This has been a season of wild swings for the Pitt baseball team, beginning with an empty trip to the South and concluding in disappointment.

In between, the Panthers came together to display a solid brand of ball that provides optimism as they head into the double-elimination Big East Conference tournament with an opening game at 5 p.m. today against South Florida at KeySpan Park in Brooklyn, N.Y.

"We're not a team that can overcome a lot of mistakes," Pitt coach Joe Jordano said of the Panthers, whose lineup is dotted with freshmen and sophomores. "When we play a clean game of baseball, we can be pretty good."

The fourth-seeded Panthers (27-25, 15-11) lost two of three games against the fifth-seeded Bulls (32-24, 13-14), in Tampa, Fla.

Senior right-hander Paul Nardozzi (5-5, 3.93 ERA), who has two shutouts this season, will be on the mound today. Nardozzi, who is the school's career leader with 262 strikeouts, is one of the few Pitt players who was on the team that was the tournament runner-up in 2005.

This will be the sixth appearance in the tournament for the Panthers, who won the title in 1995 to earn their only trip to the NCAA tournament.

When the Panthers came back from a Southern swing in March with an 0-8 record against some stiff competition, they didn't have the look of a team that would be one of the eight teams in the Big East tournament.

"We gained a lot of valuable experience down there," Jordano said of the Panthers, who won their next six games before getting into conference action.

Picked to finish ninth in the coaches' preseason poll, Pitt had a fast start in conference play. The Panthers slumped at the end, losing four of their final six league games.

"That was a disappointment," Jordano said. "But that doesn't mean a thing now."

Pitt will be without freshman third baseman Gary Bucuren, who had a team-high .319 average before he had a wrist injury 10 games ago. Bucuren, drafted in the 34th round by the Pirates out of Ambridge High School, transferred from Kentucky.

Pitt's offense relies on Seth Button (.316, 8 HRs, 31 RBIs), Dan Williams (.293, 5 HRs, 23 RBIs) and Peter Parise, a senior whose 250 hits ties the school career record set by Bryan Spamer in 2001-04. The Panthers feature a deep pitching staff of Nardozzi, Nate Reed (4-5, 4.17), Rob Brant (4-6, 5.91) and reliever Kyle Landis (4-4, 2.19).