PORTLAND PILOTS (11-19, 4-8 WCC)
WEEK 9 GAME NOTES
 
vs. Brigham Young Cougars (17-13, 6-6 WCC)
Dates: Thurs-Sat, April 12-14, 2018
First Pitches: 6 PM/6 PM/12 PM
Location: Portland, Ore.
Ballpark: Joe Etzel Field
Video: TheW.tv
Stats: PortlandPilots.com
Series: BYU leads 24-11
2017: BYU 23-19, BYU 11-3, BYU 16-3 (May 11-13 in Provo, Utah)
 
PROBABLE STARTERS (W-L, ERA)
Thursday • April 12 • 6 PM
POR: RHP Camden Muller (1-2, 5.11)
BYU: RHP Jordan Wood (2-2, 2.65)
 
Friday • April 13 • 6 PM
POR: RHP Eli Morse (2-4, 3.97)
BYU: LHP Hayden Rogers (4-2, 5.40)
 
Saturday • April 14 • 12 PM
POR: TBA
BYU: TBA
 
THIS WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots return home for the first time in seven games to host the Brigham Young Cougars for a West Coast Conference series at Joe Etzel Field.
• The series with BYU begins Thursday night at 6 p.m., continues on Friday night at 6 p.m., and concludes on Saturday at 12 p.m.
• All three games will be streamed live at TheW.tv.
 
LAST WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots overcame an early deficit and a ninth-inning, game-tying home run to defeat the Oregon Ducks 9-7 in 11 innings at PK Park in Eugene on Monday night.
• Portland's go-ahead run came in the 11th on a passed ball, and Ryan Kim added some insurance with an RBI single.
• Portland had 15 hits as a team, Beau Brundage went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, and freshman Hunter Montgomery had a career night with three hits, two RBI's, and his first home run.
• During Friday's opener last weekend at Gonzaga, Brundage and Daniel Lopez each had four hits and the Pilots got the potential game-tying run on base in the ninth, but the Zags prevailed 6-4.
• On Saturday, the Bulldogs scored the game's only runs in the bottom of the eighth inning en route to a 3-0 victory, and the Bulldogs edged the Pilots 9-8 on Sunday.
• Cody Hawken and Henry Cheney each provided two-run homers on Sunday, and Tate Budnick hit a clutch two-run blast in the ninth; the Pilots then got runners on the corners, but two solid plays defensively sealed the win for the Bulldogs.
• Portland combined for a season-high 17 hits during Sunday's loss.


ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Portland's 17 hits at Gonzaga last Sunday were a season-high, and it was the most hits in a game for the Pilots since exploding for 21 at BYU (May 11) last year.
• The Pilots have combined for 32 hits in their last two games.
• Sophomore Beau Brundage has gone 13 for his last 24 (.542) in the last five games to raise his batting average to .400, which leads the WCC and ranks 25th in the nation.
• Brundage nabbed Rawlings WCC Player of the Week honors on March 12 after hitting .563 with three doubles and seven RBI's during a four-game series at home with UC Irvine (Mar. 9-11).
• He also leads the WCC in on-base percentage (.482), and hits per game (1.6), and he had a career-long 18-game hitting streak earlier this season.
• The Pilots rank second in the WCC in home runs (19), triples (7), and slugging percentage (.388).
• Portland's 11-9 comeback win at Santa Clara on March 29 marks the largest come-from-behind win during the modern era of UP baseball; the Pilots scored nine runs in the top of the eighth, with seven coming with two outs, to secure the win.
• The nine runs are tied for the most by a Pilot team in a single inning since Portland tallied 11 runs in the seventh inning of a 19-0 win versus UC Davis on March 24, 2006 at Joe Etzel Field.
• Ryan Kim nearly became the first Portland player in program history to hit for the cycle on Feb. 24 against Saint Joseph's, but the sophomore outfielder fell a single shy; after going 3-for-3 to begin the day, Kim drew a walk during his final at-bat.
• Daniel Lopez joined a long list of Pilots to hit two home runs in a game during a 3-for-5, five RBI performance on Feb. 24 against Saint Joseph's; no player in UP history has hit three home runs in a game.
• Portland played 20 of their first 24 games of 2018 at Joe Etzel Field.
• Junior right-hander Kevin Baker, who earned Second Team All-WCC in 2017, was voted to the 2018 All-WCC Preseason Team; he's currently unavailable as he recovers from an injury.
• Last spring Baker ranked 27th nationally and was third in the WCC in K's per 9.0 innings (11.41); he also had the Pilots' lone complete game of the season, and his 3.03 ERA was fifth in the conference; his career-high 13 K's at Pacific (April 30) tied for the third most in a game ever for the Pilots.
• 2018 marks the third year for head coach Geoff Loomis, a Portland baseball alum and UP Athletics Hall of Fame member who still holds the UP program career record for batting average (.376).
• Portland's game against Seattle on March 22 last season was the 600th in the coaching career of Loomis, who previously spent 13 seasons as head coach at Pacific Lutheran, where he led the Lutes to 11 winning seasons and two NCAA Regional appearances.
• Pitching coach Connor Lambert, who spent the past seven seasons as the associate head coach/pitching coach for the Corvallis Knights, is in his first year at Portland; he came to UP from the University of Utah, were he was the director of operations.
 
ABOUT THE COUGARS
• The BYU Cougars are coming off a WCC sweep of Santa Clara in Provo last weekend.
• BYU is the top scoring team in the WCC, scoring 5.8 runs per game, and they're hitting .287 as a team.
• Jarrett Perns (.380) leads four Cougars hitting better than .300, and Brock Hale is batting .342 with team-bests of seven home runs and 23 RBI's.
• Opponents are batting .260 against the Cougars, and BYU's staff ERA is 4.52.
• Thursday starter Jordan Wood (2-2, 2.65) leads the WCC in complete games (1).
• Mike Littlewood is in his sixth year as head coach, and the Cougars are coming off a WCC Co-Championship, a WCC Tournament Championship, and a visit to an NCAA Regional.