Sky Duff Stays With Pitt Baseball Program as Graduate Manager

PITTSBURGH – Sky Duff will dawn the Royal and Gold for another year head coach Mike Bell announced Tuesday morning, as he will be the program’s graduate manager for this upcoming season.  

“The University of Pittsburgh is a special place to me and I’m extremely grateful for Coach Bell and the opportunity to join the coaching staff. I’m excited to stay home and get to work on bringing championships back to Oakland. H2P.”

Duff spent the entirety of his five-year collegiate career at the University of Pittsburgh, breaking numerous school records and earning multiple individual and team awards during his time here. His name is littered all throughout the Pitt baseball record book.  

He ranks first all-time in walks (171) and doubles (54), second all-time in career games played (213) and at-bats (794), third all-time in games started (207), fifth all-time in runs scored (163), eighth all-time in hits (226), and 13^th all-time in total bases (314).  Along with these accolades, Duff finished his career with 10 home runs, 10 stolen bases, two triples and 95 RBI while hitting .285 with a .420 on-base percentage.

“The perfect situation for both Sky and the Pitt Panther baseball program,” said head coach Mike Bell. “This allows Sky to finish his master’s degree and stay involved in our baseball program, mentoring and leading young student-athletes.  Sky was a great leader for our program over the past five years, and we truly believe he can bring a lot to the program in new ways in this role. As we always say, once a Panther, always a Panther.”

Following what was arguably his best year at Pitt, in 2021, the then-junior earned ABCA/Rawlings All-East Region Second Team and All-ACC Third Team honors at third base.  Duff recorded single-season career highs in many offensive statistical categories as he batted .366 and slugged .524 with 60 hits and 18 doubles while he maintained his .461 on-base percentage. He ended the season with active 21-game on-base and 13-game hit streaks, ranking fourth in the ACC in on-base percentage and fifth in the ACC in batting average. 

Duff started in all 55 of the Panthers’ games as a graduate student last season, collecting 55 hits, 54 runs scored, 47 walks, 25 RBI, 15 doubles and five home runs.  He…