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PORTLAND PILOTS (7-25)
at/vs. #25 OREGON DUCKS (22-10)
Dates: Tuesday-Wednesday, April 8-9, 2014
First Pitch: 6 p.m./3 p.m.
Location: Eugene/Portland, Ore.
Field: PK Park/Joe Etzel Field
Video (Tues.)/Audio/Stats: GoDucks.com / PortlandPilots.com
Series: ORE leads 83-26
2014: ORE 8, POR 2 (Feb. 25 @ Eugene)
 
PROBABLE STARTERS (W-L, ERA)
Tuesday • April 8 • 6 PM
POR: RHP Austin Kelly (1-4, 3.50)
ORE: LHP Porter Clayton (0-1, 3.86)
 
Wednesday • April 9 • 3 PM
POR: Billy Sahlinger (0-2, 3.86)
ORE: RHP Brando Tessar (1-0, 5.17)
 
THIS WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots play a pair of non-conference games against the No. 25 Oregon Ducks this week, beginning on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at PK Park in Eugene, Ore.
• The Pilots and Ducks will then head to Portland's Joe Etzel Field on Wednesday for a match-up at 3 p.m.
 
LAST WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Pilots took one of three against the Santa Clara Broncos at Schott Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., last weekend.
• During Friday's series opener, freshman right-hander Davis Tominaga went the distance on the hill, Turner Gill finished with four hits and Kevin Farley drove in three runs as the Pilots cruised to a 9-1 win.
• It's the first complete game win in the collegiate career for Tominaga, who also had an RBI single; he yielded just four hits, struck out eight and walked only one.
• Farley belted his second career home run during the win.
• The Broncos then won 7-3 on Saturday and 3-1 on Sunday; UP held a 1-0 lead during both games.
• Previously the Pilots split their two mid-week non-conference games, dropping a 9-6 decision at home to No. 6 Oregon State on Tuesday before bouncing back for a 6-2 win at Seattle on Wednesday.
• Chad Kjemhus allowed just two hits during 7.2 scoreless innings of relief to notch the win against the Redhawks.
• Caleb Whalen had three hits, including two doubles, against SU, while both Chet Thompson and Ryan Barr knocked in a pair of runs.
• Against the Beavers, the Pilots scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth and brought the potential game-tying run to the plate before OSU escaped with the win.
 
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• Last Wednesday's win over Seattle snapped a 13-game losing streak for the Pilots, which was longest losing streak since also dropping 13 straight during the 2004 season.
• Davis Tominaga registered the second complete-game win by a UP freshman pitcher this season when he went the distance during Friday's 9-1 win at Santa Clara; the right-hander allowed just four hits, struck out eight and walked only one, while adding an RBI single at the plate.
• Fellow freshman pitcher Austin Kelly, who hails from Happy Valley, Ore., and had a stellar prep career at Clackamas High School, was recently named Oregon's 2013 Prep Baseball Player of the year at the 2013 Oregon Sports Awards; Kelly has UP's other complete-game win this spring.
• Freshman first baseman Kevin Wade had a nine-game hitting streak snapped during the UW game on March 8; the streak is a career-high and is a season-high for the Pilots.
• Junior second baseman Caleb Whalen is riding an eight-game hitting streak, during which he's 12-for-31 (.387) to raise his team-leading batting average to .291.
• Whalen leads the team in most offensive categories, including hits (34), home runs (3), doubles (7), triples (3) and runs scored (16).
• Whalen currently ranks third all-time at UP with 12 career triples, which is just two shy of Larry Farrell's (1958-61) all-time program career record of 14 triples.
• Portland features a young pitching staff with only two seniors in the regular rotation of starters and relievers.
• The Pilots opened the season with a 1-0 win at then-12th ranked and defending national champion UCLA on Friday, Feb. 14.
• Portland scored the only run of the game against the Bruins when Caleb Whalen was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the first inning.
• UP starter Travis Radke and three relievers combined to hold the Bruins to just four hits, while recording 12 strikeouts.
• The Pilots were picked to finish seventh in a pre-season poll of the WCC's 10 head coaches, while Radke was selected to the All-WCC Preseason Team.
• Head coach Chris Sperry, a former standout catcher/infielder for the Pilots, notched career win No. 301 last year when Portland defeated LMU 6-3 in LA on April 21.
• Sperry, who has 331 career wins in 16+ years at the helm of the Pilots, trails only long-time Portland coach Joe Etzel, who compiled 378 career wins in 21 seasons (1966-86).
 
CHASING HISTORY
• Junior infielder Caleb Whalen currently has 12 career triples, which is the third most all-time in the 91-year history of the UP baseball program.
• Whalen sits only two triples shy of Portland's all-time leader Larry Farrell, who totaled 14 triples from 1958 to 1961.
• As a sophomore last year, Whalen had six triples, which ranked second in the WCC and was one shy of matching a program record for most triples in a season.
• Whalen has a team-best three triples this spring.
 
YOUNG GUNS
• The Pilots feature a fairly young pitching staff despite returning most of the pitchers from last season.
• The Pilots feature only two seniors in the regular rotation of starters and relievers, three freshmen have started on the hill for the Pilots and sophomores Billy Sahlinger (3.86) and Adam Wozniak (3.86), along with freshmen Alex Fisher (2.87), Austin Kelly (3.50) and Davis Tominaga (3.60), are among the team's leaders in ERA.
• Both Kelly and Tominaga have been used as Portland's Friday starter and both have a complete-game win to their credit.
• Tominaga leads the staff in strikeouts (26) and Kelly is holding the opposition to a team-best .233 batting average.
• Both Tominaga and Kelly can play in the field as well and Tominaga is batting .273.
 
UPDATING THE ETZ
• The University of Portland has announced a three phase renovation of Joe Etzel Field, beginning with a transition to a field turf surface, lights for night games, a new scoreboard and new fencing.
• The University hopes to have phase one finished in time for the 2015 season.
• Phases two and three include a new press box, berm seating down the right field line, new dugouts, a new grandstand, a VIP section, a new entry gate and ticket office, home locker room, coaches offices and a field maintenance building.
• For more info on the project and information on how to make a gift towards the upgrades, please visit http://rise.up.edu/info/default.aspx?cid=12937&pid=2010.