Date: Tuesday, April 19, 2011

First Pitch: 6:00 PM

Location: Eugene, Ore.

Stadium:  PK Park (4,000)

Radio: KUIK1360 AM

Audio/Stats: GoDucks.com

Overall Series: ORE leads 74-25

Last Meeting: ORE 6, POR 4 (April 13, 2011 @ Portland)

 

Dates: Thursday-Saturday, April 21-23, 2011

Location: San Diego, Calif.

Stadium: Cunningham Stadium (1,200)

Video/Stats: USDToreros.com

Overall Series: USD leads 44-20

Last Year: USD 2-0; USD 5-1; USD 9-2 (May 7-9, 2010 @ Portland)

 

POR: RHP Matt McCallister (0-2, 5.30)

ORE: RHP Jeff Gold (0-0, 0.00)

 

POR: RHP Owen Jones (2-4, 6.51)

USD: RHP Chris Jensen (1-5, 3.38)

 

POR: RHP Kyle Kraus (2-4, 5.75)

USD: RHP Calvin Drummond (2-4, 4.40)

 

POR: RHP Chris Johnson (2-2, 3.08)

USD: RHP Dylan Covey (1-3, 8.26)

 

The Portland Pilots (12-20, 2-4 West Coast Conference) head back on the road this week for a non-conference game at Oregon (18-16, 2-7 Pac-10) on Tuesday night and a three-game WCC series at San Diego (10-23, 2-4 WCC), which begins on Thursday. Tuesday’s game at PK Park in Eugene is set for 6 p.m., while the Toreros will host the Pilots at Cunningham Stadium in San Diego at 3 p.m. on both Thursday and Friday. Saturday’s series finale is scheduled for 12 p.m.

 

The Pilots dropped all four of their games last week at Joe Etzel Field. On Wednesday, the Oregon Ducks held on for a 6-4 win. The Pilots took an early lead on a two-run homer by Matt Mardesich in the first inning. Oregon rallied to take a 4-2 lead before the Pilots tied it with a pair of runs in the seventh. The Ducks responded with two in the eighth before holding on for the win.

The Pilots then struggled mightily at the plate during the weekend as the San Francisco Dons took all three games of a WCC series. USF won Saturday 19-2 before winning both ends of a Sunday doubleheader by a 6-1 margin.

 

The Ducks dropped a weekend series at USC, but have still won four of their last six games. Oregon blanked San Francisco 4-0 in Eugene on Monday.

Junior infielder Danny Pulfer leads the team with a .339 average, while adding a homer and 11 RBI’s. The Ducks are batting .240 as a team and boast a staff ERA of 2.75. Junior LHP Tyler Anderson is 5-1 with a sparkling ERA of 1.49. Opposing hitters are batting just .231 against the Ducks.

George Horton is in his third year as head coach of Oregon. Last year, Horton led the Ducks to an NCAA Regional in just the second year since the program’s reinstatement.

 

Oregon won 6-4 at Portland last Wednesday and leads the all-time series 74-25. UP is 4-0 against the Ducks in Eugene since UO revived the baseball program in 2009. That includes a 5-3 win on March 1.

 

USD plays at #18 UC Irvine Tuesday before hosting the Pilots. San Diego was swept at Gonzaga to begin WCC play before taking two of three from Pepperdine at home.

The Toreros are batting .268 as a team and feature five players hitting .300 or better. Freshman infielder Kris Bryant leads the team with a .339 average and seven homers. USD’s staff ERA is 4.73, while freshman lefty Paul Paez has a team-best three wins. Opposing hitters are batting .281.

Head coach Rich Hill is in his 13th year at the helm of the Toreros. Last season, USD was 37-22 and won the WCC with a 19-2 league mark.

 

San Diego claims a 44-20 advantage in the all-time series with Portland. Last season in Portland, the Toreros swept the Pilots in a battle of ranked teams. USD has won 11 of the last 12 against UP.

 

Last Saturday’s game against the Dons provided fans a chance to support Harper’s Playground, which is a fund-raising effort to bring an inclusive playground to Arbor Lodge Park. Harper is a local five-year-old girl who was born with Emanuel Syndrome. Harper helped throw out the first pitch on Saturday and the team wore t-shirts supporting the effort during pre-game warm-ups. To learn more about Harper’s Playground, please visit harpersplayground.com.

 

Following Portland’s win over Hawai’i on Thursday, March 10, the Pilots were evacuated from the team hotel due to a tsunami warning. The tsunami warning was issued following an 8.9-magnitude earthquake off northeastern Japan, forcing the team to stay at the house of J.R. Bunda, a UP sophomore pitcher from nearby Wahiawa. Some members of the team also stayed at a small church near the Bunda’s house.

The team was allowed to return to its hotel the next day after the tsunami warning had been cancelled, and the Pilots and Bows continued their series uninterrupted.

 

So far this season, freshman Turner Gill has looked like anything but as he’s settled in at the plate is currently second on the team and sixth in the WCC with a .340 batting average. The outfielder from Madras, Ore., had a hit during each of his first five collegiate games, has a hit in seven straight games and he’s registered Portland’s only four-hit game of the spring. At Air Force on March 19, Gill was 4-for-4 at the dish with a pair of doubles, an RBI and a run scored. During last weekend’s series against San Francisco, Gill belted a pair of homers and knocked in three of UP’s four runs.

He currently leads the team with 35 hits, 21 RBI’s, 11 doubles and a slugging percentage of .534, which is third in the WCC. He also has three home runs and is one of four Pilots with a sparkling 1.000 fielding percentage with at least 30 chances.

 

Junior OF Kramer Scott has turned it up at the plate and then some and is now one of two regular players to be hitting better than .300 for the Pilots. A career .135 hitter entering the season, Scott currently leads the team and ranks fifth in the WCC with a .341 average. He also has a home run, a triple, six doubles and 12 RBI’s. The long fly is his first as a Pilot, and his 12 RBI’s are nine more than he had during his first two years on The Bluff combined. The native of Edmonds, Wash., is also a perfect 32-for-32 in the outfield and has a .419 on-base percentage, which is good for fifth in the conference.

 

Senior 3B Matt Mardesich, who led the Pilots with eight home runs last season, has continued his power surge this year with four long flies, which is tied for the team-high and tied for second in the WCC. A native of Portland, Mardesich drilled a three-run homer at Washington on March 29 and now leads the team with 20 runs and 57 total bases. He’s second with 20 RBI’s, 34 hits, nine doubles and third with a .467 slugging percentage and a .279 batting average.

 

Portland senior closer Chris Dennis was named to the initial watch list for the seventh annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award, given to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball. Dennis, who is the all-time career leader in saves at UP, has also been named to the NCBWA Pre-Season All-American First Team and to the Louisville Slugger Preseason All-American Second Team and he’s a Lowe’s Senior Class Award candidate.

After saving 14 games last year for the Pilots, Dennis opened the 2011 season with three straight saves against Middle Tennessee State and currently is six-for-seven in save opportunities. Dennis has allowed just six earned runs in 27.2 innings (1.95 ERA), while recording 30 strikeouts. He’s holding opposing hitters to a staff-best .181 batting average.

Dennis is Portland’s all-time career leader in saves with 20, and he set a single-season mark last year with his 14 stops.

 

Portland’s senior 2B Riley Henricks, RHP Kyle Kraus, and RHP Chris Dennis were selected to the 2011 Preseason All-West Coast Conference Team and San Diego was picked as the favorite to win this year’s WCC regular season title in the preseason baseball poll, as voted on by the league’s head coaches. The Pilots were selected to finish fourth but received one first-place vote.