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PORTLAND PILOTS (0-0) at UC RIVERSIDE HIGHLANDERS (0-0)
Dates: Friday-Sunday,    Feb. 13-15, 2015
Location: Riverside, Calif.
Field: Riverside Sports Complex
Audio/Stats: GoHighlanders.com
Series: POR leads 4-2
Last: POR 4-2, POR 2-0, UCR 5-1 (Mar. 15-17, 2013 @UCR)
 
PROBABLE STARTERS (W-L, ERA from 2014)
Friday • Feb. 13 • 6 PM
POR: RHP Jackson Lockwood (3-3, 5.30)
UCR: LHP Kevin Sprague (0-1, 4.39)
 
Saturday • Feb. 14 • Game 1 • 12 PM
POR: RHP Kurt Yinger (1-6, 5.51)
UCR: RHP Angel Landazuri (3-2, 3.52)
 
Saturday • Feb. 14 • Game 2 • 3:30 PM
POR: LHP Cole Doherty (N/A)
UCR: LHP Cody Rogina (1-0, 2.57)
 
Sunday • Feb. 15 • 1 PM
POR: RHP Davis Tominaga (1-5, 5.09)
UCR: TBA
 
THIS WEEK IN PILOTS BASEBALL
• The Portland Pilots open the 2015 season with a four-game series this weekend in Riverside, Calif., against the UC Riverside Highlanders.
• The Pilots and Highlanders begin the series under the lights on Friday night at 6 p.m. at the Riverside Sports Complex.
• The two teams will then play a doubleheader on Saturday, beginning at 12 p.m., before concluding the series with the finale on Sunday at 1 p.m.
 
ABOUT THE PILOTS
• The Pilots went 11-41 last season and claimed a 5-22 record in the West Coast Conference.
• Four of Portland's 11 wins last season came on walk-offs.
• Portland returns most of its roster from last year and headlining the returners are senior Caleb Whalen (.265) and sophomore Davis Tominaga (.291).
• Whalen led the team last year offensively with four home runs, three triples, 12 doubles and 22 RBI's.
• 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.
• Whalen's six RBI's at Oregon on April 8 last year tied for the fourth most in a game in program history and it's the most RBI's by a Pilot since 2009, when Garrett Queen also drove in six against Hawai'i.
• Tominaga also pitches for the Pilots and he registered one of two complete-game wins by a UP freshman pitcher last season when he went the distance during a 9-1 win at Santa Clara on April 4; the right-hander allowed just four hits, struck out eight and walked only one, while adding an RBI single at the plate.
• Portland returns 23 letterwinners, eight position starters and most of its pitchers from last season.
• The Pilots were picked to finish 10th in a pre-season poll of the WCC's 10 head coaches.
• Joe Etzel Field, Portland's home ballpark, received a new surface during the offseason, switching from natural grass to artificial AstroTurf; the Etz also received new fencing, bullpens and a scoreboard and the improvements mark the beginning of a three-phase, long-term upgrade to the facility.
• Head coach Chris Sperry, a former standout catcher/infielder for the Pilots, enters the spring with 335 career wins in 17 years at the helm; he trails only long-time Portland coach Joe Etzel, who compiled 378 career wins in 21 seasons (1966-86).
• Joining Sperry once again on the bench are assistants Larry Casian (9th year), Tucker Brack (7th year) and Jeremy Beard (2nd year).
• Casian, a pitcher, spent parts of nine years in the big leagues with the Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENT
• The Highlanders went 26-28 last season and posted a 12-12 record in the Big West Conference.
• Senior infielder Joe Chavez is UC Riverside's top-returning hitter following a junior campaign that saw him hit .281 with 22 steals in 27 attempts.
• Left-hander Kevin Sprague (0-1, 4.39) moves into the starting rotation after spending 2014 as the Highlander's closer.
• UCR alum Troy Percival, who spent 14 years in Major League Baseball and won the 2002 World Series as a pitcher with the Anaheim Angels, enters his first season as head coach of the Highlanders.
• Portland claims a 4-2 edge in the all-time series with the Highlanders and the Pilots took two of three at UC Riverside in 2013.
 
CHASING HISTORY
• Senior 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.
• Whalen tallied three triples last year after compiling six as a sophomore, which was one shy of matching a program record for most triples in a season.
 
UPDATING THE ETZ
• Joe Etzel Field took on a new look during the off-season as the 27-year-old facility received a new playing surface.
• Brand new AstroTurf replaced the natural grass surface and the facility received new fencing, new bullpens, a new scoreboard and a grass berm for seating down the right field line.
• The improvements are part of phase one of a planned three-phase renovation project and the University hopes to have lights installed in time for the 2016 season.
• Phases two and three of the project include a new press box, 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.
• You can see a video feature of the new AstroTurf here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSNgT-pQRjc