokulich has seven hits and drove in five RBIs which is second on the team. They will also look for seniors Evan Fragela and Nico Hall’s experience to help out their younger side of the roster.
“We are playing some tough teams down there,” said Foster. “I am a firm believer that this will prepare us for conference play. The goal is to be firing on all cylinders by March 30th for when we open up conference play.”
Coming back from Florida, the Panthers will have two weeks to prepare for conference play. They will have their home opener March 30 as they host a doubleheader against La Roche. In 2023, the Panthers finished last in the AMCC by going 4-10 in conference play. With a better start to their season and their young players from last year gaining more experience, Pitt-Bradford looks to make strides in the right direction in 2024.
“We want them to go out and compete every day, that is the goal. By the time May rolls around we hope to be playing our best ball. It starts with us putting in the work and battling day in and day out,” said Foster.
