Box Score
PORTLAND, Ore. --- Portland sophomore starter Kyle Kraus remains perfect on the season and junior Kevin Armijo drove in three runs as the Pilots handled the Saint Mary’s Gaels 12-1 in a West Coast Conference baseball game at Joe Etzel Field on Saturday afternoon. Portland, which is 20-7 on the year and 5-0 in the WCC, will go for its second straight conference series sweep at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.
The Pilots have won 10 of their last 11 games, are 5-0 in the WCC for the first time ever and matched the 1980 UP squad as the second fastest team to reach 20 wins in program history.
After winning with a walk-off RBI double on Friday, the Pilots used solid pitching and timely hitting to cruise to the win on Saturday. Kraus, who leads the league in wins, runs his record to 6-0 after working 6.1 innings against the Gaels (9-17-1, 0-2 WCC). The right-hander allowed just one run on five hits and three walks, while striking out three.
His SMC counterpart Martin Agosta (2-2) is saddled with the loss. Agosta entered the game with the league’s lowest earned run average, but the Portland hitters got to him for five runs on seven hits and four walks in 5.0 innings. Relievers Patrick Keane and Jimmy Munill didn’t fare much better, allowing three and four runs, respectively.
Armijo got the scoring started for UP when he knocked in his first two runs with a double to deep left-center field in the bottom of the second. His shot scored both junior 2B Riley Henricks and junior OF Tyler Thompson. Sophomore SS Kris Kauppila then followed a one-out walk with a run-scoring single that gave the Pilots an early 3-0 advantage.
The score was still 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth when junior OF Garrett Queen stepped up and belted his second home run of the season just over the wall in center field. Moments later, senior 1B C.J. Cullen gave Portland a five-run advantage with an RBI single to left field.
The Gaels tried to respond in the top of the fifth, but Kraus got our of a bases-loaded jam by inducing and inning-ending ground out by Patrick Wisdom, SMC’s leading hitter.
Saint Mary’s finally scored in the top of the seventh, but the Pilots answered with six runs in the bottom half and another in the eighth to put the game out of reach. Two of the runs scored on a pair of bases-loaded walks, another scored on a wild pitch, junior OF Craig Smith knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly and Henricks, Armijo and Cullen each registered RBI singles.
The Pilots finished with 16 hits, with Cullen leading the way with three. Smith, Henricks, Queen and Armijo each had two hits.
The Gaels totaled nine hits and were led by Troy Channing with two.
Three Portland relievers followed Kraus, with senior LHP Ed Wakefield working an inning and a third of scoreless ball and junior RHP Ben Panther pitching a scoreless ninth. Panther fanned two Gael hitters.
