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PORTLAND PILOTS (1-2) • SAINT MARY'S GAELS (1-3)
KANSAS STATE WILDCATS (0-4) • UC DAVIS AGGIES (1-3)
Dates: Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 20-23, 2014
Location: Moraga, Calif.
Field: Louis Guisto Field (1,000)
Live Video ($)/Stats: SMCGaels.com
 
Pilots All-Time vs...
Kansas State: 1-0
UC Davis: 10-4
Saint Mary's: 28-43-2
 
PROBABLE STARTERS (W-L, ERA)
Thursday • Feb. 20 • 10 AM
Pilots vs. Kansas State
POR: RHP Kody Watts (0-1, 5.40)
KSU: RHP Levi MaVorhis (0-0, 0.00)
 
Friday • Feb. 21 • 10 AM
Pilots vs. UC Davis
POR: LHP Travis Radke (0-0, 0.00)
UCD: RHP Spender Koopmans (0-0, 3.60)
 
Saturday • Feb. 22 • 2 PM
Pilots vs. Saint Mary's
POR: TBA
SMC: RHP Cameron Neff (0-1, 32.40)
 
Sunday • Feb. 23 • 2 PM
Pilots vs. UC Davis
POR: RHP Kurt Yinger (0-0, 6.75)
UCD: RHP Max Cordy (0-0, 6.75)
 
THIS WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots head to Moraga, Calif., this week for a four-day tournament hosted by Saint Mary's at Louis Guisto Field.
• Portland begins its stay in Moraga with a game on Thursday against the Kansas State Wildcats at 10 a.m.
• The Pilots then play the UC Davis Aggies at 10 a.m. on Friday morning before facing the Saint Mary's Gaels in a non-conference tilt at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
• Portland concludes the tourney on Sunday with another game against the Aggies at 2 p.m.
 
LAST WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots opened the 2014 season with a 1-0 shutout at 12th-ranked and defending national champion UCLA last Friday in LA.
• Portland scored the game's only run in the top of the first inning when Caleb Whalen was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
• Four UP pitchers combined to hold the Bruins to just four hits, while striking out 12.
• Portland starter Travis Radke fanned seven in 4.2 innings, while reliever Jackson Lockwood got the win after tossing 2.0 scoreless innings.
• UCLA rebounded to take game two on Saturday 12-1 before claiming Sunday's finale 4-3 in 11 innings.
• The Pilots scored twice in the top of the seventh on Sunday, courtesy RBI's from Bo Cornish and Chet Thompson, to force the game to extra innings.
 
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Junior left-hander Travis Radke, who earned Freshman All-America honors in 2012, returns after missing the majority of last season with an injury.
• Redshirt-junior Turner Gill also returns after utilizing his medical redshirt season last year; Gill was also a Freshman All-American and twice landed on the All-WCC First Team.
• Junior infielder Cody Lenahan is Portland's top returning hitter after batting a career-best .300 last spring.
• The Pilots were picked to finish seventh in a pre-season poll of the WCC's 10 head coaches, while Radke was selected to the All-WCC Preseason Team.
• Portland returns 21 letterwinners this year, which includes most of the pitching staff.
• Head coach Chris Sperry, a former standout catcher/infielder for the Pilots, notched career win No. 300 last year when Portland defeated LMU 6-3 in LA on April 21.
• Sperry, who has 325 career wins in 16+ years at the helm of the Pilots, trails only long-time Portland coach Joe Etzel, who compiled 378 career wins in 21 seasons (1966-86).
• Sperry coached his 800th career game as head coach at UP at UC Irvine on March 2, 2013.
 
WELCOME BACK
• Junior lefty Travis Radke returns this year after missing a good chunk of the 2013 season due to an injury.
• In eight appearances last year, the native of Thousand Oaks, Calif., went 2-3, posted an ERA of 3.65 and struck out 68 in 44.1 innings pitched.
• In an outing against UC Riverside on March 15 last season, Radke struck out 14 in just 7.0 innings during a 4-2 win.
• Radke became the 11th pitcher in the 90-year history of the UP baseball program to record at least 14 K's in a game.
• In 2012, Radke was named the WCC's 2012 Freshman of the Year, while also garnering Freshman All-American honors; he ended that season 11th nationally in hits allowed per nine innings (5.97), 26th in WHIP (1.0) and 30th in ERA (2.09).
• In his 2014 debut last Friday at No. 12 UCLA, Radke struck out seven in just 4.2 innings of work.
 
WELCOME BACK AS WELL
• Redshirt-junior outfielder Turner Gill also returns after missing almost all of 2013 with an injury.
• A Freshman All-American in 2011 and a two-time All-WCC First Team selection, Gill led the Pilots as a sophomore with a .314 batting average, 13 doubles, five home runs and 30 RBI's.
• He appeared in just seven games last year before being forced to shut it down.
 
CHASING HISTORY
• Junior infielder Caleb Whalen enters the season with nine career triples, which is tied for the fourth most all-time in program history.
• Whalen sits only five triples shy of Portland's all-time leader Larry Farrell, who totaled 14 triples from 1958 to 1961.
• As a sophomore last year, Whalen had six triples, which ranked second in the WCC and was one shy of matching a program record for most triples in a season.
• Left-handed starter Travis Radke also appears on Portland's all-time career lists, ranking second in strikeouts per nine innings (10.67) and third in career ERA (2.53).
 
THE PRESEASON POLL
• Defending WCC Tournament Champion San Diego was chosen to win the 2014 WCC baseball championship, while the Pilots were slated to finish seventh.
• The Toreros earned six of 10 possible first-place votes and 76 overall points in the poll, while Pepperdine, the 2012 WCC Champions, earned 68 points and picked up one first place vote to finish second.
• Portland received 27 points to finish ahead of Pacific, Saint Mary's and Santa Clara.
• Portland's Travis Radke was selected to the all-conference preseason team, and you can view the complete results in the column on the right.