Date: Tuesday, April 26, 2011

First Pitch: 3:00 PM

Location: Portland, Ore.

Stadium: Joe Etzel Field (1,000)

Audio/Stats: PortlandPilots.com

Overall Series: OSU leads 136-56-1

Last Meeting: OSU 11, POR 1 (April 5, 2011 @ Portland)

 

Date: Wednesday, April 27, 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 75-25

Last Meeting: ORE 14, POR 3 (April 19, 2011 @ Eugene)

 

POR: TBA

OSU: TBA

 

POR: RHP Kyle Kraus (2-4, 5.10)
ORE: LHP Porter Clayton (0-1, 6.43)
 

The Portland Pilots (14-22) step out of the West Coast Conference this week for a pair of games against Oregon’s two Pac-10 schools. First, the Pilots welcome the No. 3 Oregon State Beavers (29-8) to Joe Etzel Field for a 3 p.m. game on Tuesday afternoon. Then Portland travels south to Eugene on Wednesday night for a 6 p.m. tilt against the Oregon Ducks (21-17).

 

The Pilots split their four games last week, which included winning two of three in San Diego for their first series win over the Toreros at USD since 2002. During the series opener on Thursday, UP exploded for a season high in hits (18) and runs and got a solid performance from starter Owen Jones during a 14-2 win. All nine Portland starters had at least one hit as seniors Kevin Armijo and Riley Henricks and junior Ben Grubb each had three hits. Grubb knocked in a career-high four runs, while junior Kramer Scott scored three times. Jones yielded just four hits, struck out four and didn’t issue a walk in 7.0 scoreless innings. He allowed just two Toreros to reach second base and he retired 11 straight batters before giving way to the bullpen.

On Friday, the Toreros scored twice in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings, but Turner Gill answered with an RBI single in the top of the 10th to hand the Pilots a 3-2 win. Gill knocked in two of UP’s three runs. Portland starter Kyle Kraus received a no-decision on the day, despite surrendering just five hits in 8.1 innings. Kraus fanned five and walked only one. He retired 12 straight batters before the Toreros got to him in the ninth. USD cruised to a 9-0 win on Saturday.

 

The Beavers are ranked in all four major collegiate baseball polls, checking in at No. 3 in the Baseball America rankings. OSU has won 11 of its past 12 games, including taking two of three at home last weekend from Washington State. Freshman INF Kavin Keyes leads four active players hitting better than .300 with a .319 average, while the OSU pitching staff boasts an ERA of 2.77. Former UP standout Pat Casey is in his 17th season as head coach at OSU. The Beavers have won two national titles (2006, 2007) and went 32-24 last year, advancing to an NCAA Regional.

 

The Beavers have won nine straight against the Pilots and lead the all-time series 136-56-1. UP last defeated OSU in April of 2006, which was a 20-13 12-inning win in Corvallis.

 

The Ducks have won four of their last five games. Last weekend, Oregon won two of three against No. 23 Arizona at PK Park in Eugene. Junior infielder Danny Pulfer leads the team with a .341 average, while adding a homer and 11 RBI’s. The Ducks are batting .242 as a team and boast a staff ERA of 2.73. Junior LHP Tyler Anderson is 6-1 with a sparkling ERA of 1.55. Opposing hitters are batting just .230 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 14-3 in Eugene last Tuesday and leads the all-time series 75-25. The Ducks have already defeated the Pilots twice this season, while UP won 5-3 in Eugene back on March 1.

 

Freshman Turner Gill is getting it done at the plate this season and he is currently riding an 11-game hitting streak, the second longest streak for the Pilots this spring. He leads the Pilots with a .331 batting average, 40 hits, 12 doubles, 25 RBI’s, a .504 slugging percentage and six multi-RBI games. He also has three home runs and is one of four Pilots with a sparkling 1.000 fielding percentage with at least 30 chances.

The outfielder from Madras, Ore., has gone hitless just seven times 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 Friday’s 3-2 win at San Diego, Gill drove home the game-winning run with an RBI single in the top of the tenth inning.

 

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 ranks second on the team with a .313 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 36-for-36 in the outfield and has a .411 on-base percentage, which is good for sixth in the conference.

 

Senior infielder 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 fifth in the WCC. A native of Portland, Mardesich drilled a three-run homer at Washington on March 29 and now leads the team with 24 runs and 65 total bases. He’s second with 23 RBI’s, 38 hits, 11 doubles and a .474 slugging percentage and is third with a .277 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 finalist.

After saving 14 games last year for the Pilots, Dennis opened the 2011 season with three straight saves against Middle Tennessee State and currently has six stops on the year. Dennis has allowed just seven earned runs in 29.1 innings (1.84 ERA), while recording 31 strikeouts. He’s holding opposing hitters to a staff-best .188 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.

 

Head coach Chris Sperry has already reached one career milestone this season and he’s on the verge of securing another. The second game of a double header at Air Force on March 19 was the 700th game at the helm of the Pilots for Sperry, who is in his 14th year as head coach. Sperry, who starred for the Pilots as a catcher in the later 1980’s, is UP’s third winningest coach all-time with 269 career wins. He is now just three wins shy of surpassing former UP coach Terry Pollreisz, whom Sperry replaced, for second on the all-time wins list. A native of Brush Prairie, Wash., Sperry played for coach Pollreisz before taking over as head coach in 1998.

 

Portland has already suffered a couple of setbacks this year health-wise as junior C Beau Fraser and sophomore OF Nick Armenta are both expected to miss the entire season due to injuries. Fraser is underwent shoulder surgery recently and will seek a medical hardship season after appearing in 12 games. Armenta was trying to work his way back from a leg injury before hanging it up for the year.

Last year, Fraser easily led the team with 45 RBI’s, while belting seven home runs and registering a .316 batting average. Armenta landed on the WCC’s All-Freshman team and earned all-conference honorable mention after hitting .310 during league play. He was perfect in the field with a 1.000 fielding percentage and he registered 63 putouts and three assists.

 

Portland senior 2B Riley Henricks was named West Coast Conference Position Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .545 (6-for-11) in the Pilots’ season-opening weekend sweep of Middle Tennessee. Henricks, a 5-11 second baseman from Mukilteo, Wash., scored three runs, had two RBI’s, had a double, four walks and was successful on his only stolen base attempt on his way to garnering the honors.