Pitt fires softball coach Jodi Hermanek after 5 seasons

Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke continued to weed out the unsuccessful coaches in her department Monday when softball’s Jodi Hermanek was dismissed after five seasons.

In the past two months, women’s basketball coach Lance White and gymnastics’ Samantha Snider were fired.

Hermanek was hired at the end of the 2018 season after Holly Aprile left to become head coach at Louisville. Aprile had led Pitt to 31 or more victories in three of her final four seasons.

Hermanek was the winningest coach in Ohio University history, spending 10 seasons there before landing the Pitt job. She led Ohio to two NCAA Tournament appearances (2014, 2018), two Mid-American Conference Tournament championships and one regular-season title (2018). She also was head coach at Southern Utah from 2004-08, leading her team to two NCAA Tournament berths.

She won a total of 473 games in her head coaching career.

At Pitt, she never found the same success, with the Panthers finishing 8-37 in the ACC over the past two seasons. Overall, Hermanek’s record at Pitt was 76-134, including 29-82 in the ACC. She concluded her best season at Pitt on Saturday, winning a three-game series against N.C. State, including a doubleheader sweep, to finish 24-25, 6-17 in the ACC.

“On behalf of the entire Pitt Athletics department, I want to express my deepest appreciation to coach Hermanek for her dedication and efforts leading the Pitt softball program,” Lyke said in a statement Monday. “We wish Jodi the very best in her future pursuits. We will conduct the search for our next head coach immediately, and I expect the opportunity to attract national interest.”