PORTLAND PILOTS (10-19, 4-8 WCC)
WEEK 9 GAME NOTES
 
at Oregon Ducks (18-12, 5-7 Pac-12)
Date: Monday, April 9, 2018
First Pitch: 6 PM
Location: Eugene, Ore.
Ballpark: PK Park
Video: Pac-12.com
Stats: GoDucks.com
Series: ORE leads 93-28
2017: UO 1, @POR 0 (3/28); @UO 6, POR 1 (4/11), @POR 3, UO (5/9)
 
PROBABLE STARTERS (W-L, ERA)
Monday • April 9 • 6 PM
POR: RHP Connor White (0-1, 3.12)
ORE: RHP Cullen Kafka (3-0, 7.36)
 
THIS WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots travel to Eugene, Ore., to face the Oregon Ducks in a non-conference game at PK Park on Monday night.
• First pitch for the two in-state rivals is set for 6 p.m., and the game can be seen live at Pac-12.com/live/university-oregon.
• Portland then returns home later in the week to host Brigham Young for a three-game 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.
 
LAST WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• All three games were close in Spokane last weekend, but in the end the Gonzaga Bulldogs escaped with a WCC series sweep over the Pilots at the Patterson Baseball Complex and Washington Trust Field.
• During Friday's opener, Beau Brundage and Daniel Lopez each collected four hits and the Pilots got the potential game-tying run on base in the top of 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.
• The Pilots were unfazed by an early deficit on Sunday as two-run homers from Cody Hawken and Henry Cheney in the third and fourth innings, respectively, made it a one-run game.
• The Zags pushed their lead to 9-6 with two runs in the eighth, but Tate Budnick came through with a two-run blast in the ninth to once again make it a one-run deficit.
• 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 on 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.
• 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; nine runs also marked Portland's previous high for an entire game this season.
• Sophomore outfielder Beau 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).
• Brundage leads the WCC in batting average (.388), on-base percentage (.466), and hits per game (1.55), and he had a career-long 18-game hitting streak earlier this season.
• The Pilots rank second in the WCC in home runs (15), triples (7), and slugging percentage (.385).
• 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.
• Headlining UP's 20 returners is junior infielder Matt Kelly, who led the team with a .292 batting average last season; junior outfielder Cody Hawken led the Pilots with 27 RBI's as a sophomore, and senior Ryan Hoogerwerf hit a team-best seven HR's in 2017.
• 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 DUCKS
• The Oregon Ducks are coming off a home series win over Washington State.
• The Ducks are batting .257 as a team and are led by senior infielder Kyle Kasser, who is hitting a team-best .342; junior Jacob Goldfarb claims a batting average of .330, and he has five home runs and 19 RBI's.
• Oregon's staff ERA is 3.57, the Ducks are holding opposing hitters to a .240 batting average, and they rank first in the Pac-12 in K's per game (8.9).
• George Horton is in his 10th year as head coach at Oregon and he's led the Ducks to five NCAA post-season appearances.