Box Score
Portland, Ore. --- Junior RF Kyle Haskin launched his first career home run to straight away center field with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Portland Pilots a thrilling 13-12 West Coast Conference victory over the Loyola Marymount Lions Sunday afternoon at Joe Etzel Field. Sophomores Garrett Queen and Beau Fraser each knocked in four runs, while senior Rocky Gale scored three times on five hits.
Portland (23-9, 8-1 WCC) led on five separate occasions but the pesky Lions (16-18, 0-6 WCC) just would not back down. Gale roped his third double of the game down the left field line to give the Pilots an 11-10 lead in the eighth and would come around to score on a Queen single making it 12-10 Pilots.
With junior closer Chris Dennis (4-0) on the mound, the Pilots looked poised to close the game out in the top of the ninth inning. After loading the bases with one out, Dennis surrendered a sacrifice fly before Hawthorne sent a ground ball up the middle. It seemed the Pilots had escaped with the victory but junior Jonathan Johnson slid into second just ahead of the throw as the tying run crossed the plate.
Haskin, who entered the game as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the seventh, sent a 3-1 fastball from Xavier Esquivel (0-2) into the trees behind center field to give the Cardiac Kids their fourth walk-off win of the season. Haskin also becomes the second Pilot this year to have his first career home run be of the walk-off variety. Senior 1B C.J. Cullen achieved the feat February 28th against Seattle.
Cullen finished with four hits and four runs scored on Sunday. LMU sophomore Ryan Hawthorne knocked in five runs with a five hit performance. Three other Lions finished with three hits apiece.
LMU finished with 15 hits while stranding 10 runners. Portland recorded 19 base-knocks but left eight runners stranded. The lone Pilot error in the game allowed an unearned run to tie the game in the fourth. LMU committed two errors on the afternoon.
Fraser, with three hits including a home run and four RBI on Sunday, finished the series 8-12 with a home run and eight RBI. Gale had eight hits in 10 at-bats for Portland as well. Portland outscored LMU 35-15 en route to their second WCC series sweep of the season. The Pilots also hit a healthy .420 (50-119) this weekend, while holding LMU to .257 (26-101) despite Sunday’s offensive outburst.
With an 8-1 conference record, the Pilots have won their most WCC games since 2002 when Head Coach Chris Sperry led the Pilots to 16 wins against WCC foes. Portland went 5-2 this home stand to improve to 13-3 at Joe Etzel Field this season.
The Pilots play the Washington Huskies in a nonconference road game on Tuesday at 6:00pm before travelling for a three game WCC series against the Pepperdine Waves on Friday.
