Box Score
PORTLAND, Ore. --- The Portland Pilots celebrated the start of the baseball season and a picture-perfect February day with a 5-3 win over the Concordia Cavaliers at Joe Etzel Field on Friday afternoon. Five different Portland players drove in a run as the Pilots open the season at 1-0.
Concordia, of the NAIA’s Cascade Conference, drops to 1-4.
Portland starting right-handed pitcher Zach Varce (1-0) worked six innings to pick up the win. The junior scattered six hits, struck out nine and allowed just two earned runs. He walked one.
Transfer Chris Dennis took care of the Cavaliers during the final three innings to pick up his first save as a Pilot. The junior right-hander allowed one run on two hits and a walk, while striking out two.
Tyson Kisselburg (0-1) is saddled with the loss after allowing four runs on six hits in 5.2 innings. Reliever Steven Taft allowed a run and a hit in 2.1 innings of work.
After two scoreless innings, the Cavaliers struck first with a run in the top of the third. With two outs and Tony Flanagan on second base, Curt Cosby smacked a bouncer up the middle to break the score-less tie.
Portland wasted little time to respond, plating two with two outs in the bottom half of the frame. After freshman OF Nick Armenta stole second base, junior OF Craig Smith blooped a base-hit to shallow center field, allowing Armenta to score easily and tie the game. The Pilots weren’t through as junior 2B Riley Henricks followed Smith by driving a double deep to right-center field. Smith trotted home all the way from first, giving the Pilots their first lead of the season.
After Concordia’s Travis Reavis tied the game at 2-2 with an RBI in the top of the fourth, UP once again responded immediately. This time freshman 1B Brian Fratalli followed a lead-off double from junior OF Kyle Haskin with a single, setting up a first and third situation. Junior 3B Matt Mardesich then got the job done by lifting a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Haskin and giving Portland back the lead at 3-2.
The Pilots added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Senior C Rocky Gale picked up an RBI in the sixth, while Beau Fraser knocked in a run in the seventh.
CU out-hit the Pilots 8-7, but the Pilots were flawless in the field. The Cavaliers made two errors. Henricks was the only Pilot to tally more than one hit, finishing with two. Flanagan had a pair of hits for Concordia.
The Pilots next take the field on Saturday afternoon as they welcome George Fox to Joe Etzel Field at 2:00 p.m. Portland will then face Concordia at home again on Sunday, with the first pitch slated for 2:00 p.m.
