Pittsburgh Pandas

From BR Bullpen

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Team Bio[edit]

Founded as an expansion to the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League in 2001, the Pittsburgh Pandas are a Summer Collegiate Baseball team based in Pittsburgh, PA. The Pandas showed weak performance throughout their tenure in the GLSCL.

In 2005, when the Toledo, OH based Erie Shores Collegiate League was formed, the Pandas were among the founding teams. The ESCL proved to the Pandas advantage. The Pandas were one of three teams in the greater Pittsburgh area playing in the league, and travel was less of a stressor on the team's performance. The Pandas finished second in both their division and the league, and made their first appearance at the National Amateur Baseball Federation World Series. The Pandas were eliminated early in the tournament. The ESCL folded after just one season.

The Pandas began the 2006 season, along with several of the teams they had played in the ESCL, as founding members of the Tri-State Collegiate League. The Pittsburgh Pandas flourished in this more regional league, and not only won the league championship in 2006, but traveled to Ned Skeldon Stadium in Toledo, OH to win the NABF world Series Championship, defeating the Long Island Astros 9-3.

As a team, the Pittsburgh Pandas are dedicated and designed to provide minor league level competition for NCAA players that wish to continue on into professional baseball. The Pandas operate in the model a Minor League team: playing nightly before fans in stadiums, using wood bats and minor league specification equipment, and experiencing road trips between games. Like all other summer collegiate players, the Pittsburgh Pandas are unpaid in order to maintain their NCAA eligibility, and live with host families in the same manner as Single A and Independent League players.

2007 On Field Staff[edit]

  • Manager: John Bellaver

Championships and Honors[edit]

Related Links[edit]

Tri- State Collegiate League Home Page2006 NABF World Series Archive Erie Shores League Home Page] Toledo Free Press NABF World Series Report